Panning Tips please!

OK, first i just want to say thank you to all of you for your wonderful advices. I am new for all home recording, but i am just getting used to it, and i appreciate new infos and any tips...That said, my question is where do you pan your hats? how i have been trying to do it is by panning them just a little to the left to the snare...because someone at guitar center told me to pan your drums in a way you would picture a drummer on a live stage, with the kick at the center and the snare and everything else how they would be put on a stage. What do you guys think about that and what is the best advice for panning the hats?
 
That's the way I mix drums. From the drummers perspective. Some pan from the audience perspective. So the hi hats end up being just off to the side with kick and snare up the middle.
 
Are you suggesting adding 3dB on top of the 3dB built into most pan controls?

No - I'm suggesting that when you double the amount of energy [as in having the same sound on both the left and right channels - which is what occurs when you pan something up the middle] you add 3db of signal. If you have a 100w guitar amp it will be 3db louder than a 50w guitar amp because you've doubled the amount of energy employed.

If you have a sound at "x" level on the left channel, and the same sound also at "x" level on the right channel - the result of adding both channels together will be "x +3db".

Make sense?
 
No - I'm suggesting that when you double the amount of energy [as in having the same sound on both the left and right channels - which is what occurs when you pan something up the middle] you add 3db of signal. If you have a 100w guitar amp it will be 3db louder than a 50w guitar amp because you've doubled the amount of energy employed.

If you have a sound at "x" level on the left channel, and the same sound also at "x" level on the right channel - the result of adding both channels together will be "x +3db".

Exactly. Which is why pan controls subtract 3dB (usually) at center, to do what you're suggesting without having to do it manually.

Pan Law
 
Zachboy, I heard your last track in the MP3 forum. It sounds like in your genre experimentation is the key. I think the kick and bass have to stay in the middle in electronic based music, as they drive it, but arguments about overheads and vocal placement are negligible. You can even pan to extremes in many electronic genres.

So let the others here argue the rules of their own genres, go wild and enjoy! Listening and doing what your ears tell you is the only important rule you should be following.

P.S. It was a great track, I should have commented in there I just don't generally mix those kind of tunes.
 
I always pan my overheads hard left and right. It's a STEREO pair catching a STEREO image. How can it "sound too wide"??? I've never understood that argument. It can't sound wider than the drums actually are.
 
Zachboy, I heard your last track in the MP3 forum. It sounds like in your genre experimentation is the key. I think the kick and bass have to stay in the middle in electronic based music, as they drive it, but arguments about overheads and vocal placement are negligible. You can even pan to extremes in many electronic genres.

So let the others here argue the rules of their own genres, go wild and enjoy! Listening and doing what your ears tell you is the only important rule you should be following.

P.S. It was a great track, I should have commented in there I just don't generally mix those kind of tunes.


Thank you Thor! im glad you liked it! i thought that particular mix was a bit muddy. but im working it out.

and yeah i understand. im just glad someone liked it :O
 
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