panning drums

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frosty55

Member
Are there any basic rules to follow when panning drums?
I ask this as I am about to record my band onto an eight tack reel to reel and dont want any frequencies clashing.
My band consists of lead vocal, backing vocals, two guitars, bass and drums. Heavy rock is what we do!
If you could picture the pan as like the top half of a clock face with far left being 9p.m. and far right 3p.m. where would everything go?
The drums are snare, kick, hi hat, three rack toms, floor toms, ride cymbal, crash cymbal.
Any help appreciated thanks.
 
There are no rules. Drums have been panned all over the place on all kinds of songs.

GENERALLY SPEAKING....I repeat...GENERALLY SPEAKING.....

You'd be safe starting with the kik and snare up the middle and your overheads panned Left and Right.

Wait a minute, before I go on. You didn't even tell us how many drum mics and tracks you're using. How are you micing your drums????
 
I pan my drums from the drummer's perspective because, well, I'm the drummer and my opinion is the only one that matters.

Using your "clock" comparison, mine go like this from the drummer's perspective:

Kick and snare - 12:00
L rack tom - 11:00
R rack tom - 1:00
1st floor tom - 2:00
2nd floor tom - 2:30, or sometimes 9:30 if I put it on my left, which I sometimes do
2 overheads panned all the way to 9 and 3
 
Greg_L said:
I pan my drums from the drummer's perspective because, well, I'm the drummer and my opinion is the only one that matters.

Using your "clock" comparison, mine go like this from the drummer's perspective:

Kick and snare - 12:00
L rack tom - 11:00
R rack tom - 1:00
1st floor tom - 2:00
2nd floor tom - 2:30, or sometimes 9:30 if I put it on my left, which I sometimes do
2 overheads panned all the way to 9 and 3
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums up my pans. From the drumbers perspective. Except for the second floor tom. I don't have one. :)
 
The OP didn't even tell us how he mics his drums. Maybe he wants to know where to pan that one mic he uses for his kit. :D
 
I generally pan drums from an audience perspective as I generally like to set up the "soundfield" as a band appears on stage... which also [generally] means that drum panning isn't too radical - rarely is there anything panned "hard" to one side as that gives the "soundstage" a rather unnatural feel.

With that said - if you're working on something that has no basis in nature - get as weird as you want!!!!

Peace.
 
In answer to how many mics....
A mic on the snare, one on the two rack toms, one on the floor tom, one on the kick, two condensers spaced apart over the cymbals, one condenser close micing the ride.
 
Thanks for the advice chaps.
Having decided that the kick and snare would be panned in the middle with overheads far left and right, with toms at 11 and 1 o clock respectively, what about the rest?
We are two guitars, bass, lead vocal and backing vocal. Where to position?
 
I know this isn ot the answer you want to hear. But, seriously, try things out and see what you like. Like I said in my first post, there are no rules. You're going to get 65 people telling you how THEY like to do it, and you'll still have to go experiment until you find something YOU like.
 
frosty55 said:
Thanks for the advice chaps.
Having decided that the kick and snare would be panned in the middle with overheads far left and right, with toms at 11 and 1 o clock respectively, what about the rest?
We are two guitars, bass, lead vocal and backing vocal. Where to position?
Click to expand...

bass & lead vox is always in center. backing vocals & guitars panned left and right if at least 2 tracks. try "3 & 9 o clock" as a staring point.
 
frosty55 said:
Thanks for the advice chaps.
Having decided that the kick and snare would be panned in the middle with overheads far left and right, with toms at 11 and 1 o clock respectively, what about the rest?
We are two guitars, bass, lead vocal and backing vocal. Where to position?
Click to expand...
There's 'O/H = mostly 'the brass, then there's 'O/H which are the primary full kit.
In either case (but even more so with the latter.. and since you're asking.. try those O/H's in various degrees panned in'. There's a whole world besides 'as wide a possible, right down into near mono.
Sometimes the pay off here isn't apparent until the mix is up and where you might want to place the drums into the stage space, or focus their size a bit. The up side too is sometimes you pick up some nice thickness and punck as you approach 'mono. :)
 
I mix drummer's perspective, so I start toms at 10:00 and end at 3:00 and make adjustments from there.

With the overheads try to get as much of a stereo image as you can, then check to see if the overhead positioning matches the toms. If they don't line up you may not like the washed out stereo image. Just adjust the pan the overheads to see how it sounds.

As others have mentioned, Kick, Snare, Lead Vocals, Bass right up the middle.

Sometimes a bit more room mic is better than overhead because instruments and vocals are fighting for the same space.

Don't be afraid to roll off some freqs too.

Hope this helps.
 
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