Drum panning? L to R or or R to L?

[Buhzie2]

Assuming you have a fairly "standard" tom setup, when mixing drums, do you pan them from highest pitch at the right to lowest pitch at left, or opposite? What other panning setups have you used?

I tend to go from highest pitch at left to lowest at right...(the behind the kit perspective). I guess that's probably because I'm a drummer and I like hearing the kit from my own perspective.

Just wondering what other people prefer...

 

[Guitargodgt]

Audience view.

Just my preference.

 

[mattr]

Drummer's perspective... the only people who are likely get bothered by the direction of drum panning are drummers, so please them.

Other people might notice or acknowledge which way its panned, but I don't think they're gonna think much else of it.

 

[Greg_L]

Drummer's perspective... the only people who are likely get bothered by the direction of drum panning are drummers, so please them.

Other people might notice or acknowledge which way its panned, but I don't think they're gonna think much else of it.

This. ^^^^^^^^

It doesn't matter though.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I used to use mostly audience perspective. Then I realized that 95% of successful mixes either set up a completely artificial and sometimes even dynamic stereo sound field for the drums or simply push them out in pinpoint mono; two complete opposite ends of a spectrum, neither even closely related to a natural audience *or* drummer's perspective, completely opening up the options to me.

And you'll find that it's right-handed drummers that prefer using "drummer's perspective" in their mixing, that such a preference does not exist among non-drummers. Left-handed drummers have their preference too, but it's often hard to tell the difference between that and the audience perspective of a right-handed drummer.

G.

 

[bdenton]

I'm a right-handed drummer, and I pan from my audience's perspective...

Lefties are free to do the same...

 

[RAMI]

This is probably the 5th poll for the same thing in 2 years.

It doesn't matter. I'm a lefty. so my "audience perspective" is most other people's "drummer's perspective". So it really doesn't matter.

The only time I would say it does matter would be if you have a video of the song. Then, you'd probably want to pan it so that it matches visually. I don't think you want people to hear a roll going from left to right on their speakers while it's going the opposite way on the screen.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The only time I would say it does matter would be if you have a video of the song. Then, you'd probably want to pan it so that it matches visually. I don't think you want people to hear a roll going from left to right on their speakers while it's going the opposite way on the screen.

As overheard in the parking lot of the local Hooters:

Oh, DUDE! So like I was watching this video ov the TV the other night, and like, so I just ate some shrooms, and so anyway the dude played the drums from left to right, ya know? But like, I'd swear the sound came out of my speakers right to left! Dude! It was so wickedly awesome! I think the name of the video was "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams". Oh, man I gotta get me more of those shrooms! Ya know? For sure.



G.

 

[drumslinger]

LOL....and you know THAT guy is out there. Whatever works for the mix to balance it out.

 

[benage]

I used to use mostly audience perspective. Then I realized that 95% of successful mixes either set up a completely artificial and sometimes even dynamic stereo sound field for the drums or simply push them out in pinpoint mono; two complete opposite ends of a spectrum, neither even closely related to a natural audience *or* drummer's perspective, completely opening up the options to

G.

I was thinking about this recently, gradually over the years I've ended up with most of my drum kit mono, originally I tried the hi hat off to the side but started to find this distracting so moved that to the centre and the last mixes I did before my computer broke a while ago have the toms panned left to right, but I also liked the idea of the Tom roll ending in the middle which was tricky with four toms and it not sounding lob sided so I'm gunna try them centre aswell.

I don't really go to rock concerts, but if your in the audience wouldn't the whole drum kit basically sound like its coming from the same place anyway? I mean physically there not very far apart really and the brain dosent seem fantastic at pin pointing the exact origin of a sound, that's why tv works, even though the sound is coming from a speaker at the side it still seems like it's coming out of the actors mouths.

Also I presume a drum kit is arranged that way because it's easier to play, not because the hi hat sounds good off to the left or toms sound better spread out.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Audience perspective, because most of the people listening will be audience members. It is nice if a video is made and the panning matches. But there are also times when creative panning is called for.

I do stereo monitor mixes for tracking, and pan the drums from audience perspective. If drummers want the opposite they can turn their headphones around.

 

[Buhzie2]

This is probably the 5th poll for the same thing in 2 years.

It doesn't matter. I'm a lefty. so my "audience perspective" is most other people's "drummer's perspective". So it really doesn't matter.

The only time I would say it does matter would be if you have a video of the song. Then, you'd probably want to pan it so that it matches visually. I don't think you want people to hear a roll going from left to right on their speakers while it's going the opposite way on the screen.

I don't understand why it bothers people so much that topics get repeated. Online forums (like this one) are HUGE and topics are bound to get repeated... Despite telling people to search through posts first (which makes being involved in the board no fun at all, since it then just becomes reading a bunch of old conversations) people are always going to start old topics up again. Haha.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

What I don't understand is why this topic gets asked so often when everyone already has the answer in their hands themselves. There's not a person on here who doesn't have their own fairly extensive list of commercially-released songs that they listen to themselves, whether on vinyl, CD or MP3.

If you want to know how everybody pans their drums, just listen to the music.

G.

 

[RAMI]

I don't understand why it bothers people so much that topics get repeated. Online forums (like this one) are HUGE and topics are bound to get repeated... Despite telling people to search through posts first (which makes being involved in the board no fun at all, since it then just becomes reading a bunch of old conversations) people are always going to start old topics up again. Haha.

Well, besides the fact that it's a pretty stupid question (just pan the damn things!), who said it bothered them? I pointed out that it's been asked over and over again.....and then I went on to discuss the subject and give my opinion on it. Hardly the actions of someone who's "bothered" by anything.

Like Glen says, it's pretty simple:

If you want to know how everybody pans their drums, just listen to the music.

Not rocket surgery.

 

[RAMI]

...Hehe...the related threads are killing me.

 

[miroslav]

Too bad we can't also pan them vertically...kick on the bottom, and everything else stacked on top according to size and pitch...

...then these threads would be really interesting!

My situation is like RAMI's...because my main drummer plays lefty, the way I pan them...
...they end up being BOTH perspectives!
They are "drummer's perspective" to my drummer, with the Hats to HIS right...but it also ends up being audience perspective (AFA the way most people hear most kits), with the Hats also to THEIR right.

Soooooooooooo....the solution is to always use a lefty drummer (secretly...you don't want everyone to know ), and there would never be a reason to consider which way to pan them.

 

[grimtraveller]

just pan the damn things !

Some people pan 'em this way
Some people pan 'em that
Some people hype the floor tom
Some people hype the hat
Some people stick 'em central
Some people pan 'em hard
Some folkies don't use drums at all
And I'm stumped for that 8th line.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

...while rockers bang until you're jarred.

Not great I know, but it would have been easier if you used "wide" instead of "hard"

G.

 

[guitaristic]

Everything all the way to the left is pretty awesome. I keep the high-hat all the way to the right though.

 

[grimtraveller]

Drums get panned all over the spectrum..........if you listen to the stuff I listen to. I was listening to a song (by a band called Agape) yesterday that had the bass drum left and the snare drum right. I noticed it because it's come up as a topic a few times recently. But in all the years I'd heard it before, I'd never consciously noticed. It sounded pretty neat.