Drum Panning Width/ Mixing Mono.

[C_F_H_13]

Just curious how wide you guys pan your drum kit. I used to do it all the way out on room mics and overheads, but I'm now having better luck a little closer. How close to center do you guys go??

This leads into my next question. How many of you spend some time mixing in mono, and any tricks to get better mono compatiblity?

 

[Ermz]

Overheads spaced all the way. Toms usually go pretty wide. Sometimes I hear mixes where it's a bit overboard... normally I do up to 70 on toms. I think going 100% gives the stereo image some weird imbalances on some tracks.

I pretty much just try to recreate the kit from the drummer's position. Usually the more stereo, the more spacious it feels. I just feel Mono is wrong... I mean, it's really dying out there, but there are plenty of people who encode online videoclips in mono with shocking sound quality... but I look at it this way, with that sort of treatment, your mix is gonna sound like crap anyway, so why give them what they want. Force them to move to stereo, not the other way round.

 

[006]

I still don't understand why the fuck people listen to stuff in mono. What is the point?

~006

 

[C_F_H_13]

I still don't understand why the fuck people listen to stuff in mono. What is the point?

~006

I think the people that do either don't notice/care or they have no control over it. Office buildings that play music use mono speakers in the roof, other people still use small mono speaker radios. I agree it's ridiculous, but some people still hear music this way. This is why I was wondering what people do for mono compatibility.

 

[Where She Wept]

I like to pan my highest and lowest toms 50% L+R respectively, then distribute the rest evenly in between.

 

[everybody's x]

I set up my kit in mono, to check phase, pan everything out to make sure its still there (mono button in) then unleash the fury! I pan toms pretty wide because i fucking dig hearing them pan acroos the sound field, I know it's currently unfashionable but BFD

I also have an old-school boom box (think crush groove) thats about 7 feet back from my mix position which technically is mono at that point.

hopefully whoever has the muzak system is bright enough to have their mono button engaged, but the chances anything I ever mix will be piping over the PA at wal-mart are pretty slim

 

[006]

I agree on the toms roaring across the entire field when a fill is done. That's the coolest thing to me, is when a drummer does a fill and you can hear it go from farrrrr right allllll the way over to farrrrr left, lol. I love it.

~006

 

[mjlaudio]

what do you listen for in mono mixes. For me mono helps me to make sure the drums arent getting lost and and that the guitars dont have too many room artifacts. I plus if you use panning as a form of volume control it can help widen a dense mix.

 

[everybody's x]

I only use mono to check mic phase, that is to make sure I don't have stuff cancelling each other out in mono.

take a project and pan the guitars super wide, then put a stereo widener type plug on it, crank thecrap out of it, then put your mix in mono


see the guitars disappear?

that's what I'm talking about.