Double kick drums panned L & R???

[Ice_T's_Bobblehat]

Can anyone think why a producer would deliberately do this??...

I've just heard Motorhead's Orgasmatron album on headphones and noticed the kick drums are panned hard left and right, it made me feel dizzy listening to it! uke: Anyone else ever heard this done?

 

[PhilR]

I've not heard it, but there's no reason why it couldn't be done.

The whole bass, snare & kick panned centre is largely traditional anyway. When stereo vinyl first started gaining popularity lots of bands experimented with crazy (and usually pretty stupid, like having the drums in one ear and all the guitars/bass/vocals in the other) panning techniques. They stopped doing it right about the time the pressing plants started returning the pressings because the heavy panned hits were making the needle jump from the groove.

Not really an issue in todays world of course. I've been listening to the bezerkers latest album over the last couple of days and I did think that something like this would have suited their style of music quite well. Having panned gabba blasts exploding in both ears would probably be pretty disorienting though!

 

[JeffTD]

Christ, that would really fuck with my ears! Especially on single kick stuff.


I can't listen to Tool's Ænima on headphones for a similar reason - the snare is panned so far that my head kind of jerks with every it.

 

[Black neon bob]

yikes...

let's just say im a man that likes his traditions then.. i can imagine how it would sound then, not my cup of tea...

 

[Ermz]

I tried that once. Suffice it to say it didn't work too well. Center pan good.

 

[Ice_T's_Bobblehat]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for experimentation, but I think a straight out rock album isn't the ideal place to get all crazy with the console settings.
It got to the point where for some reason, my eyes were following the beats

I'm thinking it may actually be accidental..say, if they'd not close-mic'd the individual parts of the kit or some bad (or no) Eq'ing of stereo overheads/room mic's

 

[Black neon bob]

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for experimentation, but I think a straight out rock album isn't the ideal place to get all crazy with the console settings.
It got to the point where for some reason, my eyes were following the beats

I'm thinking it may actually be accidental..say, if they'd not close-mic'd the individual parts of the kit or some bad (or no) Eq'ing of stereo overheads/room mic's

True man... now if SYL or a band like mnemic had this on a record, it would be less suprising eh? still would irritate the hell out of me though, but less suprising indeed..

 

[zmetallica]

i think if you have two kicks with two mics you should pan em bout 10% left and 10% right that way you have some separation. but if they did it all the way right and left it'll make my head explode.

 

[Ermz]

Why do you need separation though? It's not like the two would be playing at the same time and somehow masking each other.

I can see it being used as a trippy effect by Townsend or something, but short of that a dead center pan is generally the best way to have your most bass-heavy instruments.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Just because you can do it, does not mean you should. Especially if the drummer alternates between steady double bass & a lot of single kick stuff. Then you'd have one kick panned for half your record. Yech.

Make it sound good in mono & don't worry about it.

 

[Ice_T's_Bobblehat]

I was a bit harsh on it originally by saying it was panned "hard" left/ right...that's probably a bit exaggerated but they are panned way out of centre and it sounds flamin' horrible on headphones.

Perhaps it may have been part of some clandestine experiments on aural torture.

 

[ScottCash]

On Del Amitri's Twisted CD, the song "Roll to Me" has some of the craziest panning I've ever heard. The entire drumset is panned hard left and the lead vocal is panned like 99% right. Go figure though, it was one of their biggest hits!!!!

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Listen to "Hey Jude"...

 

[sparkyness]

Ramones did some weird stuff like that early on too IIRC.......

 

[Jaymz]

Hate Eternal with that setup might actually cause your head to split into 6000pieces Cant beat a bit of Derek!

 

[Jackal_Strain]

Listen to sgt.Pepper...

 

[zmetallica]

its not necessarily about overlapping of strikes, but the decay of signal. it really depends on the circumstances, as if the drummer doesn't use it much then have it center, but if 90% of the song is double kick then some slight separation could be used. i do this with samples and it sounds good. then again i don't like doing whats 'standard' all the time and i love to experiment...

 

[nwright]

I know a local industrial rock/metal band that did this a lot. But, it was programmed drums and real drums at the same time. The alternating double bass along with other programmed percussion was almost like a trance beat feel, albeit REALLY fast and a lot more nauseating, but in their case it worked sometimes.