mic panning

[cubanorocker316]

hello i was wondering, wehn panning your drums, the left tom would be panned left and the right would be panned right, where do you pan the floor tom, and the kick and the snare and the overheads ?

sorry to ask such a stupid question but i am new to all this
any advice is greatly appreciated !!

 

[JazzMasterWil]

Personally I would......

pan the first tom and left over head left

pan the floor tom and right over head right

and I would keep the middle tom, kick, and snare "centered".

 

[TuoKaerf]

I woulden't even pan until you have all of your levels set. Panning is the last thing I do when mixing.

There isn't a "set" spot for things to go, but there are many popular areas for drums-

Snare-usually down the middle, I tend to slightly offset it left or right a tad to keep the main vocal track (If i have them going down center, especially with a female vocalist) from fighting with it.

Kick-Middle

Toms-at about 10 o'clock for the highest, and go from there with the rest.

Hats-slightly to the right or left, just past the snare

Overheads-I really don't like to go totally hard left and right with them, I would rather fill that area up with some effect returns, but they are pretty far out there.

Don't solo tracks when panning. Slowly adjust the panner until you hear the instrument "pop" into place. It also helps to check the mix in mono to see if anything disappears. If it does, you can fix a lot of that by adjusting your panning.

 

[Juggernaut]

Um.. question, am I the only one who pans drums to the listener's perspective? ie low tom to the left, mid tom to the center, and high tom to the right? Also I usually put the ride to the left and crash on the right, with other effect somewhere in between.

 

[TuoKaerf]

It comes down to preference. If you like your entire kit hard panned to the left, go for it.

Cuban-

Listen to some songs in a genre that you know very well, or in the genre of the songs you are mixing. Try to replicate the reference material's panning. Do it again with another song a few more times. Then try doing it the way you want to do it.

 

[jkokura]

sit 20 feet from a drum kit and listen to where every piece hits your ears...if you listen VERY carefully you'll hear it...Close your eyes and focus on one piece at a time - listen to the high tom and then point your arm out where you feel it's best represented in the 180 degree horizontal plane in front of you... then get out a pencil and paper and draw it in...do this for each element and you'll get a 3D picture of the drum kit...

The object of mixing drums is to help transmit what the drummer's doing to the audience. If all the drums are hard panned or centered than it may not sound natural at all...

Try to match your panning to the sound you get when you sit and listen with your ears closed

Jacob

Ps...sometimes you shouldn't pan at all! Listen to old jazz records and you'll hear the Drums all on the left, the piano all on the right and the Bass all in the middle, and the vocals there too...It can create a special mood...try it with the bridge or the intro of a song...seperate it all like that and then all of the sudden have it pan into a normal panning picture...

 

[reshp1]

Make sure everything is consistent with how you've got your overheads panned. I.E. Don't pan your snare left if it sounds center or right in the overhead tracks.

 

[seryozha]

Um.. question, am I the only one who pans drums to the listener's perspective? ie low tom to the left, mid tom to the center, and high tom to the right? Also I usually put the ride to the left and crash on the right, with other effect somewhere in between.

Well, I put the Highest tom coming out the right speaker. Is that what you mean?

I think its more logical because you arent listening behind the drummer, your listening infront of the drummer.

 

[AGCurry]

I find it interesting that most of us pan drums according to how they're physically arranged. This makes sense in terms of preserving the spatial relationships of the pieces, but consider that drums are laid out so that the drummer can play them, not for reasons of sound...

I tend to be pretty conservative in panning drums. I will pan the OHs a little, equidistant from center, with snare a little to one side, kick up the middle.

 

[MadAudio]

Well, I put the Highest tom coming out the right speaker. Is that what you mean?

I think its more logical because you arent listening behind the drummer, your listening infront of the drummer.

I think it's a matter of personal preference. Being a drummer, I tend to mix from drummer's perspective. No one has ever said, "Those drums sound weird to me, man."