Dumb question about panning

[lasagne]

Go easy on me guys - I'm very new to this, and this is probably the first of a squillion questions I'll ask.

I read somewhere to put the drums and vocals in the middle, and the guitars and bass on the left and right (like a live situation I guess). My question is, do I do this when recording, or when mixing ? I'm using Cubase VST.

Thanks for yuor help, and no doubt, abuse

[Idgeit]

If you pan to hard left and hard right, its going to sound fairly dodgy. If you want to pan guitars, slightly to the left or slightly to the right is what i would do. or hard left if its an effect im going for.

Its all really down to you, you will learn it over time what sounds good to your ears. And personally i always track panned to the centre, then later during the mix down i would change the panning to what ever i need.

hope this helped

- Idgeit

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Low frequency sources (kick drum, bass etc.) are usually panned to the centre or near to centre, the same goes for main vocals.

Of course there are no hard and fast rules but this is a general rule.

Panning is best left to the mixing stage

[Blue Bear Sound]

This Mixing article may give you some tips --> Mixing 101

[fetchwood]

That's good to know about panning. I have an equally newbie question. I have a four track and am trying to figure out my PC mixing software (Magix Audio Studio 10).

If I tape four tracks, I don't understand how I would be able to add to it once I save it to my PC.

If I have a basic guitar and base and keyboard and vocals--that now gets saved on my PC as one track. I don't see how I can add to that PC track, another guitar or vocal using my four track since they would never jibe up again.

If I had 16 tracks on my recorder, it would be easy to play the tape and add the thing in real time. But when I have it saved on my PC, the only way I understand to add tracks, would be to physically line in to the PC while the recording is playing--thereby never again being able to use my four track.

Do you all just plug directly into the PC and have sold your multitrack recorders on EBay?

This question sounds more convoluted than it is . . . I have a way with words and it aint all good.

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Originally Posted by fetchwood

Do you all just plug directly into the PC and have sold your multitrack recorders on EBay?

Pretty much

Decent quality soundcards are very reasonably priced these days (eg. £90 for a 4 input interface).

Sorry I don't really understand your question.

[fetchwood]

I want to mix on my PC. But I record on my 4track. Do I record one track, then save it to the disk? Then record another track and save it to disk?

Otherwise, if I have 4 tracks recorded, they will only save as one track on the PC and then I can't mix the individual original tracks separately.

But, if I tape one track, save it to disk, then tape another one, and save it on disk, I can mix each track. Then how do I line up the two so that they are in time with each other so they don't sound like a Chinese kung fu movie?

The only way I can figure is to skip the 4track and save directly to the PC which will then allow me to mix each track.

Is that better?

[LfO]

The only reason I can think of to keep using the 4track for anything is if you just like the sound you get from it. Sounds like you should just get a nice soundcard and record directly to the PC to me.

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Originally Posted by LfO

The only reason I can think of to keep using the 4track for anything is if you just like the sound you get from it. Sounds like you should just get a nice soundcard and record directly to the PC to me.

I agree.
..................

[fetchwood]

Just when I can afford to buy 8 tracks, they come up with MP3. I'm always behind the times. Off to the sound card bin. Thanks.

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Originally Posted by fetchwood

Just when I can afford to buy 8 tracks, they come up with MP3. I'm always behind the times. Off to the sound card bin. Thanks.

MP3 is no good at all for recording, crappy quality. OK to have on your ipod for listening to in the gym or whatever but for recording (and for serious listening) MP3 is no good at all.

[Richard Monroe]

Yo Fetchwood! First, there is a perfectly good reason to record on a 4-tracker and mix in the computer. Namely, you don't feel like hauling your computer to every remote gig you do. I do this a lot with a Roland VS1824CD or a Korg PXR4.
Some of the more advanced standalones can dump the tracks to the computer as WAV files, but most, including mine, can't. Try this- Start by inserting a 4 beat click track into the beginning of track 1. I usually use the metronome in my Pandora for this, but hell, you could do it with an SM57 and a pair of drumsticks.
Then, copy that click track to all of the other tracks by using "track copy". Then record each of your tracks onto a separate track in the computer, and move the tracks around until the click tracks line up. How fast you can do this depends on the features of the software you're using. In Protools, it's pretty easy. Once they are synched, erase the click tracks and mix away. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, but it works. I recorded an entire album on the Roland that way, and dumped the entire project into Protools for mixing, 2 tracks at a time, in real time, by S/PDIF. It took nearly 16 hours to transfer and synch the entire album, which is basically recorded on 12 tracks. Enjoy.-Richie

[Farview]

Normally, things like bass and guitar are recorded on mono tracks and panned during the mix. If that is what you mean by guitar hard left and bass hard right (as in the way you have to buss the signal to separate tracks) then you ae doing it right. You can pan them where ever you want at the mix stage.

[shiatzu]

personally, i like recording drums with a kick, snare, and mono overhead (along with a scratch bass track) on a 4 track and then import them to the pc. just do it 2 tracks at a time, one hard L and one hard R into 2 mono tracks on the PC..then repeat for tracks 3 and 4.