Drum Panning

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Cageofmind

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How do you guys pan your drums out when recording? Looking for some feed back, perhaps some new ideas so I can get my kit to sound better. Share your tips and tricks for getting that set sounding badass...
 
K = center
Snr = 11 oclock reverb at 1 oclock
Hihat = 9 oclock
T1 = 10 oclock
T2 = 2 oclock
T3 = 3 oclock
LOH = Hard left
ROH = Hard Right

The best tip is Mic placement.
 
i've been using Modified Spaced placement as described in this thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=114426&page=1&pp=25

i have the overheads panned hard left and right, the kick in the center, and snare panned slightly to the right (from the audience's perspective). so i use a total of 4 mics. the positioning of the overheads gives a good balance between the cymbals, hats, and toms, and keeps them spread out. this way you don't have to pan them individually like if you were using a separate mic for each drum.
 
one thing you can try is pan your overheads where you want them and then listen to just the overheads. Then you pan your drums in the corresponding position of where they are in the overheads. For example I'll listen to the over heads, then un mute the high hat and try and find out where I heard it in just the OH mics. If i need to i'll mute the HH and listen again until I find it. I find this will give you an image of the entire kit as if you were listening from the OH perspective, which is in stereo (and probably the ONLY stereo representation of the actual kit).
 
bennychico11 said:
one thing you can try is pan your overheads where you want them and then listen to just the overheads. Then you pan your drums in the corresponding position of where they are in the overheads. For example I'll listen to the over heads, then un mute the high hat and try and find out where I heard it in just the OH mics. If i need to i'll mute the HH and listen again until I find it. I find this will give you an image of the entire kit as if you were listening from the OH perspective, which is in stereo (and probably the ONLY stereo representation of the actual kit).
Click to expand...

Strange my teacher said to do it this way right before he demanded we do it the way I described above... :p
 
Cageofmind said:
How do you guys pan your drums out when recording? Looking for some feed back, perhaps some new ideas so I can get my kit to sound better. Share your tips and tricks for getting that set sounding badass...
Click to expand...
Totally depends on the kind of music; it coyld be anywhere from centered mono (live jazz kit as art of trio) to all over the map (synth-o-drums with 80s sound). But more often than not I do natural stereo from X/Y or OH panned for the audience somewhere inside of 11:00 and 2:00, with the kick about 5 degress off-center.

G.
 
I pan from the drummers perspective. Just my way of doing things.
kick and snare both dead centre.
Nice wee one to try. Add a stereo reverb on the snare track.
OHs i pan to 90 each way. toms i listen for, usually about 9, 11 and 3 o clock. I like a wide stereo spread.
 
I center the overheads in an XY pattern over the kit. With a typical 5 piece setup, the mic stand for the overheads is just to the left of the kick. (audience perspective) I make sure that the OH are aimed so the snare is in the center of the image. So in the OH, the snare ends up center, tom 1 is a little to the right, tom 2 is center (more or less, depending on if it is hanging on a stand or mounted to the kick) and the floor tom is a little to the left.
That also getts the hat to the right a bit and the ride to the left a bit.

If you look at a kit from above, most of them are set up in a semi-circle. I find the center of the semi-circle and draw a line from that point to the center of the snare. That is the center axis that all my panning is derived from. I pan the close mics on the toms to where I hear them in the overheads. The snare is centered and the kick is centered.

This would be easier if I could draw a picture.
 
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