Why Pan ?

T.J.Hooker

T.J.Hooker

New member
Howdy! I've got what maybe is a silly question. Why pan while recording ? I mean, if I am recording a guitar, or anything for that matter, why would I want to pan it all the way to one side while I am recording it. Couldn't I do that in the final mix ? Or is there some advantage to it, like it giving you a stronger pan maybe ? I don't know.
Thanx, T.
 
hi tj , well honestly i havent heard of this and i always pan on mixdown , not recording.. but if theres a good reason why we should be doing this and anyone can elaborate on it then that would be great ...hey by the way tj , no stupid questions ever get asked here , only difference between some questions is some people knowthe answer..
cheers all
spider
 
One word...stereo. Basicly if you have the tracks, and you want to do stereo, you need two mics (or more) per instrument...let's use the guitar amp for an example. You get one mic close up, one mic far away. Record onto 2 seperate tracks, pan one left and one right...voila. Stereo. (You don't have to do it hard left and hard right, you can go as much or as little as you want).
 
I only pan on mixdown, however some of the more "basic" recorders (i.e. Tascam PortaStudio 424 Mk III) record the left mix on tracks 1 & 3, and the right mix on tracks 2 & 4, and use the pan-pot to isolate inputs on to these tracks. I'm assuming this is done as a way of simplifying routing, and eliminating switches - for instance to record a channel on track 1, it has to be panned hard-left. At least, that's my understanding - bloody confusing at first, until you realise that they're just being cheap! :> Now, on my VS-1680, I can record any input to any track, without having to pan. As El Barto mentioned, if you're recording in stereo, you would use the pan control to place the sound appropriately in the stereo field, but that occurs in the mixdown - er, um I think we have recursion... recursion... recursion....

Hope this answers your question.

- Wil
 
Maybe you can use the PAN while recording to use your sub-groups in your mixer and have 4 diferent audio outs.
 
I currently record on my PC with n-Track and I've never noticed a track being panned anywhere but dead center after recording it. Suppose I record my guitar using the left and right channels from my effects unit and record it as two mono tracks. Those tracks are panned to the center. I have to remember to go into the mixer and pan them left or right as appropriate when mixing. However, if I record this way as a single stereo track, then I am stuck with the pan that comes out of the effects unit. The only way around that is to split this stereo track into two mono tracks.

Wil, I just want to clarify something you said because I'm not sure if I understood you correctly. In other words, I may be making the same point, but I just want to be sure.

Let me start by saying I'm basing this on the 414 I used to use. I agree with you that tracks 1 and 3 can record from the left chanel of the stereo bus and tracks 2 and 4 from the right channel of the stereo bus. However, that doesn't mean that the tracks themselves are hard panned to either side. Once recorded, you can pan these tracks either left or right according to taste when you mix. I had to be careful distinguishing between "tracks" and "channels" because they both went through the same mixer. This used to confuse the hell out of me when I first got the 414, so I wanted make sure that this was clear.

Somebody let me know if I just made things muddier or am way off base here.
 
I don't know how many people do this but, I don't have any monitors right now and I have a slight hearing loss in my left ear(not do to music).

I pan slightly right when I record because my right ear is sensitive to more frequencies than my left. Afterwards, I place the track in the stereo field wherever I want.
 
Thanks alot you guys! All the info is great. I don't pan while recording, but I've seen it done and always wondered why. Now I know. Spider, I agree on the stupid question deal. But even though it usually doesn't happen on this forum, you never when your gonna get dumped on for the littlest thing.
It's a jungle out there. Thanks for the support.

I love this forum, T.J.
 
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