Do I ?? Pan Vocals and Instruments

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yackeydo

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This is gonna sound very stupid. I am very new to all this recording and my question is why do you pan vocals or other instruments and when should you do this and what does it do for the final product? Please explain this to me. I am very confused about all this stuff. I have a sound guy but he does not explain stuff like this to me. Please help!!!

Yackeydo
 
Usually you wnat your vocals at dead center. The only reason you might pan vocals is to create a mood or a specific effect or if you maybe double up vocals panning them can widen a specific word of phrase. The same can be said for an instrument I prefer to pan my guitars hard left and hard right. it really all depends on what your recording. Panning really creates the whole stereo field.
 
Panning is what made ACDC :D

i pan overheads as well.... but thats kinda the idea .. :D
 
Ditto yackeydo.

The stereo field consists of left and right channels(also front and back, but later for that). You want to fill up your stereo field as if you are listening to the song at a concert. Imagine you are in the audience of a live musical performance, lead guitar to the left, rhythm guitar to the right, piano just off center, vocals and bass typically dead center, etc. etc.

THere are no hard and fast rules.

In the end it comes down to how does it sound to your ears. If you didn't pan anything you would basically have a mono recording.

If you are talking about panning left to right during a song, as Yackeydo said this is typically done to create a specific mood or a dreaminess quality.

The next time you listen to a song listen to where the individual instruments are coming from, hard left, hard right or somewhere in between.

There is actually a pretty decent explanation of this in the Home Recording For Dummies book.

Hope this helps.
 
pan al the instruments 100% left and your voice 100% right
hahahaha the beatles did it


it'd be nice to have besides the left-right steareo field to be also to dstiguis sounds in an UP-DOWN field...too bad we only have 2 ears
 
For instruments this is my preference: bass down the center. Usually have two guitar tracks going so one goes right and one goes left - how far depends on how it sounds. If you're doing things like midi drums I like to pan intruments individually across the field to mimic how a drummer would be hearing them - kick center, HH a little to the left, ride a little to the right, toms panning left to right according to tom size.
 
If you want to hear some examples of panning Tool's Aenima album has alot , as well as Marilyn Mansons - Antichrist Superstar.
 
Dioxide said:
If you want to hear some examples of panning Tool's Aenima album has alot , as well as Marilyn Mansons - Antichrist Superstar.
Click to expand...

If thats the album i think it is, its great fun for people with an interest in audio. i.e. backwards things, sped up things, "digital noise" which is actually just weird freq sweeps and stuff. Hours of fun in Cool Edit or somthing :)

scabs and peanut butter is a good one to play with :)

If its not that album its anothe rManson Album
 
I usually try to crete the "out front' effect

the drums are panned as iff you were standing in front of them. Since it's a double pedal system, it's a cool effect.

Snare - 5% right
Kick - 5%left
High Tom - 75% right
High Mid Tom - 35% right
Low Mid Tom - 35% Left
Floor tom - 75% left
OH Right - 65% right
OH left - 70% Left

Rhythm Guitar - 78% left
Rhythym Guitar2 - 70% Right
Solo/Fills Guitar - 60% right
Solo Effects - 50% left
Bass Guitar - 5% Right
Keyboards (these vary since there's usually about 4 stereo takes done for various sound layers)

Vox I'll set center and crossfeed the effects in stereo.....when we find a good singer! :(
 
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! I have been given so many ideas. I'm sooo excited to try them. You all are very sweet.

Yackeydo
 
Another good example of panning vocals is Mudvaynes - The end of all things to come. PLus its just a bad ass recorded album lots of depth. (Note: listen to these albums w/ a decent pair of headphones youll always pick up on stuff you heavent heard through home speakers.)
 
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