Panning drums and guitars

I honestly dont consider the drum's panning when I decide the other instrument panning with the lone consideration of I typically won't have the drums the furthest thing panned out in my final overall mix.
I only consider vocals and other melody- rhythm multi frequency related ones for the reason of getting the competing frequencies and energy out of each others way and making sure the featured instrument (or vocal) has enough space around it.
 
Congratulations on asking the 'stupid question of the day'! Only kidding, but there is no right answer to that. It's like asking 'if I order McNuggets, should I get a shake or a coke?'

You pan any instruments to give them a 'place' in the mix, and where that is is entirely dependent on what you want for an overall sound and 'feel'.
 
For a standard two-guitar rock song, you'd probably want to pan the rhythms hard left and right, while keeping the extremities of the drum panning inside those limits.
 
Beat Poet said:
For a standard two-guitar rock song, you'd probably want to pan the rhythms hard left and right, while keeping the extremities of the drum panning inside those limits.
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I generally put a stereo reverb on the guitars via a send and then I'll pan those hard left and right. In my mind, even with your rhythm and lead tracks you still want them mostly centered, using a reverb like that though can really help fill the void and thicken up the sound. I don't recall really ever hearing a song with a hard panned lead, they're always somewhere near the middle.

I always think of mixing like trying to fill a cube. You have your depth (length or how far back something sounds), distance (width/pan distance), and volume (height). You need to fill it on every side, other wise it's not perfect.

But again, the name of the game is experimentation. No song is going to be the same, and each song is going to have it's own needs.
 
mjbphotos said:
Congratulations on asking the 'stupid question of the day'! Only kidding,
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Actually, it's not that stupid a question. And while, of course, the answer is "it depends on the song", for those new to mixing, it can serve as a useful starting point guide, especially for those that pan two of their toms at 10 and 2 o'clock, but that don't want their guitars hard panned.
Also, the OP was asking us where we would pan the guitars if the toms were in that particular position so it's not a stupid question at all.
 
Ok,its not a stupid question - he just didn't mention the bass drum is panned hard left, the bass guitar is hard right and he's recording 2 classical guitars that are fingerpicked! Infinite variables = infinite choices! :rolleyes:
 
Wherever they sound good. I often like hard left and right panning for guitars or none at all, but there are no rules and they can wind up anywhere. It all comes down to taste and practice.
 
This is totally up to you. I personally tend to hard pan doubled guitar parts. But if the parts are different then I might go with a whole different approach to the panning.

G
 
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