Mixing & Panning

[olegmcnoleg]

Been searching through the Studio topic but could not find much on panning tracks.

I am mixing a simple song in mono atm with the following tracks:

Drums
Bongos
Bass
Vocals
Double tracked vocals (chorus only)
Rhythm guitar
Solo guitar
Piano (potentially if recording works out well)

Q: Do I pan any tracks? Which ones and why?

Thanks in advance to you mixing gurus

The best advice I ever had for mixing is this:

keep it in mono ... work with the eq so that you can hear all the instruments separately & clearly. Pay particular attention to separating the bass & kick drum and anywhere in the sound spectrum where you have a lot of different instruments competing for attention. I've read that 80% of the effort in getting a good mix goes here. I think it is true, though there are those on here who do this for a living, so their advice will be better than mine.

One you are sure that you can already separate out those instruments then it is time to think about stereo imaging. There are many ways you can do that: panning, chorus, panned delays/doublers, double tracking, effects that 'widen' the signal...it is not all about panning.

Experiment with different approaches. General wisdom is to keep the Bass drum & Bass close to the centre, but you can allow the toms to each pan to a different angle, same with cymbals. I usually keep the snare in the middle also. (unless it pairs well rhythmically with another instrument--in which case they can both be panned--but this is very rare in my experience)

I often aim to have two parts that are close to each other rhythmically, but ideally not identical. Two instruments playing the same chords and a similar rhythm... I might hard pan these, one left, one right. If the rhythms are not similar, this will make the sound disconnected & unpleasant, but if they are close, it can add considerable depth.

Other instruments I will pan more gently, but I use some of the other tricks above (with moderation) to fatten the sound. Pad settings on synths can be great for getting a wide sound, but they need to leave space for the vocal.

I'm still learning, so take all this with a pinch of salt.

Good luck

that's very good advice right there.

Id add a couple of other points:

Before you start EQing (in mono) work on your balance. Don't try to fix balance issues with EQ, Don't assume that any instrument needs to be EQ'd to any particular sound until you can get the context. I see too many people spend ages EQing drum tracks in solo when they have not yet listened to the song balanced.(Since I don't know how experienced you are - Balance will change verse/chorus/ or line/line...even word/word sometimes). Assuming you are "In the Box" and mixing by mouse, be prepared to spend a little time getting these balance moves right.


When doing your balance and EQ, don't just assume that panning to the middle is mono. If possible work with only 1 monitor on at first. its the cleanest and truest way to hear mono.

very early on ask yourself if this is a vocal driven song or a groove driven song. If its a vocal driven song, don't be afraid to start your balancing with just the vocals and BVs switched on. While still in mono and without eq, see if you can get the vocal, BVs and their associated ambience (reverbs , delays) to sound GREAT on their own. Then start adding the other elements...Id probably start with bass & Kick but that depends on the song.

Try to find a few references tracks from big budget recordings and use them to prepare your ears. Im not saying copy the other tracks, and nor do they have to be identical styles. Its easy to get so far into your mix you forget what other mixers sound like. Take a break every hour or so and listen to some music.

Finally
Listen on as many sources and in as many environments as you can....
AS always - there are no rules! Have FUN!

I’ve not tried that idea with the vocals, but I will next time

And YES to reference tracks. They can be quite demoralizing but they definitely help.

[murky]

Lead guitar must be panned hard left. This is the way.

[Lyle]

Lead guitar must be panned hard left. This is the way.

My car has blown it's left speaker. Listening to early Van Halen is fun, the only bit of Eddie you can hear is a little bit of reverb from the right speaker.

[codedog]

Lead guitar must be panned hard left. This is the way.

My car has blown it's left speaker. Listening to early Van Halen is fun, the only bit of Eddie you can hear is a little bit of reverb from the right speaker.

Being extremely ignorant/inexperienced, I wasn't sure if murky's statement was for real. Evidently it was...

[Lyle]

Lead guitar must be panned hard left. This is the way.

My car has blown it's left speaker. Listening to early Van Halen is fun, the only bit of Eddie you can hear is a little bit of reverb from the right speaker.

