How to achieve this stereo effect? (Earl Sweatshirt - “Heavy Metal aka ejecto seato!”)

[u/Aggravating-Cup7963]

I’ve been obsessed with the mix on this track, produced by Child Actor. The drums and sample feel super wide, like they’re panned to both sides, while Earl’s main vocal sits more centered. It creates this crazy immersive space without feeling muddy.

Right now, my only experience with this kind of effect is just cranking the “Width” on Ableton’s Utility tool, but I’m not sure if that’s the best or most nuanced way to get this sound.

How would you go about creating this kind of stereo separation? Is it just panning + reverb tricks, or are there other techniques (mid/side EQ, stereo imaging, etc.) that I should learn?

Edit: Another Child Actor-produced song with a similar wide vibe is “Spellling” by ELUCID. Both tracks also have this very wavy, slightly detuned feel. I assume that’s a kind of wow/flutter tape effect. Would love tips on how to recreate that too.

[u/1se]

Try using the stock “align delay” and just make one side have a longer delay and leave the other at 0. It’s a M4L plugin so it might be in an extra pack you have to download I can’t remember.

[u/Iansutherland]

Get izotope vocal doubler (free), add it to a return, low cut at around 100hz, slight reverb, a little compression magic, maybe a sidechain compressor so it ducks on the kicks or snares, then in the vst click effect only and then mess with the settings. And then for more width add a utility and mess with the stereo width.

Vocal doubler is a game changer for me lmao

[u/Iansutherland → u/Iansutherland]

check this song at around :15. i have 2 channels. one center(kind of wide tho) and then one using the effects i listed above. i can make a preset file for you if you download vocal doubler (and it'll be better if you download Fresh Air by Slate Digital (also free))

https://soundcloud.com/iandsutherland/in-the-summertime-third-draft (not trying to self promote i just thought it was relevant)

[u/Iansutherland → u/Iansutherland]

and if you don't wanna download anything, you can get creative using the effect rack and layer chorus, reverb, delay(any type really)

[u/BonoboBananaBonanza]

Feel like I've been saying it a lot lately. Mid-side EQ is the secret. Keep the main vocals dead center and strip the sides of it out. Keep the instruments mostly in the sides with the middle stripped out (or way down anyway). That way they aren't fighting each other "positionally" and the mix feels more spacious. You still have to do standard EQ, compression and arrangement (the real secret) to keep the spectrum un-cluttered.

This song sounds like the drums are also mostly in the sides which is unorthodox but a choice you can make. There is a phaser over everything, which can add a kind of stereo filter effect with heavy character.

Play with a mid-side EQ. It changed my world.

[u/Significant_Cover_48 → u/BonoboBananaBonanza]

It's truly a great tool. I use it a lot.

[u/b_and_g]

It's hard to know without hearing the original sample. I'd say it's panning because you can clearly hear more of the strings on the left and drums on the right. Very wide panning was common in the 60's and 70's. Towards the 70s you could hear more that drums were being kept at the center but some music still kept panning drums very wide or even as a whole group to the side which makes me think this is the case. That would be impossible to get without the original sample being like that, with the only exception of using a stem splitter and then panning out stuff. So yeah I'd say the original sample was wide to begin with and he maybe added a widener too

[u/CreativeQuests]

To me it sounds like a Roland chorus (Juno, Dimension D), some auto panning, maybe a widener like the one from Infected Mushroom (Wider) + multiband compression to bring out more details and create a wall of sound effect. The phasy sound is definetely from a chorus.