KVR Audio

Orbitutle · Post by **Orbitutle** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 1:50 pm

From other forums I've been told that panning is an essential part of making music.
However I've never used panning in my tracks, only some stereo widener on some channals.
My musical genres are mostly trance and chill-out.

Can anyone give me some examples how they use panning? And especially if they compose in similar genres to the ones I do...

Would be a great help

Thanks....

torhan · Post by **torhan** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 1:54 pm

Well, I do mostly electronic stuff, but the same principle applies to most styles. You want to give each sound it's own "space." For instance, bass gtr and pads are usually centered; perhaps use an arp that bounces around the stereo field; maybe put some comping chords 33% left and a complementary but rhythmically different sound 33% right.

This can help to keep your track sounding clear--being able to pick out each track separately, etc.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 1:55 pm

tune of mine

if you listen here,some of the pads slowly ebb from side to side,its nice for that in chilled stuff,also say you have a few pads of similar freq,its a bit easier to eq them if you seperate them in the stereo field also

damn

i sound like i know what im talkin about

mystahr · Post by **mystahr** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:00 pm

Unbalancing the stereo can provide for a more natural feel of the elements and also how they move through time in the stereo-field.

Someone once said who made hard trance that it didn't really matter if you panned, as when it would be played at a club you wouldn't hear the effect of that anymore

Just like a face is not made of two equal halves so is sound in nature itself, it rarely comes from an ultimate centered point.

CypherOne · Post by **CypherOne** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:04 pm

I mostly use panning when looking for gold in rivers.

jdg · Post by **jdg** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:04 pm

when making 'normal' music. i use panning as a mix tool.

so if my synth and guitar are making the mix muddy, i seperate them in the stereo field to solve the prob.

Phaedo · Post by **Phaedo** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:08 pm

Some panning is pretty much essential in order to give the stereo enhancer something to work with...

...that said, panning lead vocals, bass guitar and kick are out and out stupid. Everything else, pan them, but sparingly and tastefully. Applying the old reverb maxim of get it so that you can just hear it, then turn it down a bit, is often sensible.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:45 pm

One of things, if you use panning to good effect, you like won't any kind of stereo enhancer. It really as useful way of livening up a recording.

Much like others have said, panning should be used to give better placement of sound, to present the illusion of 3-dimensional perception. We naturally hear in three dimensions, able to cognitively discern sound placement and distance of source, so panning is used to work with how we hear, and not exhaust the ear. A good comparison would be over-compressed sound, which if every sound is too loud, the ear just gives up with out variety. So if every thin is panned dead centre, then it'll just sound flat, somewhat lifeless, the ear is not drawn in.

I prefer to figure out panning as I'm creating the track, allowing a sound's stereo position to be part of its character. But I also like to do mixing as I'm writing, mostly because I deal only with elctronic/synthesized sounds. It takes a while to figure where each sound best fits together.

A few good excercises would be to imagine each sound coming from different parts of a stage, to figure where each voice is coming from, then pan accordingly. Or try panning each sound all over the place until you like what you hear. I don't beleive there are hard fast rules, like don't pan vocals or drums. But with those sounds pan carefully if at all. Don't put your voice hard left for instance, but 5% over might have an excellent effect.

Panning is one of the mixing techniques that is emulative of the real world, which can apply to exclusively electronic music as well, but with abstract sounds, you have a fair bit of license. I've heard some fairly extreme panning effects used well, for the simple reason that they aren't the way natural sounds behave.

Cheers,
Steve

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:16 pm

I just thought of a good example of bad panning. I have an old jazz album, on which the trumpet is panned hard right and the saxophone is panned hard left. It sounds okay on speakers in a room, but listen to it on headphones or in a enclosed space like a car, and it just sounds awful. Wears you out.

It was supposed to be like a conversation between the trumpet anf the sax, sort challenge/response, but man, on headphones, it justs makes you want to fall over and die.

Cheers,
Steve

Phaedo · Post by **Phaedo** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:33 pm

Yeah, a lot of old recordings behave like that. There are blues recordings with voice on one channel, guitar on the other. The whole stereo field thing wasn't much of a concept, it would appear.

Orbitutle · Post by **Orbitutle** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:23 pm

Thanks for all the good replies. Thats what I love about KVR forum.

I understand it quite good now, and Im looking forward to use it in my mixes. They are pretty clear as they are already, but I might me em even better.

Just so I don't mess up:

No (or very little) panning on Drums and Bass, and they just be creative with the rest?

If ya'll wanna hear my tunes, check em out at
www.lauge.mymusic.dk (press the monitor button to stream, at the right of teach track)

ew · Post by ew » Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:32 pm

As far as active panning of drums and bass during the course of the tune,yeah-you're right.With drums,it's helpful to set up a soundfield that's +/-25% from center to give an accurate spacial idea of the drums(even though panning cymbals can be a nice touch

).
Don't get overcreative with the rest,either;unless you want to induce motion sickness in the listener

ew

smoktindadome · Post by **smoktindadome** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:22 pm

I use panning for punchy bass lines. I put an lfo on the pan for evey step and lfo shape is square. it goes from speaker to speaker and gives the bass width and punch. I feel like im speed bagging my ears.

try it,

joe

pHz · Post by **pHz** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:27 pm

you can also play tricks with this ...

... usually i (like a lot of other in this thread) keep drums and bass centre and then pan other stuff around them ...

... but listen to cypherones current track in the cafe and he does the opposite to great (IMHO) effect - he switches the 'lead' sound to the centre and then the percussion pans around it

there are NO hard and fast rules ...

slainte

rob

smoktindadome · Post by **smoktindadome** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:30 pm

I got into panning my snares for a while using the ambizone by voxengo it created some intersting results because the beat would fall in and out. Althoug its not professionally regaurded as good mixing, who cares most professional pop is masterd well but garbage on the inside. much like a milk dud.

joe

How do you use panning??