Guitar Panning for Final Mix

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I like to pan my guitar to 4:53. O'clock.

AM or PM?




G.

 

[miroslav]

Personally I *never* reference pan knob position when I talk about pan amount...


... Frankly I never even thought of it as any other way. But apparently others might, I guess; which - just like when talking about decibels - makes it important to specify the unit of measurement one is using.

Like I mentioned...knob position does get talked about when say, discussing a particular amp (or other gear)...
...and you say, "I like to set the Volume at 1:00, Treble at 10:00 and Bass at 12:00"....etc, and others with same amp/gear will know which setting you are talking about...
...so because of that usage, yeah, when it comes to the pan knob, sometimes for my own purpose, for my own console...
...I may take note of the actual *knob* position, though I’m always also aware of where I'm hearing it in the sound field. In the "fanning out" example I gave earlier...I was actually thinking of my console's pan knob position.
But I knew what I meant to say!

But yes, when telling someone where to pan in the stereo field using clock/degrees/percentage...we are talking about the position we hear, not their/your knob position.

 

[miroslav]

I like to pan my guitar to 4:53. O'clock.

AM or PM?



G.

What time zone?

 

[miroslav]

Noting and agreeing that most of our discussion here is about splitting hairs and this is just for fun...
...on the way home I thought of another twist to add to it.

The part about a 180° sound stage…only translates to headphones or when standing directly in-between speakers. When we use monitors...we are actually sitting within a 60° degree range --Left to Right-- of the equilateral triangle mix position.

So while panning 180° IS hard right...it doesn't quite sound 180° through monitors from the mix position.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Noting and agreeing that most of our discussion here is about splitting hairs and this is just for fun...
...on the way home I thought of another twist to add to it.

The part about a 180° sound stage…only translates to headphones or when standing directly in-between speakers. When we use monitors...we are actually sitting within a 60° degree range --Left to Right-- of the equilateral triangle mix position.

So while panning 180° IS hard right...it doesn't quite sound 180° through monitors from the mix position.

The same weakness happens with the clock position, too. In fact, if you really wanted to split hairs even further, the clock position is really applicable to headphones instead of monitors, since the headphone "space" treats mono as 12:00 high, at the top of the head. Really the most sensible way is percentage.

Even worse, when working with the younger bands, is they have no idea what "turn it clockwise to about 2:00" actually means. They have no idea what "clockwise" actually means or how 2:00 can actually relate to a direction. They only have experience with digital clocks.

The absolutely worst thing about using clock numbers, though, which is a major pain in the ass IMHO, is that all mixes I have worked on this past season will automatically shift an hour to the right at about 2AM this Sunday, and stay that way until November. Now I know why Pipeline set up his studio in Arizona.





G.

 

[miroslav]

the absolutely worst thing about using clock numbers, though, which is a major pain in the ass imho, is that all mixes i have worked on this past season will automatically shift an hour to the right at about 2am this sunday, and stay that way until november. now i know why pipeline set up his studio in arizona.

Then just wait until October to listen to them....