Pan Do's and Dont's

[K.O.]

As ive found out everyone has different methods to thier music when it comes to panning instruments. I hear that its best to leave the drums dead center and the bass line dead center and everything else left and right or however it goes.....

Is there a foolproof way to pan and if there is what type of instruments are panned where and whats the best panning formula when a beat is completed.

Post your formulas here.

 

[afriquedeluxe]

mos times i leave da drums n bass centred, ive tried pannin one channel 2 da left n da otha 2 da right n hav da rest of da instruments in da middle n i jus made a mess. mos times, 4 da highs i like 2 give em nuff stereo width. jus experiment, theres guidelines but dey shudnt b rules, jus try anytin n sumtin gd cud come out

 

[SupaStar]

Same belief i have too frique, drum n bass pattern never pan those out - you'll regret the sound once its burnt to a cd and playing in a home stereo you'll regret it, trust me i know. But stuff like melody experiment with panning, nice soft instruments like violin and strings are usually great to pan just a little bit to either the left or right - this is one trade secret i've disovered. doing this at a low volume fills the beat up, so it doesn't feel like its missing anything, but heavy noticeable instruments such as guitar, piano leave those alone - these are what your listeners pay attention to and they'll get a "weird" feeling and lose interest in the beat fast.
hope i helped

 

[Formant024]

For the sake of putting trax on wax, I dont use stereo enhancers and leave the bass mono and centered. That the only exception when mastering a track . You have to look at it's media purpose ( cd/vynil ) and then look at the mixing procedure.

 

[mercurywaters]

i look at it as if i'm in a band and i'm the drummer. the bass kick is dead center with the vocals. the snare a little to the left. the hihats futher to the left. then i just place the other instruments somewhere out of the way. the bass usually dead center with the bass kick though.

 

[dacalion]

As you can see, there is NO ground rule for panning. On the drums, I usually keep centered but every so often I like to isolate a cymbal crash to one side. I like using "multiple instrument melodies" which give me a good opportunity to play around with panning and adding stereo effects to them. Just dont over do it. It's just like reverbing, too much of it can ruin a beat. Everything else is mainly centered or slightly panned to one side.

--dac

 

[nobodyfamous]

i like to double up my snare and pan one about 25% to the right and the other 25% the the left. just to get a li more thicker sound from it. I also like to take my main melody or sample, depending on what it and triple it up, i turn two of them kind of low, then pan the low ones all the way the right and left, then keep my mian one in the center at normal volume. you have to be careful with this though, it can make things muddy if you are not careful, but it can sounds great if you do it right. but like they said, there is not ground rules for panning...

 

[nas2000xl]

a little example of what i do. say i recorded a rythm guitar on 2 tracks and a lead guitar on 2 tracks. to put them in the stereo field where it wont muddy up things i pan accordingly, take 1st rythm track pan at 9:00, the 2nd track pan at 3:00, on the lead i do what is called a tight pan where both tracks are panned fully inward. you also have to add reverb and delay to give it depth and demention.

 

[Guevara]

I ALWAYS PAN MY Hi HATS AND MY SHAKERS. DoNT NoRMALLY PAN DRUMS THoUGH

 

[rise9]

for snares, i usually double up, with a slight delay on the 2nd, and pan that to the right, not too much, but depends on the snare, and the 1st snare, usually the main snare, equal pan to the left. Gives it a nice fat elongated hit. Bass - nadda. Kicks -nadda. Violins and strings, if theyr'e soft should be used as background sounds and panned accordingly to the main instrument, so they could blend in and around the main sound. Main thing to watch out for is not panning alike frequencies together in the same sound spectrum within the same location(right,left, front, back).
This thing is like an experiment every time, sometimes you mess it up, sometimes you kill a soundbwoy. Accident? maybe

 

[bigdmakintrax]

I don't do a lot of panning only for shidd I want to sit distant in the background or for eveness like some strings or keys that might be a melody or overdubbed vocals, I really don't have a 40 piece orchestra track yet...(LOL just kidding) so to me there is no great science just see what sounds good to you or try to replicate from a track you like that might be on cd... it's good to experiment with ya panning

 

[Loose Cannon]

I pan just about everything a little bit. I pan my snares and hats too. I leave the drum kick and the bassline though. but everything else i pan a little bit. (when i said pan my snares and hats, i do, but just not the whole way)
Ive been doin that ever since i first heard Mobb Deep's album, Hell On Earth. They pan everything and it sounds real good coming through some real good stereo headphones.

 

[Ash Holmz]

i never do the same thing twice.... the only thing i Never have panned is the kick drum. most of the time i leave the bassline in the middle too. I like panning my snares sometimes especially if i got sum real crazy rapid fire programming.... i like panning cymblas,toms, and rolls too.