Indian Food
Posted on | December 28, 2008 | No Comments
OK…on the heels of my groundbreaking Latte post, here’s another seemingly perplexing entry. My wife is Indian. Dots, not feathers, as the phrase goes. So I’ve had my share of Indian food over the past 10 years. And one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s a combination of opposing flavors and tastes: spicy, sweet, sour, hot, and cool. And each flavor, or taste, balances (as well as helps you appreciate) the other.
And, YES, so it is with recording and mixing sound. I had a client over the other week and he was asking about various aspects of building a mix, wondering whether it would be OK to put the bass guitar and kick drum slightly off center. I advised against it, saying that the effect of a guitar or voice panned hard left or right is diminished without an anchor in the center. One helps define the other, just like yogurt helps anchor Indian food so that spices like ginger and coriander can accent the flavor.
If everything in a dish is sweet (or spicy), you end up with the equivalent of a mono mix. The effectiveness of stereo is based on perspective, and that requires an anchor and then elements that display their distance from it.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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