How do you pan?

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TheWicketOne

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Hey, I'm new to this forum stuff, I was just wondering if anyone had a general guide to panning which instruments which directions. Thanks!
 
Panning for GOLD!

I like to pan similar instruments away from each other, so they will have their own place in the mix.

FOR EXAMPLE: Acoustic guitar left and Electric guitar right.
Piano left and Organ right.

I always keep bass and lead vocals center.

Drums in stereo left and right or if mono centered.

In general, try to make the mix interesting by recording instrmental solos in stereo, maybe with delay panned hard left or right.

You can double a guitar part or vocal, and pan it to the other side for a cool effect.

:cool: Dom :cool:
 
There's no guide. Just use your ears and go with what you like. Put on your headphones and listen to some of your favorite CDs.

Believe me -- nothing (most nothing) your'e hearing is original when it comes to panning, so you won't be stealing anything.

Bodhisan
 
if you are micing a real drum kit, pan the kick and snare center....overheads hard left and hard right....

if you are using drum samples dont go overboard with panning.....kick and snare center...hi hat a little off to one side....ride a little off to the other side....toms maybe 10:00,2:00, and 4:00 ( or 2,4, and 6)

bass and lead vocals and lead instruments center

background vocals in stereo hard left and right......

rhythm instruments wherever they feel good....2 guitars hard left and right.....

a guitar a little left and a keyboard a little right......

really it depends on the style of music you are doing and the arrangement and what sound you are going after.....

pick up The Art Of Mixing by David Gibson and youll get alot of ideas.......
 
If I am recording a real band in a live situation, many times I just pan to where the amps and instruments are physically located on the stage. I try to re-create the physical stage in my recording. If the guitar amp is resting on the right hand side of the stage, I pan it right. This obviously won't work if the stage setup is rediculous, but it usually works. It is very important indeed to pan similar sounding instruments away from each other. I just recorded a band live that had 3 full time percussion players. The drum kit had to be panned right a bit to make the rest of the percussion audible on the left. It's all about making the sound interesting and letting every instrument be heard.
 
I found that you can get interesting results by bouncing identical tracks and panning in opposite directions. Using different reverb/delay variations on each track you can add a bit of depth to your recording by giving the illusion that the sound is actually traveling through the open space between your speakers.
 
I think panning is down to the musical style and personal taste, but my main use for it is in creating depth with double tracked distorted (or clean) guitars; just record the same part twice (don't just copy the first recorded track as this may cause a chorus like sound which may or may not be desired) and then pan each track to the far left and far right of the stereo image.

When recording drums (particularly drummers with large kits) it is also could to spread the recorded drums over the stereo image - this creates a really dynamic sound when a drummer with 8 toms does a roll down the drums and it goes from left to right. Remember to keep the snare center though and hi-hat near center.
 
Have you ever heard the panning on some of the Beatles stuff. OUTRAGEOUS!!! Lead vocal panned hard left, everything else hard right...if one of your speakers is not working you get no lead vocals. Not something that most people would do, especially today, but THEY ARE CLASSICS!!! Still sound as fresh today as the day they were tracked!!!
 
hmmm...Drums: North, Vocals: East...

Hey! no rules here...

Indeed, listen to The Beatles and you will see...

I sometimes play with phase invertions, I put a vocal track hard right and then copy it and reverse phase and pan it hard left... if you are between the two speakers, its a great effect (but no good for what may be a mono mix later).

Also try for example to record your guitar in 2 tracks, one "DIboxed" and the other with a mic. Pan one Hard L and the other hard R. Or double your guitar tracks (don't copy them, play them twice, slight variations or imperfections makes it more interesting, or try to play one track with one distortion and the other with a different one, or play open chords in 1 of them...)

If you like, try to pan the drums as you will hear them in a room, don't "overpan" unless you really want to.

Try to have the mix with a sonic balance in the final soundscape (unless you are onto Beatles stuff!) not leaving too much on one side and too little on the other...

Useful tip: Due to our Occidental nature, we seem to give a little more importance to what we hear from the left (It's not bullsh*t)
That's because we are used to read and see from left to right, so hearing has the same procedure. If two sounds are transmitted at the same intensity, at the same time, from two separate sources (speakers) you will probably hear first or a little more the one coming from the left.

So, you can pan solos or things you wanna hear a bit more "prominent" slightly left. no need to raise your volume up too much!

Peace...

PC

NB: Gidge!!! What happened to your guitar avatar?!!

It was a classic! I could tell the post was interesting at a first glance...lol

Will have to get used to beavis and Butthead.

Cheers...
 
If the Beatle's screwed up panning experiments are whats considered fresh, consider me a non-fan of "fresh" :D

The songs are classic..Yes... but... the mix and panning were downright annoying in my opinion..
 
Queen and Steely Dan both also did this sort of thing. usually with horns, percussion and backing vocals. When you say hard panning are you reffering to all the way or 9 o clock-3 o clock method.
 
A lot of the early Beatles recordings had real strange panning because of the earlier recording decks, such as three tracks - vocals left , other stuff right. Also Stereo was new and this added to the erratic nature of these recordings. I know - if you turn off one of the channels , you lose half the song - bizarre, but it was like this with lots of those earlier recordings, early Hendrix also. However, I honestly believe they started catching on to this new stereo technology, especially with Sgt. Peppers album. I still remember listening intently with head phones on to that album. Its definitely a panning experience to behold. #1 album of all time maybe?? But yes, panning is not so radical these days... I like most all of it (75% of soundscape) close to center.
 
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