Panning help
- Thread starter Necrology
- Start date
andyhix
:dank:
Appropriately.
Thanks Mr. Smartass
andyhix
:dank:
That's MISTER Smar....oh....right. Anyway, since I'm avoiding work at all costs today, I'll elaborate:
Your question has no answer. In fact, I'm not even sure it's a question. What are you panning? how is it you expect to pan something to make it better? What are you recording? How many tracks? How dense/sparse? What do you want it to sound like? What bands do you like? How do they pan their stuff?
How something is panned generally has no bearing on whether it sounds 'good' or not. a well mixed song generally sounds good in mono or stereo.
Generic answer that may or may not help:
Generally think of the soundscape as a 3D space. Panning places things L to R. Volume and reverb can make things seem farther away or closer. Pitch/tone kind of places things vertically. Given that, plop things in so that it stays fairly balanced, panned as wide or narrow as you like.
And generally keep bass guitar, kick, snare and lead vocals fairly close to center, unless you are going for a particular effect.
Is that better? Scheesh!
Well, what I'm saying it that I want it to have a good heavy sound, you know, downtuned guitars with heavy distortion. I want to pan it so it'll sound good on a stereo like it was recorded in a studio. Any clearer?That's MISTER Smar....oh....right. Anyway, since I'm avoiding work at all costs today, I'll elaborate:
Your question has no answer. In fact, I'm not even sure it's a question. What are you panning? how is it you expect to pan something to make it better? What are you recording? How many tracks? How dense/sparse? What do you want it to sound like? What bands do you like? How do they pan their stuff?
How something is panned generally has no bearing on whether it sounds 'good' or not. a well mixed song generally sounds good in mono or stereo.
Generic answer that may or may not help:
Generally think of the soundscape as a 3D space. Panning places things L to R. Volume and reverb can make things seem farther away or closer. Pitch/tone kind of places things vertically. Given that, plop things in so that it stays fairly balanced, panned as wide or narrow as you like.
And generally keep bass guitar, kick, snare and lead vocals fairly close to center, unless you are going for a particular effect.
Is that better? Scheesh!
andyhix
:dank:
Yes. If it's only a rhythm part, I'd suggest double tracking (recording two entirely seperate takes of the same part, recorded as closed to identically as possible) and panning opposite one another fairly significantly (50-100%). Start there, and adjust to taste.
Double tracked distorted rhythm guitars almost always sound better than only one.
I'll leave it to the rest of the group to offer further suggestions. Really it's 90% a matter of taste and preference.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Andy hit most of the high points. Double (or maybe even more) track any instrument that's designed to fill out your sound (rhythm guitars, pianos, etc).
Think of your mix as a stage. You can move instruments around by panning them left and right, and you can move them backwards by increasing reverb.
For double-tracked rhythm instruments, pan them to opposite ends of the spectrum. But I think you can still "place" them to some extent by panning them differently. (i.e. pan one track 80% left and the other 60% right to get an average of slightly left of center (I think. That's how it sounds to me, but I've never heard this from an official source)).
As a personal preference, I recommend almost never panning a part entirely to one side. I've heard so many recordings that I can't listen to because I'm only using one speaker/headphone at the time, and some important part of the sound is panned exclusively to the opposite side.
Think of your mix as a stage. You can move instruments around by panning them left and right, and you can move them backwards by increasing reverb.
For double-tracked rhythm instruments, pan them to opposite ends of the spectrum. But I think you can still "place" them to some extent by panning them differently. (i.e. pan one track 80% left and the other 60% right to get an average of slightly left of center (I think. That's how it sounds to me, but I've never heard this from an official source)).
As a personal preference, I recommend almost never panning a part entirely to one side. I've heard so many recordings that I can't listen to because I'm only using one speaker/headphone at the time, and some important part of the sound is panned exclusively to the opposite side.
Seafroggys
Well-known member
so then listen with both speakers.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I have good reasons for not listening with both speakers (actually headphones in every case...).
I'll be at work and not want to completely shut out the world in case someone says something to me.
I'll be commuting (by bike in San Antonio) and want to be aware of my surroundings so as to not be killed.
If I'm really listening closely to a recording, yeah, I'll use both speakers so I don't miss anything, but for casual listening, I prefer just one.