panning stereo tracks (question)

[ssseals]

When you guys record a stereo signal (in this case a drum machine), do you pan them hard left and right when you mix or just slightly to either side? Thanks.

[Pirateking]

uh, it depends.
But for a drum machine, I would assume that you would want to kind of replicate a realistic drum sound. So I would pan slightly to the right and left, because if you're listening to someone play the drums in real life, you wouldn't have half the drums to your immediate left and half to your immediate right, they would all be in front of you, with the snare and hi-hat slightly to the right and the floor tom slightly to the left (or flip-flopped if you want to have it from the drummer's perspective).
Of course, if you're not worried about it sounding "real," then just do what sounds good to you.

[TexRoadkill]

Actually that depends on how the drums are panned in the stereo track. Usually they will have the kick and snare centered and the toms and everything panned as if you are the drummer.

Panning wide is fine. Pull them closer if it helps them fit in the mix better.

Usually when something is recorded in stereo you keep the tracks panned hard R-L. But there are no rules.

[Track Rat]

For me, it would depend on how they were recorded to begin with. If it's drums and the toms were panned hard I'd probably tame it by narrowing the field a bit. To my ear, it doesn't sound natural when the toms roll from extreme left to extreme right. It's just kind of a judgement call on a song by song/ track by track basis on panning for me.

[MISTERQCUE]

Good Question!!
Check out how I do it!
I plug L/R outs into tracks 1 & 2 on the board both panned dead center. I own the BOSS DR 202 which allows me to record rolls, cymbal rides and crashes and tom hits. After rec'ing drum beats on 1& 2, I then connect the L/R outs to tracks 3 and 4 for the various rolls,cym rides and crash etc.
Rolls and tom hits are sent to track 3 and Cym crashes and rides to track 4.
For rolls, track 3 is panned hard left and upon completion of roll, I pan hard right (panning should commence and end upon roll).
Tom hits are panned lightly left ,whilst on track 4 cymbal crashes are panned hard right to left (upon completion of crash's timbre,&decay) and cym rides are panned slightly rite! It's a lil tricky but after a little practice and timing, you too can add a lil more "realism" and stereo-efx to your "canned drums"!

[TexRoadkill]

Mr Q be on da rite track. Dope stuff.

[crosstudio]

before i got the 8-outs on my asr-x drum machine i recorded my midi drum tracks two at a time.

bass drum (mono L)
snare (mono R)
hats & cymbals (stereo L/R)
toms (stereo L/R)

the caveat being that you've got to get the panning correct in midi for the cymbals and toms.