piano/keys and acoustic guitar- general rules on position in the mix?

[benherron.rrr]

I must say Im not really into the rules, Recording is a creative process in itself. Recordings are, in my opinion used/or were used mainly as a representation of the live proformance. I think its a nice idea to let the recording influence the live show. In my situation I have to do that, as unfortunatly I am unable to play Bass, Drums, Numerous guitar parts, Piano and vocals at the same time. It would be fun to give it ago though

To the OP, Its true it entirely depends upon the song, Personally I love the whole stereo piano thing, so I usually have the piano upfront along with the vocals. (mainly because I feel my voice flows better with the piano) and use the acoustic a little further back just to add a little texture. And also because in this situaton my piano parts usually carry a leading role, while the guitar adds to the rhythm. But If These roles are reversed then I do the opposite. If the two instruments are taking a simalar role in the mix it may be well worth panning them slightly appart to create a little seperation from one another.

 

[captions87]

i deal more with synth sounds than piano or key sounds, therefore there's a good amount of pads that i have to mix in our songs, and as far as those go, a good starting point for me has always been to try and make those instruments sound like they're just hovering over or "blanketing" the song, not particularly panned one way or another, but i almost try to make it sound like the keys are "above" or slightly behind all the other instruments, if that makes sense. it's worked well on a couple songs and adds a cool sort of ambience to the songs. but again, it's all on what sounds good/works for the song.