Vocal track panning........

[LoudScaryGuitar]

Where should the main vocal track of a song be panned....CENTER?.....OR IF IT IS CLONED WHERE SHOULD EACH COPY BE PANNED???.........thanks

[ozraves]

Originally posted by LoudScaryGuitar
Where should the main vocal track of a song be panned....CENTER?.....OR IF IT IS CLONED WHERE SHOULD EACH COPY BE PANNED???.........thanks

if you are mixing, then you can pan it to anywhere in the stereo field.

i suggest panning a little off center on a main vocal track such as by much as 10 to 15 percent right or left. i prefer less than 10 percent off center. i hardly ever like to put any vocal track dead center unless it's for effect. i generally only put kick and bass down the middle.

on stacking vocals, i usually pan them on top of each other (same exact pan) or slightly separate each track by about five percent or so. wider separation can work but depends on what you feel you want to convey in the mix.

steve
www.mojopie.com

[sjjohnston]

Originally posted by LoudScaryGuitar
Where should the main vocal track of a song be panned....CENTER?

Yeah, that would be the standard thing to do (center, or at least close to center). There's something to be said for being different, of course. Though there's probably a reason the standard thing is the standard thing.

.....OR IF IT IS CLONED WHERE SHOULD EACH COPY BE PANNED???.........thanks

What do you mean by "cloned"?

If you have two tracks that are exactly the same (fairly narrow interpretation of what "cloned" might mean) ... why? Don't do that all.

If you're taking two tracks that start out identical, then altering each of them in different ways (delay, say), then how to pan them depends entirely on what you're trying to accomplish.

If you're "cloning" the performance by having the singer sing the song twice, then using both of them in the final mix (aka "doubling"): on a vocal I like it best if both tracks are panned to the same place. On, say, an acoustic guitar, panning two performances hard left and right can sound spacious. On a vocal, it just sounds weird. To me, anyway.

[Gidge]

if you are cloning them, pan the original dead center....pitch shift 2 clones, one of them a few cents up, and one a few cents down with a tad delay and pan them just slightly to the left and right.....

[LoudScaryGuitar]

Thanks guys......Well by "cloning" tracks I meant duplicating the track with a little option that N-Track Studio. Sometimes I like to record a vocal track and "clone" it then off-set one of them ever so slightly to get a cool chorus type effect.....well yeah thats what I meant!.......THANKS A LOT!

[powderfinger]

stick to the center unless your going for some different kind of feel..........listen to some of your CDs that you want to sound like and see how they pan theirs

[memriloc]

Center is pretty much standard, but DON'T diguard trates of the past....Think all those beatle albums with double tracked vocals hard left and right....sometimes that's a brilliant tool!......(along with others of the man himself)

[SS454]

I've heard a few engineers tell me that the vox is the most important part of the song. It needs to stand out and some engineers like to mix around it. So I guess the panning would be determined by where ever the vox has its greatest presence.

[ozraves]

Originally posted by SS454
I've heard a few engineers tell me that the vox is the most important part of the song. It needs to stand out and some engineers like to mix around it. So I guess the panning would be determined by where ever the vox has its greatest presence.

this is a good point which is why i tend to put the lead vox somewhere around the center but not dead on even if it is not out front.

steve
www.piemusic.com

[sjjohnston]

Originally posted by memriloc
... DON'T diguard trates of the past...

Whatever you do, never diguard trates of the past. And don't let the mome raths outgrabe, even if it is brillig.

[muskgrave]

on the other hand i know of at least one band who prefers their vocals not to be pushed out in front...and would rather have it put into the mix just as any other instrument...i'm sure this presents different challenges for mixing but it works well. i always try to keep my vocals from standing out cause i like the instruments to hide my shortcomings

dlv

[littledog]

Originally posted by sjjohnston


Whatever you do, never diguard trates of the past. And don't let the mome raths outgrabe, even if it is brillig.

SJJ: perhaps 'tis time to talk of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings, and if the seas are boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings... you slithy tove!

(forgive me if i misquote - it's off the top of my head, and it's been a while...)

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by memriloc
Center is pretty much standard, but DON'T diguard trates of the past....Think all those beatle albums with double tracked vocals hard left and right....sometimes that's a brilliant tool!......(along with others of the man himself)

I read an article recently that said those mixes were not done by Martin or the Beatles. They were actually pissed that some idiot at the record company decided that was how you should pan stuff in a stereo mix.