I wonder how the amount of time I spend in the studio setting up and executing a mix compares with the amount of time I spend listening to the results. I do spend many hours listening to the music on headphones. While The Hours Between Night + Day was my first album of larger mixes, and Opium was the next step in my mixing development, I have to point to The Scent of Light as the first example of my “wide-screen” style of mixing. The guitars moved even further to the side, like arms enveloping the mix and guiding it. The rhythm guitars define the edge of the echelon of flight, while the bass controls the center navigation. The bass holds the entire echelon together. (((I never place the bass totally in the center. I always put the bass at -18 to -20 and the kick drum at +18 to +20. This makes it easier to hear what either is doing.)))

If the rhythm guitars on NF were at +50 and -50 (hard right, that is a sound coming only from the right speaker, is +100), by the time we recorded The Hours Between Night + Day the rhythm guitars had moved out to about +70 and -70. On The Scent of Light they were at +80 and -80 and since then they have often moved as far as +90 and -90. Decades ago I used to mix on speakers and only occasionally consult headphones but now that has been reversed. I mostly mix with headphones and only listen to speakers to make sure I am not going too far.