when mixing a left-handed drummer . .

[enferno]

when i normally mix a right-handed drummer, i pan it as if the audience were listening to it.

snare and kick in the center (duh), floor tom on the left, mid tom center, hi tom right, and hats slightly right.

but for a left-handed drummer, would you reverse the placement of the instruments due to the fact that most left-handed drummers have a reversed kit?

a really simple question i know, but i would be interested if you guys would mix this player perspective or audience perspective?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Sonically I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference unless you want to balance the drum sounds against other instruments. For example, if there is something like a tambourine or high tinkly piano that for reasons not related to the drums I want or need to throw right, I might be more tempted to swing the hat slightly left, or I might swing the bass just a couple of degrees left and the kick just a couple right so they are both basically centered but not exactly on top of each other.

But those mix considerations aside, I personally just use something close to the audience perspective if for no other reason than it's fast and intuitive to work the mics and pans on my board left-to-right the same way that I see them (or the instruments) left-to-right in front of me or in my mind. Whether the kit is left- or right-handed doesn't otherwise matter much to me. Just personal taste there.

G.

 

[RAMI]

This is hilarious. I just posted about being a left-handed drummer in the "mono Overheads" thread.
Like Glen says, I think it's more important to keep instruments away from each other, like not having a tambourine and the high hats tripping over each other. Personally, I've never even noticed, in all my life of listening to music, whether the hats are coming out of the left or right side. Or whether a tom roll goes left to right or vice versa. I've never noticed and don't eally care.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Agreed. Also, for my mixing style anyway, it's not like there that huge of a spread to the drum kit anyway. Unless I'm doing some kind of "special effect" with the drum image - which will rarely last more than a couple of beats anyway, such effects are almost never anything but temporary accents for me - my stereo image of the drum kit rarely spreads wider than, say, -10 to +10. On extremely busy mixes it could even be a couple of clicks narrower than that. Just enough spread to seperate the individual pieces and to give a little interest and natural sound, but that's all. It's not like most folks are going to notice or care if the snare is at +5 or -5.

G.

 

[Downside Studio]

reminds me of a discussion i had with a customer in my studio once...he asked why engineers always panned the drumkit the wrong way...his point of view:

whenever i'm stoned and listening to music, i wanna play the airdrums!

 

[chessrock]

Just to confuse the stoners,

I like to pan mine sideways and upside-down.

 

[IronFlippy]

I wonder if since we're all so used to hearing drums panned righty, if it would sound weird if you were to pan it lefty. It'll no doubt be a subtle change, but it might screw with our minds a bit.

 

[Dani Pace]

I play with (and record) a leftie drummer, he complains that the drums sound backwards (to him) on playback. I guess the difference of where he is used to hearing from (behind the drums rather than in front of them) makes a difference to drummers but isn't noticed much at all by the casual listener. Just try to get a good mix and keep the drums mostly centered (not dead center but not panned as much as guitar or bass) and you should be fine.