About the panning..

[prettyherb]

Eepz.

When you guys produce, do u use some common rules to pan your sounds or you just leave it all in the mid and compensate it with lower volume ect.. ?

 

[groelle]

stereo-imaging is a very effective tool!!! dont overuse it tho.

i generally let everything stay in the middle, push some things back in the mix a little (try notching out 2khz and it will sound more distant), giving the background elements more chorus and reverb to make them fill the field a bit more and if im feeling it, ill automate the pan of riserss and fx subtley.

dont ever pan anything to the left or right tho when making club music, itll sound shit. you could always layer up a left-panned instance with a right-panned tho to fill out the spectrum a bit.

hope that helps, haha

 

[msmith222]

i mostly pan atmospherics and fx. usually things that happen at the same time - for example, when a track drops i may have a crash and a sweep hit together, and in a similar frequency range. so i would pan these two apart a little.

 

[prettyherb]

Tnx for the tips people

 

[kama]

A lot of automation can be used on pans too to keep things balanced. For example, you have a pad and a stabby synth (with drums and bass in the centre), you pan pad 25% left and stab 25% right. But then in the intro you only have the stabby synth playing so the complete sound image drags to the right a bit: automate the stab more to the center in the intro and once the pad comes in you automate it back to the right.

Other stuff that takes light panning well is high drum content like shakers, rides, cymbals etc.

 

[groelle]

Other stuff that takes light panning well is high drum content like shakers, rides, cymbals etc.

hmmm.. as much as i think this could work, as much i think you shouldnt be doing that. i mean you want your break to sound sick in every corner of the club, and not just in one, dunno, if used well, that could be pretty cool, otherwise i think thats unnecessary somehow.

and i really dont like the idea of panning a pad or something like this aswell, really just because you dont know how it translates to club systems before youre playing it there.. stereo imaging is imo the thing thats hardest to translate to big systems.

 

[BLoodstaiN`]

Drums in the middle, and i try to mix the rest around it, but just a little bit to the left or right. (or left and right if i want the synth to wrap around the drums)
There's also this tool in FL in the mixer channel, if you adjust that knob, you can get a warmer & more full sounding synth.
Like it's more surround, and less mono-like

 

[groelle]

Drums in the middle, and i try to mix the rest around it, but just a little bit to the left or right. (or left and right if i want the synth to wrap around the drums)
There's also this tool in FL in the mixer channel, if you adjust that knob, you can get a warmer & more full sounding synth.
Like it's more surround, and less mono-like

thats a simple stereo-imager. avoiding these like the plague for stereo-widening tbh. for monoing its great tho.

 

[Thin and crispy]

i evenly pan most of my hi end slightly so my break stands out more amongst the other elements. other than that i try and make everything i have in my track work together as is as best i can first

 

[groelle]

^^^^ yeah. while were at it: the higher the frequency your instrument is playing in, the more you can get away with widening the stereo-image!

same applies for chorus/reverb/delay and every other stereo-widening fx aswell.

 

[Thin and crispy]

the drums and the bass are the driving elements behind the music, they are what people dance and get low too... they need to be universal and keeping them in the middle does that so no matter where you are they are heared (and felt) the rest is to keep the listner hooked, the intricate parts that make the track interesting and no too repetetive and contribute to the flow of track so i see it like that, the parts that are essential to making people dance stay interested need to be heared universaly, the parts that are there for atmosphere etc can afford to be spread out a little more to give the central parts more room to do their job. Unfortunatly as groelle said not all clubs are set out on an even basis with a good sound system and therefore to compensate kinda thing, its probably just more conveniant not to pan or pan very little

 

[prettyherb]

So, conclusion of all these things..

Drum & bass in the middle. And maybe some pad - fx - cymbals slightly left/right panned?

 

[Neomind]

So, conclusion of all these things..

Drum & bass in the middle. And maybe some pad - fx - cymbals slightly left/right panned?

yeah totally. But tbh just do what it sounds good to you, I have a song where I pan things right and left like, all the kicks to the left and the filtered bass to the right to make a drop.
Just be sure to check it all in mono after doing pan processing.

 

[Ray Sparra]

Panning works best in my mind if you go from the bottom to the top, the lowest frequencys, in the center, and as the sounds get thinner, (higher frequencys) panned most, eg hi hats. Panning is good to give space width wise, as opposed to just using reverbs,(depth). A good mixture of reverbs and panning sounds like it has most space,imo. This is talking in stereo obviously, wide panning in stereo and then played mono is going to make a lot of wide panned stuff dissapear on a mono soundsystem, so if making tunes you think might be played in a club, panning more than 40% is a bit dodgy, or you could do double mono, hard panned, not the same as stereo though,

 

[Mr Fletch]

The only things I would usually pan are hi hats, and even then its only really subtle. Like have one lot of hats slightly to the right and another to the left slightly. To me it just gives the beat a little space and shimmer. When it comes to higher pitched synths and pads and stuff I may do a small bit of stereo seperation to give them that spaced, panned effect.

But like others have said, kicks and bass are always mono.