drums in centre or otherwise?

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kartikbala

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I've noticed that most recordings nowadays have the drums (ie kick and snare) in the centre with the other elements panned accordingly.

Something I noticed in The Beatles' recordings was that the drums are usually panned either left or right. Some examples are Day Tripper, Good Day Sunshine, and Magical Mystery Tour.

Somehow the panning of drums to left/right is quite an interesting thing. Seems to make the vocals more prominent. What are your opinions?

KB
 
I much prefer them in the centre. As far as I remember the panning on those Beatles records was due to limitations of their technology rather than artistic choice. I hope that's what it was.
 
In the days of old, stereo was a new thing and folks just didn't know what to do with it so there was a lot of experimentation. Panning drums left, right or center is neither right or wrong, it's a matter of taste but what mixing was evolved to are certain "standards" of conventional wisdom. The anchor of most pop type tunes is the drums and bass. These are usually panned to the center. If you listen to newer recordings it seems that most everything is centered with stereo treatment is giving individual instruments verying degrees of "width" with either stereo mic'ing or double tracking or time based effects.
 
imagine a big club where the bass only comes from one side :D :D :D
 
If you do pan your drums hard to the side, be careful nobody that listens to your CD has like only one speaker working (Ive seen it before, dont laugh) and comes back and says "Hey I like the song, but ya know what would be cool is if you put some drums in there."
 
I like drums that have the kick, snare, hats and maybe cymbals straight up. The toms I like to have panned left to right in order. The cymbals can be panned slightly, but I like to keep em as mono as possible.

Mikey
 
your lead vocals, bass, bass drum and snare should really be in the centre unless you're got an artistic production idea. the kick drum should definitley be in the middle really because it's a very important rhythmic element in most cases and it can sound confusing when it is panned somewhere else. same with snare really. vocals are the usually the centre of attention and should relaly be in the centre. however, there are sometimes where you might wanna go out of the ordinary.
 
The traditional kick, snare, bass, vocals down the centre has probably gained so much acceptance that anything out of this norm probably seems highly weird. But having said that, the old Beatles' records, even tho they go against this 'norm' sound really good. I guess the overall production and mastering has outweighed this issue of panning instruments in the mix.
 
Yeah, its interesting that all those old sixties recordings where the drums and bass are at one side and the guitars on the other still sound so good. Just listen to Stevie Wonders "For once in my life".

I Myself have kick drum and snare in the middle. Hi hats usually panned a bit off, sometimes more than one track panned against each other like every other beat to each side.
The symbals I like to pan so that they start to one side and and the tail goes over towards the other.
 
I'm with struberg

imagine a vynil with a big phat kick drum panned hard right (or left) : your stylus would just go MAAAAD !!!

:-)
 
i don't know anything, but i only use 4 tracks for drums, overheads panned hard left and right, kick slightly to the left, snare in the middle or slightly to the right, and bass slightly to the right, for more separation between it and the kick. vocals are in the middle most of the times, but not always.
i also do the straight in the middle thing, just whatever sounds better for the tune in hand. but as i said, i don't know anything.;)

adriano
 
can i ask why you move the kick drum to the left?

do you adjust your overheads aswell so your kick is slightly left?
 
i use four mics, overheads, snare, kick.
of course the kick and snare are present in the overheads, and that's my main drum sound. after i add the kick mic, i pan it slightly to the left, so it will make it easier to set it a bit apart from bassguitar. when eq-ing i usually cut one frequency on the kick and boost the same freq on the bass, just to make sure they're occuping different places, and i do a little low cut on the overheads. it might not make such a big difference all the time, and sometimes i may run into phase problems if i'm not careful during tracking, but that's the way i like it, stupíd or not, and you can always go for the straight in the middle approach.;)

adriano
 
Personally, I like to visualize the stage, and mix accordingly.
 
"The anchor of most pop type tunes is the drums and bass. These are usually panned to the center."

Okay, so I'm working on a song that consists of drums, bass and vocals. That's it. Everything up the middle?

Nah.....
 
on a mix like that(Dobro), id use time based effects (delays,reverbs,choruses) to make stuff bigger to help fill it up...much like youd thin up instruments in a sparse mix.....

id really try to make that a BIG vocal.....maybe split the bass into 2 tracks with a little delay and pan them hard left and right.....

just an idea from a newbie......
 
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