Listen to several Beatles recordings. The whole band is on one side and the vocals on the other on many tunes.I wonder if there are examples that the main vocal being panned.
I didn't know there was a "standard". Pan them wherever you want. I'm a lefty, so I pan mine to the right.
But when you think of it, it should really be the opposite (if it "should" be anything). If I was watching a video of a right handed drummer, his hi-hat would be on the right from an audience perspective. So, it would make more sense that it would be more in the right speaker. If I'm watching a video (or live performance), and the drummer does a roll, I'd expect to hear the toms go from (my)right to my left. It would be weird to hear the toms going one way, and see them going another way.
I agree, for a live video mix that makes sense. But from a musician standpoint I find mixes done from the vantage of me being the musician work best for my ears and sound stage. Most of the rock music I listen to has the hihat in the left (position from drummer's vantage).
Drums are mixed how they are laid out.
Text book drum mixing 101 - you mix based on sitting at a drum kit, and since more people are right handed, the hihat is usually left.
When I mix drums, I mix the hi-hat to the right, because my lad sets his kit up right-handed and I like to hear the drums with the stereo image that an audience member sitting in front of the band would hear. A right-handed drummer might mix the kit the opposite to me, because that's the way he hears his drums normally, and that's what would sound natural to him. I can't justify one over the other, which is the same as saying it doesn't matter.
Out of curiosity, for you fellas that have recorded entire albums with drums, do you switch around the drum panning over the course of the album? Does it bore the listener to have the hihat on the left and the ride on the right, song after song after song? Or do you mix it up for variety? For some reason that's been bugging me lately although I couldn't tell you from memory if its the same or various on any album I've ever listened to...
I go to great lengths to make the drums are as consistent as possible from song to song. I like albums that sound like they were recorded all at once in the same space and place in time. I personally dislike albums that sound like a bunch of singles thrown together. So for me, consistency is the rule, and the drum panning always stays the same. If your drums are panned in a natural way, they won't get tiresome. If you're using a drum program and have single hits popping in and out from weird places in the stereo field, then that can be a problem. When we say "hats right or left" it's not that extreme.
Yeah, I agree dude...To me, having the drums panned pretty consistently kinda "glues" the songs together I suppose....if that makes any sense....That's the idea I have for my "album" too, pretty much the same thing anyway.....I go to great lengths to make the drums are as consistent as possible from song to song. I like albums that sound like they were recorded all at once in the same space and place in time. I personally dislike albums that sound like a bunch of singles thrown together. So for me, consistency is the rule, and the drum panning always stays the same. If your drums are panned in a natural way, they won't get tiresome. If you're using a drum program and have single hits popping in and out from weird places in the stereo field, then that can be a problem. When we say "hats right or left" it's not that extreme.