Being extremely ignorant/inexperienced, I wasn't sure if murky's statement was for real. Evidently it was...

All the Van Halen albums up until 1984 have Eddie panned hard left, they're probably the most famous example?

[NippleWrestler]

Slayer have 2 lead players (or did), one guy is panned left, the other dude is panned right. I forget which is which.

[Capt. Black]

Slayer have 2 lead players (or did), one guy is panned left, the other dude is panned right. I forget which is which.

Left is on this side. Right is the other side. <3

[Jay]

Visualise the band on a stage, and pan accordingly. The exception is as the others have said- low frequency instruments (bass and kick) in the middle - because it’s harder to hear directionality in low frequencies.

Oleg’s suggestion of getting everything EQ’d and sitting nicely in mono is a good one.

One thing that can be fun to play around with is hard LCR panning- ie only panning things hard centre, hard left or hard right, and nothing in between. That’s how a lot of early stereo recordings were mixed, and it can be a really fun sound.

Panning the double-tracked BVs hard left and hard right, and the guitar to one side and the piano to the other is a good way of balancing too.

I am reasonably happy with my mix which follows Ben's suggestion above (thank you Sir):

- Vocals in center except when double tracking in the chorus, then main vocal panned hard left, DT vocal panned hard right.
- Piano panned hard left
- Rhythm guitar panned hard right (except during the guitar solo where it goes back to center as there is no piano )
- The rest (drums, bongos, bass, solo guitar) are center.

To my ears everything is nicely balanced from a volume perspective.

I am just playing around now to see if I like a version in which the hard right/left panning (1.0) is reduced to say 0.75.

Q: will that reduction cause a volume drop for the corresponding instrument/vocal? Ie, will I need to re-balance the volumes?

[foal30]

Lead guitar must be panned hard left. This is the way.

My car has blown it's left speaker. Listening to early Van Halen is fun, the only bit of Eddie you can hear is a little bit of reverb from the right speaker.

And still can’t hear anything of Michael Anthony

[foal30]

Slayer have 2 lead players (or did), one guy is panned left, the other dude is panned right. I forget which is which.

Third STP album is Guitar in one side Bass in the other
A lot easier to transcribe

Audioslave and RATM might be the same

[bender]

Visualise the band on a stage, and pan accordingly. The exception is as the others have said- low frequency instruments (bass and kick) in the middle - because it’s harder to hear directionality in low frequencies.

Oleg’s suggestion of getting everything EQ’d and sitting nicely in mono is a good one.

One thing that can be fun to play around with is hard LCR panning- ie only panning things hard centre, hard left or hard right, and nothing in between. That’s how a lot of early stereo recordings were mixed, and it can be a really fun sound.

Panning the double-tracked BVs hard left and hard right, and the guitar to one side and the piano to the other is a good way of balancing too.

I am reasonably happy with my mix which follows Ben's suggestion above (thank you Sir):

- Vocals in center except when double tracking in the chorus, then main vocal panned hard left, DT vocal panned hard right.
- Piano panned hard left
- Rhythm guitar panned hard right (except during the guitar solo where it goes back to center as there is no piano )
- The rest (drums, bongos, bass, solo guitar) are center.

To my ears everything is nicely balanced from a volume perspective.

I am just playing around now to see if I like a version in which the hard right/left panning (1.0) is reduced to say 0.75.

Q: will that reduction cause a volume drop for the corresponding instrument/vocal? Ie, will I need to re-balance the volumes?

Are your drums in mono? It’s pretty standard to pan the individual drum elements as well.

Panning is entirely down to taste/personal preference. If you like the way it sounds, then it’s right.

Panning a little way in rather than hard left or right is fine too, and you shouldn’t have to rebalance. I’d leave some things panned hard - it’s an easy way to make a track feel wide.

Another thing to think about is that you can change the panning through the sound depending on what the rest of the instrumentation is doing- eg, if the piano isn’t playing for one of the verses, you might bring the guitar inwards (like what you’ve described with your lead vocal and double tracked vocal).

