Panning A Drum Kit

[Resurrect]

Ok. So, I already have set my opinion on this, but would like to hear the input of some others as well. When I pan my drums, I pan them from a drummer's view point- hihat far left, snare and small tom 50% left, large tom 50% Right, floor tom far right, left Overhead medium to far left, Right overhead medium to far right. Now I'm a drummer. Have been for over half my life. (Being 19 that makes it going on 10 or so years now). But it seems all the major artists, or rather, producers, pan the drums almost mirror image of me. They must be trying to do it from an audience standpoint. Personally, I have never been on the receiving side of a live kit and heard any right/left variation that I could discern. You only experience that when you are on the throne playing. So when I listen to these songs, everything's wrong and it drives me crazy. With my music, I wanna take my listeners inside the song, to transport them for about three minutes into my world. Spectator viewpoint panning (or should I say, hearpoint?) seems to do the opposite. But thats just my opinion. I was curious to read what you guys think, and what you do personally. How do you pan your drums? And to what ammounts?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

When live sound is done in stereo it's common to pan the drums according to audience perspective. If video is shot with an audience perspective it's nice for the drums to match, even if not all the shots are from that angle. The vast majority of those listening to the recording (one hopes) won't be members of the band so audience perspective works there as it's nice for the sound to create a picture of the band.

But doing it from drummer's perspective is cool, too. Or for the panning to not even relate to where things are on a stage. In the early days of stereo they might just put the drums on one side. Like you say, in real life you don't hear much separation, so in a way mono or really narrow drums makes sense. Basically, whatever works. Some people will like it, some won't, a lot of casual listeners won't even notice. Hey, why not rhythm guitarist perspective?

 

[Raz Klinghoffer]

No rules apply
Do whatever you feel is right
I would open up the oh and rooms far left right, and won't pan the floor far l\r

 

[Rolf Fiesel]

snare center
bass drum center
SMALL TOM L
MED TOM R
SMALL FD L
LARGE FD CENTER
OH L R

 

[Supercreep]

Mono sounds great too.

 

[Farview]

I also do drummer perspective with the overheads. Where I pan the toms depends on the kit. I've recorded a lot of kits with 6, 7, 10 toms.

With the huge kits, I pan the toms evenly across the stereo field, just to get some separation.

With a 5 piece kit, I will pan the small Tom a little left, the mid Tom a little right and the floor in the center, to keep the low end centered. If there is another tom, the second one is centered and the third is panned a little right.

I'm more worried about getting a decent drum mix that fits the song, than I am about making it sound like the listener is sitting at the kit, or standing in front of it. My job is to make it exciting to listen to. What ever that takes.

 

[sheboygandrums]

Resurrect,

Cool question. I also prefer drummer's perspective, cuz, like you, I'm a drummer. However, I've done mixes where the opposite sounds better with the arrangement. For example, if a rhythm guitar is panned left and plays a rhythm that masks or conflicts with the HH (or reveals timing inconsistencies between the musicians), and everything else is already in place, it might be better or easier to reverse the drums.

Keep in mind, most listeners see drums from audience perspective, so there's a good argument for panning that way. Then again, most listeners are indifferent about how instruments are panned, so it makes sense to pan it for those who are aware.

Ultimately, I always keep in mind that when I'm engineering for someone else, my role is first engineer, then drummer. Priority number one is making the client happy, not necessarily mixing how I prefer.

As for panning amounts. I find the arrangement dictates this. Maximum wide isn't always suitable.

P.S. You can reverse your speaker outputs to reverse the drum panning when needed. I've gotten used to either drum set perspective, so it doesn't interfere with my listening.

 

[JDOD]

I pan as if I am sitting behind the kit but don't pan anything like that far.

Pan about 35L to 35R wirh everything sitting in the middle corresponding to roughly where it would sit in front of me.