Songs With Stereo Details Worth Paying Attention To

Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet sits on the left and George Coleman’s tenor sax on the right. When both horns state the theme, try following each timbre on its own. The spread gives the two instruments a place to share the melody without losing their separate identities.

In the middle break, the riff leaves a space for high theremin notes and lower guitar sounds to move around. Follow those swoops across the mix until the riff returns. Jimmy Page and Eddie Kramer moved the sounds while mixing, so there is a performance to hear in what the controls are doing.

Start with the voice in the center. About half a minute in, another lead appears and the two separate slightly. The voice draws back to the center and then opens out again. The size of those changes makes the lyric feel as though it moves closer and farther away.

The lead begins in the center, then slips to one side while an echo answers from the other. About two minutes in, a new singer comes forward with a far more direct, centered sound. Hearing the earlier parts travel makes that voice feel unexpectedly close.

Stay with the long instrumental passage after the sung part. Guitar effects change size and position until the sound starts to suggest a world underwater. Follow one wobbling sound until it fades, then pick up the next one from somewhere else in the mix.

Listen past the bass sound to Timbaland’s snare pattern. The main hit has company at the sides. One side has a higher hit, the other a lower one, and the lower one sometimes lands on its own. The groove gives you several different sounds to follow while the singer stays in focus.

Mitchell’s voice and guitar stay near the center. Listen to the electric piano on the left and the lead guitar on the right as they put little remarks around her. The placement lets you hear the backing players react without having to take your attention off the singer.

The operatic section sends voices across the stereo field. Pick a short exchange and listen to where the answer turns up. The spread lets the layers act like a cast of characters, even when several parts arrive within a few seconds.

The percussion and guitars keep placing accents across from one another. Around two minutes in, listen for the ridged scrape of the güiro and where the mixer makes it move. That little solo is a good place to hear the spatial game the rest of the arrangement has been playing.

Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew’s guitar lines occupy opposite sides. Try following one while the other repeats and changes beside it. The two can blur into a single part, but their separation lets you hear when a note from one pattern ends up in a gap left by the other.

The kit begins in the middle and the close whisper occupies one side. Wait for the later drum fill, when the whole kit moves across. The music is still carrying the same pulse, but the shift can feel like someone moved the floor beneath the song.

Eddie Hazel’s guitar has a clear position, but some phrases leave an echo across from it. Listen for the gap between the attack and its answering trail. That distance gives a solitary-sounding guitar line another place to go after the note itself has faded.

John Lennon’s treated vocal shifts in position while much of the backing holds its place. Paul McCartney’s middle passage sounds drier and sits distinctly to the right in this mix. The transition changes where the song seems to be coming from as much as it changes the scene.

Listen to the sequence of stretched vocal phrases around two and a half minutes in. The first few stay close to the middle, and the last one sweeps across the mix with a pronounced wobble. Because the earlier ones hold their position, the moving phrase is easy to pick out.

The opening sounds comparatively narrow until the backing spreads. The guitar solo gives you the easiest movement to catch, with notes jumping between the two sides. Listen to the lead vocal first so you have a fixed point to compare with the moving guitar.

Keep the main pulse in mind and listen for the short synthesizer sounds that cross the stereo field in time with it. The backing voices occupy a much wider place as the arrangement builds. The steady beat gives your ear something to hold on to as the smaller sounds keep shifting.

Listen to where the trumpets sit and then pick out how widely the backing singers spread. Between them, the small percussion sounds and drum fills can have much more definite positions. You can follow one detail through a crowded passage without losing the rest of the arrangement.

Around four minutes in, the organ starts shifting sideways without the whole arrangement moving with it. Later, listen for the treated spoken voice and its echo sitting apart. The track lets you hear the difference between moving a sound and letting a copy answer from somewhere else.