Advice on Panning

[ancoats]

Would like to ask some advice on panning.

(I am using VST)

I am aware that rules are there to be broken of course, but I am looking for a standardised panning plan.

For instance, should the bass guitar always stay central?
What about wash chords? Drums?

What do you do?

I imagine that clever panning would ease frequency clashes, but, maybe I'm wrong? Anyway, would appreciate any comments.

[Falconmusic]

dont take this as professional advice. this is simply what i do and most of the time it works:

i will usually put only the bass i the center. everything else is either chorused (drums wash etc) or panned to the left or right. I try to fill up the entire 360 degree panning spectrum. having some all the way to the left while others are only a bit to the left. And if i have 2 instruments that might clash (a piano and a violin) i will put them on diffrent sides.

[TotcProductions]

I always find that the best way to pan out drums is to position them the way the kit is set up. For example....position yourself behind the kit...by picturing where the pieces of the kit are, you pan them out respectively.....(I.E. pan the snare to about L13...Hihats to L25-L35....Hi Tom to L10...Mid Tom to R13...Low tom to R20-25....Floor Tom anywhere from R35-45....Ride Cymbal to Hard R45-50...Kick Drums Centered....etc..etc..etc..) When it comes to Bass, I think it depends on how many mic's you use to record it....I make two identicle tracks out of the direct pickup and pan them litely opposite each other (I.E. L15 and R15) Then I center the Amp track, but use a stereo imager to Widen out thelower end (Try OtiumFX's Basslane plug for this, works wonders) Then, For guitars, I usually try to get at lease two tracks and pan them at Hard Opposites....like L50 for 1 and then R50 for others.) gives everything a very broad image, but not one that's too "un-realistic"...
Hope that helps.

Peace!

[xoxos]

nowadays people tend to put bass center for power, presence..

often i'll do songs with 'vintage' panning schemes.. rhythm section (bass, drums) to one side, guitar and voice to the other..

to prevent masking, develop synaesthesia, close your eyes, and 'see' the energy regions.. the kick drum will look like a giant wobbly marshmallow or something.. it's a famous quote by now.

[Sascha Franck]

The most basic "rule" (if there is any such thing) for panning could be:
Keep anything important centered. This includes:
- Your main melodic source (vocals for instance).
- Your main rhythmic source. Personally I allways keep the kick dead center and eventually pan the snare VERY slightly - but in case I want some serious "whack" I put it dead center too. The rest of your drums could be spread.
- Bass.
- Eventually the main harmonic part. But on this YMMV.

You could of course mix in an old-fashioned "beatles-esque" style (just as xoxos allready said) and put some groups of instruments quite out of center.
But in that case your music won't be mono-compatible anymore - and most likely it won't "pump" as much either. Of course that's not neccessarily happening to be a bad thing.

Personally I pan these things more or less a lot:
- All sort of soft "pad-ish" accompaniment stuff, such as pads, strings and what not.
- Additional rhythmic elements, such as percussion.
- Additional synths, such as maybe an arpeggiated background thingie.
- Choires.

In case I have two main harmonic instruments (for example some e-piano and a guitar), I may pan those as well.

[kara]

I always find that the best way to pan out drums is to position them the way the kit is set up. For example....position yourself behind the kit...by picturing where the pieces of the kit are, you pan them out respectively.....(I.E. pan the snare to about L13...Hihats to L25-L35....Hi Tom to L10...Mid Tom to R13...Low tom to R20-25....Floor Tom anywhere from R35-45....Ride Cymbal to Hard R45-50...Kick Drums Centered....etc..etc..etc..) When it comes to Bass, I think it depends on how many mic's you use to record it....I make two identicle tracks out of the direct pickup and pan them litely opposite each other (I.E. L15 and R15) Then I center the Amp track, but use a stereo imager to Widen out thelower end (Try OtiumFX's Basslane plug for this, works wonders) Then, For guitars, I usually try to get at lease two tracks and pan them at Hard Opposites....like L50 for 1 and then R50 for others.) gives everything a very broad image, but not one that's too "un-realistic"...
Hope that helps.

Peace!

I do agree how you layout the drums except that I would place myself "before" the drumset since this is how the audience will here the drums, it's only the drummer that is behind the drums

Rony

[kritikon]

My preferences only - not a rule by any means...

Kick and bassline centre (occasionally I might pan the kick and bass just a little diddy bit to either side though)

Pads - depends heavily on what type of pads I use. Plain pads, I'll generally pan over towards one side, or I might autopan them around. If I have 2 pads, or pads with stabs, then I'll try to pan equal amounts different sides. If I use multivoice pads from my Wavestation (upto 8 patches per pad, though I don't use that many voices normally) then I'll pan each of those voices around randomly away from the centre)

Drums - varies enormously. Mostly I try not to pan drums more than 50% to one side, so it sounds like a "kit" rather than just separate unconnected drum sounds. Often I'll have open hat and closed hat on opposite sides. Snares and toms opposite. Sometimes I'll have drums all one side, hats the other. Sometimes I'll pan drumFX equally to the other side from the drum they originate from.

Leads, melodies and soundFX I'll pan around to wherever they sit better. I tend to pan these sounds more extremely than drums.

FX I either pan hard L&R for them all, or L&R to differing amounts. Sometimes with modFX such as flangers, choruses I pan hard L&R 100% wet and leave out the dry sound completely.
I also often pan FX slightly to one side, say delay1 at 100%L/75%R and delay2 at 75%L/100%R. Or I autopan the dry sound and have the delay as an insert to follow its panning (or switch it around 100% so it pans exactly the opposite way in sync.)
Reverbs I like to use as inserts then render to audio - simply because that way I get true stereo reverb, not just hard L&R. If you don't render reverb inserts, you soon tire out your PC.
Vocals I would pan centre usually, although I rarely use any vocals at all.
Some pads, such as strings, if I'm using lots of orchestration, then I'll record as an orchestra would play - i.e lots of single notes from different patches ever-so-slightly different panning within a certain section; then different violin notes or viola notes etc, slightly different panning at a different location.
I also do this with brass - especially big dubby tracks - rather than play chords on a trumpet patch, I'll record a single note and pan. Record 2nd chord note on a trombone and pan differently;3rd chord note on a mute trumpet and pan differently etc etc etc.

And sometimes I'll disregard all of that and do it completely differently

[ancoats]

All great info thanks.

Curious on the kick and bass being dead centre though. I would have thought that they would intefere in each others frequency space?

I was inclined to pan kick and bassline slightly off centre

[LBN]

There was an issue raised in a recent Sound On Sound article about mastering that might explain the legacy reasons for bass being center. If your target media is going to be vinyl then you'll probably want your bass to be centered. Bass waveforms are very wide on vinyl and if out of phase can cause the stylus to jump the groove.

[VeXKoN]

DEPENDS ON THE GENRE!!

*But as far as the bass - kick thing... i would pan them a tad each side. there is a right-left brain hemisphere thing that plays major roles in how yer musix is viewed but of course i forgot