panning!!!!!!

seannash

okay so i thought id throw this topic up to discuss panning.

now ive been told and i believe that theres certain elements that shouldnt be panned

kick is meant to be staright down the middle\bassline is meant to be straight down the middle
vocals and leadlines are straight down the middle.
snare also down the middle and everything else is open to personal preference.


now this is what ive been told/heard/tried.
personally since ive started making music ive listened to tracks and noticed panning alot more that i would have before.

you will be amazed when conciensly listening to tracks how much the elements are panned and when listening to the overall track you hardly notice it,especially in rock music

hugely important in my opinion.
so anyone disagree with the above statements or have ther own little panning secrets to share


i must admit when i was starting out it was something i really overlooked but consider it a vital element in the constructiuon of my tracks these days

Neurojazz

Big panning secrets? - check http://www.brainworx-music.de/index.php?nav=12&um=2&lang=en

The video is very handy.

Powercore also offers nice MS processing for both Mac & PC platforms.

Helix

seannash wrote: »

kick is meant to be staright down the middle\bassline is meant to be straight down the middle

that was more for technical reasons than anything else, if you panned a kick or bassline, when you cut it to vinyl the lack of symmetry in the groove would cause the needle to skip

not so much an issue any more since most stuff is digitally delivered, but at this stage we're so used to them both being straight that itd probably sound odd

seannash

Helix wrote: »

that was more for technical reasons than anything else, if you panned a kick or bassline, when you cut it to vinyl the lack of symmetry in the groove would cause the needle to skip

not so much an issue any more since most stuff is digitally delivered, but at this stage we're so used to them both being straight that itd probably sound odd

im not sure it would ever be for technical reasons.
for me there would be no reason to pan a kick regardless of the medium
not talking ambient music here where rules dont really apply

splitrmx

It's also important to consider that if you're making music intended to be played in a nightclub, that if don't have things like the kick and bass dead centre, then the people over on one side of the room won't hear them as well as the people over on the other side, depending on the nightclub's speaker set-up.

jtsuited

seannash wrote: »

im not sure it would ever be for technical reasons.
for me there would be no reason to pan a kick regardless of the medium
not talking ambient music here where rules dont really apply

tis true, vinyl cutters used to insist that low end information be panned dead centre. if you think about it makes sense. lower frequency = wider and deeper groove. if you don't put that in the centre, it'll get messy.

used to be a real pain in the ass for classical music as the basses are not anyhere near the centre in an orchestra, making vinyl pressings of symphonies a very specialist area.

seannash

jtsuited wrote: »

tis true, vinyl cutters used to insist that low end information be panned dead centre. if you think about it makes sense. lower frequency = wider and deeper groove. if you don't put that in the centre, it'll get messy.

used to be a real pain in the ass for classical music as the basses are not anyhere near the centre in an orchestra, making vinyl pressings of symphonies a very specialist area.

even on these types of things would the bass not be centred anyway?
curious now as i dont think ive heard many songs where the bass isnt centred

Rockshamrover

seannash wrote: »

okay so i thought id throw this topic up to discuss panning.

now ive been told and i believe that theres certain elements that shouldnt be panned

kick is meant to be staright down the middle\bassline is meant to be straight down the middle
vocals and leadlines are straight down the middle.
snare also down the middle and everything else is open to personal preference.


now this is what ive been told/heard/tried.
personally since ive started making music ive listened to tracks and noticed panning alot more that i would have before.

you will be amazed when conciensly listening to tracks how much the elements are panned and when listening to the overall track you hardly notice it,especially in rock music

hugely important in my opinion.
so anyone disagree with the above statements or have ther own little panning secrets to share


i must admit when i was starting out it was something i really overlooked but consider it a vital element in the constructiuon of my tracks these days

Sean, have you tried using direction mixer in Logic for panning? It's a much better effect than just using the normal pan button.

You find it under imaging in the plug in section of a channel.

studiorat

There's not much point in panning bass information as lower frequencies are in fact much more difficult to localise.

Why are vocals meant to be straight down the middle?

seannash

Rockshamrover wrote: »

Sean, have you tried using direction mixer in Logic for panning? It's a much better effect than just using the normal pan button.

You find it under imaging in the plug in section of a channel.

never tried it to be honest but will give it a go.
i do find sometimes whilst panning theres is no happy medium.its either too far or not far enough off centre to make a differnce

jtsuited

here's a trick that's being used by everyone in techno at the moment:

on your hihat track place the sample delay plugin on as an insert.

shift ONLY one side by a 100 or so samples. Puts your hihats way out wide on both sides. Works great for bigroom club tracks. Famous example is Dubfire's Spacebird remix (actually him and Oliver Huntemann seem to use it a lot).
I do it on running perclines because it leaves room for kick, snare and bass in the centre.

seannash

studiorat wrote: »

There's not much point in panning bass information as lower frequencies are in fact much more difficult to localise.

Why are vocals meant to be straight down the middle?

thats just what ive heard.ive never really worked with vocals to be honest but i do hear in songs the main vical down the middle then any harmonizing vocals panned.
ive never really heard the lead vocal in a song panned hard to one side like i do instruments,but then again i havent heard every record out there:D

Rockshamrover

seannash wrote: »

never tried it to be honest but will give it a go.
i do find sometimes whilst panning theres is no happy medium.its either too far or not far enough off centre to make a differnce

You will certainly notice a difference using direction mixer. You have a lot more control over the sound. It's a great feature in my opinion.

studiorat

seannash wrote: »

thats just what ive heard.ive never really worked with vocals to be honest but i do hear in songs the main vical down the middle then any harmonizing vocals panned.
ive never really heard the lead vocal in a song panned hard to one side like i do instruments,but then again i havent heard every record out there:D

There's more to it than panning hard left or right. A fractional move can help spread out and avoid masking.

seannash

studiorat wrote: »

There's more to it than panning hard left or right. A fractional move can help spread out and avoid masking.

i realise this but i still have never noticed any noticeable panning on vocals(it still could be slightly panned though) like i do instruments.

like i said i never really worked with vocals but as i rule i was told they should go down the middle