Panning

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:30 am

Let's say I am making a beat in Reason/FL Studio. I have a kick, hi hat, snare, percussion, bass, and of course the sample (music). Sometimes I want to use more than one of these. For example, I have 3/4 sampled music (one is piano, one is strings, and so on). Sometimes I also have a couple of kicks, hi hats or snares to make a different sound out of them. My question is: How should I pan these in the program? Should I pan stereo tracks or mono tracks meaning that let's say the kick is stereo, should I pan it like that or change the kick to mono L and R first and then pan it.

Maybe I shouldn't be doing this in Reason/FL Studio but in let's say Sonar. For example, mix down the snare, and all the other tracks separately and put them in different tracks in Sonar and mix them like that? Please help! Thanks.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:47 pm

How should you pan the sounds?
Well depends on what your going for, but there are no hard and fast rules. Typically lower frequency instuments are in the middle. Other than that be creative.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:47 pm

ya, like link said. pan to ur liking. its ur mix, do what u want.

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:12 pm

Thanks guys. So, lower freq in the middle. Do songs ever have bass panned? Especially in rap, do commercial songs usually have bass in C?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:22 am

well you can pan bass. with me i like it a lil more centered. i owudlnt recomned hard panning left or right bass. cuz it might get a little bit annoying after awhile in one ear. try to center it but it doesnt have to be like DEAD-CENTER. mess around with it and see where in the mix you like it.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:32 am

You mentioned also hi-hats and snares, and using more than one sample, I believe?

Unless you are going for some weird effct, pan the instruments that are PLAYED the same to closely the same pan position. No drum player is going to hit a hi-hat in two different pan positions at the same moment.

Do they have to be exactly the same pan? No. Perhaps you have two crash cymbals you want to use. One has more attack and less decay with little reverb, the other has less attack with more decay and reverb. You might try panning the dry one, say, 2/3 left, and the wetter one a bit further left. Then it may make it sound like it was hit in the 10 o'clock position, and the reverb is continuing outward left.

That's a simplistic example, but should explain. Heck, you may even want the cymbal to wash back across the middle to the right...who knows.
The point is that the ATTACK should appear to come from one point only, like a real drummer....unless you're going for a weird effect.

For other instruments, yeah bass and kick should be close to the middle, and everything else is up for grabs. Normally lead vocals go down the middle, also. If you have two instruments playing different parts within the same frequency range, they should be better off panned apart. Which is counterintuitive when thinking about placing bass and kick down the middle. You just have to record/EQ them out of each others' way.

Panning is part necessity, and part creative. The necessity is to keep things out of each others' way so it doesn't turn out muddy. The creative is to place "players" in their own space, create spatial or time-delayed effects such as pan left-to-right, reverb, chorus and delay, or to have the appearance of double-tracked stereo guitars, etc.

Have fun. Just place yourself in the sweet spot listening position of an imaginary live band playing in a room through a stereo (or even surround!) mixer, and then mangle somewhat tastefully! And experiment anyway...who knows. That weird, unconventional kick and bass panning scheme you stumbled upon might just be the thing that works for that song!

Kapt.Krunch

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:23 pm

Thanks again. Appreciate the responses.

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:49 am

I don't suppose you have a CD or two that you can listen to?
It seems like that would be the best way to observe panning issues. This way you could pick a song that's close to same style as what you're recording.

I would think it's eaiser to hear it than to try to explain it.

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