Panning Four Tracks

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get2sammyb

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Simple one - I have a four track song and am not sure on the best way to pan it.

The four tracks are: guitar, vocals, bass and drums.

Thanks in advance.
 
There are no rules, but I would start with bass in the center, gtr panned midway to one side, drums panned slightly off-center and vocals panned off-center (opposite the drums.)

Play with that and see if it sits well...
 
It depends on the style of music but I would probably keep them all panned center and add a touch of stereo reverb and delay as needed.
 
Its pop-punk. Quite bright guitars, fast drums, high pitch vocals and the bass is used to add warmth to the guitars.
 
bass and drum slightly off center, guitar and vocals left-right overall stereo verb?
 
so you mean like... the guitar ALL on one side. Vocals all on one side.

And the drums and bass going say 10% on opposite sides?
 
i wouldn't pan completely left and right but why don't you try and listen?
 
Yeah I have - sounds quite good... Thanks for your help.
 
If you can get ahold of a simple delay effect, try putting the guitar all in one side, but the delay (one tap, no reverb, 30ms delay) of the guitar in the other side. Keep drums, bass, and vocals in the centre.

I used to record bands with a 4 track and I would often record:

1- guitar1
2- guitar2 (play the same thing again)
3- bass
4- drums

Then mix down to a cassette (or now a computer would probably be WAY better) so that the instruments are mixed down to two tracks as:

Guitar1 - Left
Guitar2 - Right
Bass - Centre
Drums - Centre

Then overdub vocals onto the remaining two tracks so the next bounce looked like:

1- Left channel band mix (panned all the way left)
2- Right channel band mix (panned all the way right)
3- Lead vocal (panned 15% left)
4- Backing or doubled vocal (panned 15% right)

It sounded a lot better than the simple 4 tracking with one guitar. It's totally a safe way to mix a track because no matter where you're listening to it, it's going to sound fairly decent. If you hard pan instruments, they may get lost if the person is listening to the music through a mono system (like some bar PA's).
 
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