How should I pan the bass guitar?

[laptoppop]

I was checking out a CD mixed by another guy, in which several people were reporting "the bass is missing". The bass guitar sounded fine through some systems, but not others.

When I checked out one of the songs, I found the bass had been panned to the exact center. If I flipped the phase of either the right or left channel, the bass signal disappeared. (as would be expected)

I strongly suspect that the systems where they aren't hearing the bass guitar have their speakers wired out of phase. *BUT* here's my question:

This would seem to be a common error in consumer homes. I've read that I should put the bass in the center to optimize to get the best speaker response as possible -- but with this result, I'm tempted to put NOTHING in the exact center, but put everything offset at least a bit from the center to be more forgiving on a wider number of systems.

What's common practice?

Thanks,
-lee-

 

[Emeric]

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65219

 

[Track Rat]

Lee, things panned to the center would only dissappear if the left side information was 180 degrees out of phase with the right side information when collapsed to mono. We can mix to make songs compatible to as many systems as possible but we can't compensate for consumer stupidity.

 

[sjjohnston]

So far as I know, "Track Rat" is right: whatever compromises people customarily make in recording / mixing / mastering to ensure compatibility (e.g. mono compatibility), this isn't one of them. Look at it this way, though: if you pan everything to the center, you're actually providing a service to the clumsy consumer, because you're allowing him to figure out that he's reversed the polarity on one of his speakers. Well, it's a thought. A few other thoughts:

Making sure everything is panned at least a tad off of center doesn't eliminate the problem, and probably only modestly diminishes it. Until you do some fairly obvious panning, there isn't that huge a difference in the relative levels of the left and right channels. I guess the solution would be to pan everything either all the way left or all the way right. That would be interesting.

The extent and nature of the "cancellation" effect from reversing polarity on one speaker is frequency-dependent (consistent with the original focus on losing bass). Look at it this way: unless you're exactly the same distance from both speakers (which may require having only one ear), two identical signal are out of phase anyway. Actually, you're really used to that, and it's part of the whole subconscious process of locating a sound by comparing the relative phase between your two ears, and as you turn or move your head. The lower the frequency -> the longer the wavelength (obviously) -> the more "in-phase" the signals will be -> the more they'll vanish if their polarity is inverted. Also, the less able you are to locate the sound.

 

[laptoppop]

Thank you for your responses, especially for reminding me why low frequency signal would cancel more effectively than high frequency signals.

Interestingly, the album in question cancels out the base very effectively when the speakers are out of phase. I'm guessing that part of the reason is that the bass was DI'd into the mixing board, and probably doesn't have many low mid overtones in there to give the appearance of bass if its missing. Seems like an acoustically mic'd bass might have a better/truer sound that could withstand the speaker error better.

Also it would be an interesting experiment to track the bass in stereo using two mics in an XY config. That way, you might get the center positioning, but maybe less cancellation. Or, if you have a good room, maybe one mic about a foot from the cabinet and another about 4-6 feet away or so.

Just some crazy thoughts. Thanks again!
-lee-