Panning Beats?

[Flip]

In a feeble attempt to make my beats sound better i always try to use some panning, but it generally gets fucked up bigtime...
So I was wondering how you do it, which instruments do you pan? how much? and do you change the panning during the song?

 

[questien]

I usually try to pan the snare just a lil to the right, but still in the middle. The HH usually to the left but still in the middle. The main melody sits in the middle as well as the bassline, however filler instruments and sound effects i pan to the left or right.

 

[Teacher]

the main melody i usually pan hard left and hard right...this gives space for the vocal to cut thru as well as giving the entire track a 'wider' feel...thats pretty much all the pannin i do unless its a weird efx that comes in once and a while i'll pan have it panning left to right(automation)...hi hat pannin is interesting too..just started getting into that...

 

[beat amateur]

Could you be more specific about what 'fucked up' means? It just doesn't sound good? I'm quite a novice, but find myself using a new panning setup for each track. Some things obviously work better than others, of course...

 

[eeldip]

you should try that timbaland thing and pan some shakers hard, alternating LR on 16th and 32nd notes.

generally panning kick and snare sounds a little weird. but it can be done. if you do it, you are going to make your beats sound "experimental".

sending little plinky things left and right is pretty normal though if you want to make mainstream beats.

some other thoughts:

leave an instrument in the center, but pan the reverb or other effect.

ping pong delay, or auto pans are also cool.

playing with phase and panning is dangerous ground, but usually yeilds some cool effects- like put a 2 delays on a snare, with slightly different timing, both 180 out of phase from one another. dangerous cause if people listen to the music in mono all sorts of strange things happen.

 

[L'espion Noir]

the Black Spy Schematics

i like panning (when i do) by the pitch

like the bass and the kick at 2 and 10 o'clock

i usually use a combo of snares (lil secret, pay me later)
- the main snare 12 noon
- and the other two not further than 9 and 3 o'clock

i might couple the high hat with a string and pan them, not hard but somewhere close to 5 and 7 o'clock

the melody always run at 12 (center)

PS: i'm combining snares because i'm using Battery which allows me to manipulate each cell (sound) separately , so i can layer sounds without OD'ing