This is how it works in my head: you have your track, with four variables - volume, reverb, treble and bass - though the treble and bass essentially act the same as 'presence'. Panning goes without saying. The key positions working clockwise are Front, Left, Back, and Right - the others are just blends of these four extremes.
Front - should have the most volume, the least reverb, the most treble and the least bass.
Left - should be very similar to front. It will seem quieter at the same level because of the panning. The bass will be less obvious off-centre, so you might want to up it a touch (because you need to exaggerate the move to the back). You'll want a *little* reverb just to give the impression that the signal is moving in 3D, not just from side-to-side - but make the bass multiplier on it less than 1x, and put a gentle low cut on it.
Back - is the difficult one. The volume should be at it's lowest, and the high end will be less noticable. The reason I think you should add some bass to the left so that the reduction in treble here is more obvious. The reverb here is what will give the impression of distance - put the bass multiplier of the reverb over 1x here, and put a high cut on it. If you have the option, you might want to reduce the dry signal a touch.
Right - rather than being identical to the left, make the reverb a little higher and the treble a little lower. I reckon that will help your ears relate it to the back better.
Now if these alterations are automated, so they smoothly change from position to position, you should end up with a sample that sounds like it's moving around - but it might sound like it's moving in a circle in front of you (i.e. the '
Back' part will sound in front of you, but further away than the '
Front'). This is where the phase bit comes in.
I can't remember off the top of my head exactly how the phase things works, but I'm going to guess at it: if you have identical copies of the same track but slightly out of phase, it changes the way you percieve them spatially. For it to work, you need a reference track in the centre of the mix. So I *THINK* it will work if you put a dry, clean reference copy of the track slap bang in the middle of your mix and slightly out of phase with the 'moving' track (maybe 20ms or so). Keep it silent until the point when you want your 'moving' track behind you - at that point, bring the volume on it up just to the point where it sounds right but you can't actually hear the reference. Then take the volume on the reference down again as it moves to the right. Then you do the same for the front, but with a second reference track, and the phases the other way round. I'm not sure which way round to put it though - my guess is that for the 'Front', you want the 'moving' track ahead of the reference, and for the 'Back' you want the 'moving' track behind the reference, but it might be the other way round.
For the phase thing to really work though, you need it to change dynamically - so in front of you the reference lags behind, at the sides they're equal, and behind you the reference leads, and it needs to change smoothly as you travel around the circle. Ideally you don't want the volume of the reference to change. I don't know of any plugins that do that though, so it's probably a lot easier to use one specifically for simulating 3D in stereo.
I've never actually tried this though, I'm trying to work it through in my head based on my (incredibly basic) understanding of it - so I could very well be talking complete bollocks
Steve
