Drums Panning?...

Mat Laperle

Mat Laperle

RedDuskStudio
Dec 30, 2006
101
0
16
Montreal
www.myspace.com
Hey! I never saw this question before so...
How do you guys usually pan the drumkit on the mix,?
( L100%, R100%, center 0)

1-hi-hat
2-kick
4-snare
6-tom 1
7-tom 2
8-floor tom
9-oh left
10-oh-right
11-chineese or other oh
(12-room )


I usually only use v-drum and EzDrummer so what's the best thing to do with that room mic...? Usually there's 2 mic for the room or am i wrong?



thanks!!
 
I like the audience perspective, so I pan the toms progressively from right to left. I may put the first rack tom at 25% right and the lowest floor tom at 35% left. Sometimes I like a really wide spread on the toms, and sometimes a little less, which I think sounds more realistic.
I pretty much always keep the kick and snare in the center, the hats just a touch to the right, maybe 10%, and I hard pan the overheads.

With a mono room mic, I'm sure I'd leave it in the center.
 
I tend to go audience perspective as well. I hard pan the drums, though. 4 toms usually with the highest tom at 70% right, lowest tom 70% left. I also group my toms and add stereo verb to the group, so in a way that lessens the effect of the hard panning. I've never used a room mic and I only use stereo OH's, placed left and right, not XY.
 
Yeah, I'm obsessive with things going left-to-right, which includes tom fills from hi to low, so drummer's perspective all the way!
 
Snare and kick center, the O.H are drummers perspective, pan the Toms/Hats/Ride according to the position they are in the OH.

For me if the toms are going Right to left (even if its a lefty) it makes me feel as if its unballanced.
 
Drummers perspective here...

Biggest thing for me though is how well the overheads are recorded. If they are done well, and very balanced I will pan everything HARD 100% each way. If the snare or kick is really pulling on one side, I could much closer in....
 
i only have 3 "tom" mics so I put 1 in between 2 toms, 1 in between the other two toms, and have 1 mic for the snare. then I have 1 mic for the kick, and 2 OHs for the whole set/cymbals. in the mix I am duplicating my tom mic tracks and then panning one around 40 L/R and the other about 30 L/R. I put the snare and kick right in the middle and I have the OHs panned hard left and right. seems to work for me, the set sounds HUGE, and the ride cymbal comes out real well. I usually EQ the toms and kicks with boosts in the mids and highs to make them a bit more present, and I also verb up the toms and snare to give them a bit more presence.

EDIT: what I meant by panning "1" of the tom tracks, I meant: I have 2 tracks of one tom mic (which recorded 2 toms), and then I duplicate that track, and pan of the tracks left about 30 or 40, then pan the other track right about 30 or 40. Creates a great stereo effect.
 
i listen to the overheads (hard panned L/R from drummers perspective) and then place the spot mics to correspond to where they appear in the OH image, seems the most logical way to do things to avoid the stereo image getting smeared no?

i like having my kick and snare centred, but then i try to get them as centred as possible when i'm setting up my overheads so that isn't much of a problem
 
Drummer perspective definately! Nothing drives me nuts faster than hearing a CD with audience perspective... hell, it even bothers me at shows sometimes haha
 
I don't mind wide OH's as much as I mind wide hats/ride... those are usually hit much more often, and really throw me off when panned decently far in either direction.



Check out Behemoth's The Apostasy if you want a lesson on NOT how to pan drums. Snare like 30% to the left FTW!
 
Whatever is hard enough to notice its on a certain side. It kind of depends on other parts of the mix sometimes for me. Usually between 65% and 100%
 
Audience perspective.

OHs hard left/right
Snare/Kick center
The lowest Tom is 100% on the left and the highest starts @ 50% right. Gives a really wide and cool stereo image imo.
 
DSS3 said:
Check out Behemoth's The Apostasy if you want a lesson on NOT how to pan drums. Snare like 30% to the left FTW!
Click to expand...

Panning may be off, but the sound of the drum itself is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. That deep tone to it is just beyond belief; I suppose it's all in the drum itself and not some hifalutin' mic/eq trick...any idea what kind of a snare makes such a deep crack? ("crack" doesn't seem like the right onomatopoeia, actually; more like "crock" :lol:)
 
Metaltastic said:
Panning may be off, but the sound of the drum itself is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. That deep tone to it is just beyond belief; I suppose it's all in the drum itself and not some hifalutin' mic/eq trick...any idea what kind of a snare makes such a deep crack? ("crack" doesn't seem like the right onomatopoeia, actually; more like "crock" :lol:)
Click to expand...


Seriously? I hate the production on that album enough to make me not listen to it, and I'm seeing them on the 28th :cry:.
 
Alright... I'm an idiot. I had only listened to the promo before... iTunes'd a track off the real one, and ended up getting the whole thing. This album is fucking awesome! The snare panning really only bothers me in headphones now.
 
drummers perspective or audience...it goes along with my mood. I used to pan the OHs 70/70, but lately i've been experimenting with hard L/R pan - it works great for some songs, but sounds like crap on others, so i am experimenting a little bit. Kick, snare on the center, of course. IF, and a big if, i use the hi hat mic, i put it wherever the oh tracks tell me too.

As for tons, i used to put them 50/5/50 but after someone gave a tip on gearslutz (put the song in mono, and pan the tons until the sound is stronger), i am panning my tons wider and it is sounding way cool.
 
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