Panning Q's

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Nightfire

Nightfire

Aspiring Idiot
I used to think that everything was just panned centre, but I hear a lot of ppl asking for advice on more or less panning. How do you usually pan guitars, drums, bass?
Vocals are center I am assuming, but how about guitars? and drums?


Thanks,
Mike
 
I first make the mix sound good in mono. Bring all faders to unity gain (+0db), and do any re-tracking or EQ adjustments I need to make it sound good in mono.

Once that's done, I notice when switching over to stereo and panning, etc. the mix will sound much clearer and "open". This is how I do it though, doesn't mean you have to.

As to where you pan something, that's a matter of taste and a matter of what sounds best for the song.

Bass is usually center (or a little off-center to give room to the kick drum)

Drums are usually panned center (with the toms or whatever off to either L or R)

Guitars are usually panned left/right. In a busy mix, they are usually hard-panned or close to it. In a sparse mix, they can be left closer to the center.

Vocals are usually panned center or maybe off just a little bit. And sometimes doubled-up with one in the center, and another off to the side.

It's really a matter of taste though. There are no rules, and there are certainly a lot of songs that don't go by what I suggested.
 
...

heavy panning and stereo effects can be totally cool.. but personally i find them distracting a lot of the time. it's like something nagging at me that i cant quite put my finger on. if i use a stereo leslie emulator or similar effect i find that it sounds better if i can find the right pocket in the mix for it. i would rather have the panned or stereo stuff a bit too low than too high, especially since panning really just seems to make stuff jump out at my ears.

i also use a lot of layered tracks. i start with drums, bass, 2 rhythm guitars with diff tones and patterns, muted picking on a guitar along with the bassline, piano, hammond organ and horns (tenor and alot sax at the moment).

thats just the foundation most of the time. so the stuff that is similar, like piano and organ or the 2 different guitars i tend to pan as it makes sense.

depending on how much melody and harmony you end up having you can decide how to pan so the song makes sense to your ear. the more you add the more your ears have to process to pick out specific sounds from the mix. stereo seems to make that a lot easier to do after a certain point.

one helpfull thing.. try thinking of live shows that sounded great to you.

a lot of stage shows setup drums dead center, bass cab right next to drums, one guitar on each side, one keys or whatever on each side. and in the front.. the lead singer is in the middle and the back ups are on either side (usually the backup is the bass player or whoever.. heh).

so i kinda set it up like that and then use my ears to decide how far to pan, usually i play it safe and go maybe 25-50 either way.

im trying to use the stereo field more, but not use it too much if possible.
 
Thanks so much for the help.
With the risk of looking like a total fool, how exactly do you record in stereo and how do you record in mono. I understand recording in Mono means on channel only, and stereo means 2. If I used a mixer to pc line in, is that stereo or mono????? And how do you convert from mono to stereo?
I noticed danny said he records in mono first, then switches to stereo...what exactly do you mean?

THanks

Mike
 
Nightfire said:
Thanks so much for the help.
With the risk of looking like a total fool, how exactly do you record in stereo and how do you record in mono. I understand recording in Mono means on channel only, and stereo means 2. If I used a mixer to pc line in, is that stereo or mono????? And how do you convert from mono to stereo?
I noticed danny said he records in mono first, then switches to stereo...what exactly do you mean?

THanks

Mike
Click to expand...

If you record something with one mic, then in most cases, you should record that track in mono. A single mic produces a mono recording. If you're recording with 2 mics at once, then you can record a single stereo track, or 2 separate mono tracks and then mix them to taste.

I don't usually record things with 2 mics (except occasionally acoustic guitar). I start off mixing in MONO. Meaning, after all my tracks are recorded, I click the "mono" button in Reaper on the master track. That makes it so everything coming out of the speakers is in mono. The point is to make it sound good in mono. This will help ensure that things will sound good on systems with bad separation (small boomboxes, some car systems, etc.).

Once things sound good in mono, I unclick the mono button and work in stereo by panning things and adjusting levels/adding reverb, etc. But I always make sure it doesn't sound like crap in mono.
 
An example of something you'd frequently record in stereo is synths. Most decend keyboards have Left and Right outs, allowing you to record them in stereo. A lot of complex synth sounds will have some some subtle autopanning going on, and perhaps stereo echo/reverb. I've read that some engineers prefer to only take one channel from a synth, though, and do their own processing. Given my personal skill level, I don't think I'd gain much from doing that, so I record keyboards in stereo.
 
A rule with stereo: don't try too hard with this. Keep it simple and that usually means mono. Also note that mono can be panned from left to right, that doesn;t make it stereo it makes it one signal louder in one speaker than the other. Stereo mean two different signals from the same source each normaly fully panned to its side- they combine for the stereo effect, and potentially have phase issues as well.

Most recording in stereo will be two mics in a stereo configuration (X/Y or spaced or several others) on a source that makes sense to be in stereo. a single singer is not usualy a stereo source but a choir would be, either is a guitar cab. A drumset however makes sense to record in in stereo, so the hats are on one side, the cymbals are paced around the soundfield and the toms move from one side to the other in a roll, acoustic guitar can go either way, as an instrument it vibrates along the wholle length so it makes sense to get a two-mic stereo recording, but sometimes you get a better (as good, jstu fine, whatever) recording from a single mic.

daav
 
Thanks so much! Everything makes more sense now. However, I have on question left. If I record my guitar with 2 mics, through my mixer, into my comp is that still stereo? They wont be on separate channels (on the mixer yes, but there is only one line into the comp) in Mixcraft so Im assuming thats still mono?
To achieve stereo, could I just "copy and paste" one track, then pan on hard left and one hard right?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Nightfire said:
To achieve stereo, could I just "copy and paste" one track, then pan on hard left and one hard right?
Click to expand...


If the end result is that the exact same sound is coming out of both left and right channels, then you've just done a lot of work to achieve mono. Now, if you were to split them like this, and put some chorus or other effect on only one side, you're starting to do something creative, and maybe productive (your ears will tell you which).
 
A mono track panned dead-center is the same as 2 mono tracks each panned 100% left and 100% right. Unless, like LfO said, you run the track(s) through some kind of stereo effect.

A "true" stereo recording is when the left and right channels are different.

For example, using 2 guitar amps, with a mic on each one recorded to stereo. Or even using one amp with a mic close to the speaker, and maybe a "room" mic further back.

Or 2 mics on an acoustic guitar...one pointed closer to the body and another closer to the headstock.
 
Nightfire said:
Thanks so much! Everything makes more sense now. However, I have on question left. If I record my guitar with 2 mics, through my mixer, into my comp is that still stereo? They wont be on separate channels (on the mixer yes, but there is only one line into the comp) in Mixcraft so Im assuming thats still mono?
To achieve stereo, could I just "copy and paste" one track, then pan on hard left and one hard right?

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...

time to get a new interface if you only ahve a single input for recording.
What are you using? The difference between a stock soundcard and a real interface is night and day. Well workth investing a few $$ into.
Daav
 
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