[Jay]

Visualise the band on a stage, and pan accordingly. The exception is as the others have said- low frequency instruments (bass and kick) in the middle - because it’s harder to hear directionality in low frequencies.

Oleg’s suggestion of getting everything EQ’d and sitting nicely in mono is a good one.

One thing that can be fun to play around with is hard LCR panning- ie only panning things hard centre, hard left or hard right, and nothing in between. That’s how a lot of early stereo recordings were mixed, and it can be a really fun sound.

Panning the double-tracked BVs hard left and hard right, and the guitar to one side and the piano to the other is a good way of balancing too.

I am reasonably happy with my mix which follows Ben's suggestion above (thank you Sir):

- Vocals in center except when double tracking in the chorus, then main vocal panned hard left, DT vocal panned hard right.
- Piano panned hard left
- Rhythm guitar panned hard right (except during the guitar solo where it goes back to center as there is no piano )
- The rest (drums, bongos, bass, solo guitar) are center.

To my ears everything is nicely balanced from a volume perspective.

I am just playing around now to see if I like a version in which the hard right/left panning (1.0) is reduced to say 0.75.

Q: will that reduction cause a volume drop for the corresponding instrument/vocal? Ie, will I need to re-balance the volumes?

Are your drums in mono? It’s pretty standard to pan the individual drum elements as well.

Panning is entirely down to taste/personal preference. If you like the way it sounds, then it’s right.

Panning a little way in rather than hard left or right is fine too, and you shouldn’t have to rebalance. I’d leave some things panned hard - it’s an easy way to make a track feel wide.

Another thing to think about is that you can change the panning through the sound depending on what the rest of the instrumentation is doing- eg, if the piano isn’t playing for one of the verses, you might bring the guitar inwards (like what you’ve described with your lead vocal and double tracked vocal).

Thanks Ben. I use some simple drum software which provides a full track in mono.

[bender]

I am reasonably happy with my mix which follows Ben's suggestion above (thank you Sir):

- Vocals in center except when double tracking in the chorus, then main vocal panned hard left, DT vocal panned hard right.
- Piano panned hard left
- Rhythm guitar panned hard right (except during the guitar solo where it goes back to center as there is no piano )
- The rest (drums, bongos, bass, solo guitar) are center.

To my ears everything is nicely balanced from a volume perspective.

I am just playing around now to see if I like a version in which the hard right/left panning (1.0) is reduced to say 0.75.

Q: will that reduction cause a volume drop for the corresponding instrument/vocal? Ie, will I need to re-balance the volumes?

Are your drums in mono? It’s pretty standard to pan the individual drum elements as well.

Panning is entirely down to taste/personal preference. If you like the way it sounds, then it’s right.

Panning a little way in rather than hard left or right is fine too, and you shouldn’t have to rebalance. I’d leave some things panned hard - it’s an easy way to make a track feel wide.

Another thing to think about is that you can change the panning through the sound depending on what the rest of the instrumentation is doing- eg, if the piano isn’t playing for one of the verses, you might bring the guitar inwards (like what you’ve described with your lead vocal and double tracked vocal).

Thanks Ben. I use some simple drum software which provides a full track in mono.

I’m surprised it’s not stereo- most that I’ve tried are.

[JoeBlow]

Slayer have 2 lead players (or did), one guy is panned left, the other dude is panned right. I forget which is which.

Hanneman left, King right.

[Jay]

Are your drums in mono? It’s pretty standard to pan the individual drum elements as well.

Panning is entirely down to taste/personal preference. If you like the way it sounds, then it’s right.

Panning a little way in rather than hard left or right is fine too, and you shouldn’t have to rebalance. I’d leave some things panned hard - it’s an easy way to make a track feel wide.

Another thing to think about is that you can change the panning through the sound depending on what the rest of the instrumentation is doing- eg, if the piano isn’t playing for one of the verses, you might bring the guitar inwards (like what you’ve described with your lead vocal and double tracked vocal).

Thanks Ben. I use some simple drum software which provides a full track in mono.

I’m surprised it’s not stereo- most that I’ve tried are.

I use MT Power Drumkit 2 and you are correct. It is stereo, my bad