Guitar Panning ?

[jrt12]

so i tried taht guitar panning technique that WinterSnow discussed above (pan ~80% on each side). i did like how it made the guitars a little more prominent in the mix, but i felt like it started covering up my drums too much. so while it wont work for this song, i'm gonna keep it in mind for other ones. thanks!

 

[TheWinterSnow]

so i tried taht guitar panning technique that WinterSnow discussed above (pan ~80% on each side). i did like how it made the guitars a little more prominent in the mix, but i felt like it started covering up my drums too much. so while it wont work for this song, i'm gonna keep it in mind for other ones. thanks!

keep the train of thought as to do whatever works. I start at 50 and move out in increments of 10, until i get to 100 and then i got back to 50, and find that sweet spot that really makes the mix kick. There are no rules, whatever sounds right

 

[Uladyne]

This makes me think of the mono panning technique, where you set your master to mono and pan things around till it jumps out and sounds baddass. I never really tried, but I've read about it. I also heard that you actually need to use only one speaker though, as opposed to listening to the phantom center of a stereo set of speakers.

 

[eligortyphon06]

how do you normally record leads when quad tracking? record it twice? and how is that panned?

-Zach-

 

[TheWinterSnow]

how do you normally record leads when quad tracking? record it twice? and how is that panned?

-Zach-

i do 100R/50R/50L/100L, with bass right in center you get the "wall of sound", expect everything else that isn't guitars and bass to be completely drowned out, even when the drums and vocals are still overpowering the guitars.

to me when you start moving the center guitars wider than 50, the guitars start stepping on each other on the outside which sounds like a cluster fuck and there is a void square in the middle.

 

[Deadstar]

100/65-65/100 quad
between 65 and 90 depending by the sound dual

 

[abyssofdreams]

I always quad-track. 2 tracks L100/R100, 2 tracks L60/R60 but a few db's lower,
gives guitars more depth without cluttering everything and it does sound a lot fuller.

Sometimes I do L80/R80 on the extra tracks, in this case I do not lower them but
EQ the shit out of them to make the phasing sound they introduce less obvious.

Oh and lately I'm adding an additional rhythm guitar panned dead center, really
low in the mix volumewise, sidechain it to the snare/kick hits and put a LP filter on it,
filtering down to around 1k, so it's more on the lowend side, works wonders!
I'm sure noone tried that one out yet.

 

[Nitsuj]

I noticed ( on Silhouettes and first strike still deadly ) that when 1 guitar is played you can hear it softly on the otherside.

So can you get a fuller sound with this ?

I'm actually working on a clip from First Strike and I believe what was done was a slight pan of 75% Right when one guitar is played. When two guitars come in, you still get 75% left and 75% right. but when you have the drums and bass kick in, both guitars are automated full left and right at 100%. I thought tat was some clever engineering going on. It created a gap that got filled up and gave a sense of a huge overall sound.

 

[Black neon bob]

When i double track.. i pan left and right 95/97% or so, when listening with headphones is just gives that little bit more of a stereo sound instead of just a hard pan.. which i like better.

 

[smy1]

I'm sure noone tried that one out yet.

Haha, yes most people did. I even duck the center guitar with the vocal channel to keep it out of the lead vocals.

Wrote a lot about that 1-2 years ago here on the forum. Sorry

 

[ZRhett]

I think what I'm going to try is....
L100 Rhythm guitar L75 Lead Guitar L50 Vocals L25 Clean Bass L45-R45 Drums R25 Dirty Bass R50 Vocals R75 Lead Guitar R100 Rhythm Guitar

Clean and dirty bass are duplicated tracks but on the dirty track crop the hz below about 50 so the grit stays on in the lower mids
on the clean bass track don't go lower than 20 because that's where the bass drum on the kit needs to dwell
Leave the guitars sounding super bright and don't involve bass, let the bass guitar do that for you - so crop anything around about 100hz and below or so - play with it

For guitar harmonies still do hard left and right 100 but if there's lead playing over a rhythm put the lead on the 75-75 and crop more hz in the lower range and boost more in the higher range

Anyways... That's how I THINK I'd approach it. if anyone wants to throw me some pointers go ahead. I just got done with watching a shit ton of youtube vids on the topic over the past two days. I'm ready to try out my little theory

FYI I use a drum machine stereo track, it's already panned out in that sort of range...

And if I don't know what the hell i'm doing, let me know that too- especially if serious mistakes are being made here

 

[H-evolve]

From my limited experience, when quad tracking, I always have 2 tracks 100% L/R, but for the other two, it really depends how different they sound to the first pair.

I prefer having the second pair of tracks different sounding (minimum different mic placement, but I'll go for a different amp and perhaps even different cab). Then I pan them between 90% and 95% L/R.

I feel that if the second pair sounds too similar to the first pair, it gets over-crowded. And whereever I try to pan the second pair, I'm never fully satisfied, until I turn their volume significantly down... and obviously you start wondering why you use 4 tracks.

But, as you probably know, to have 4 tracks, you either need to edit them or have a very freaking tight guitar player. And if you're in a band with 2 guitarists playing the same riff, don't even think about having both record 2 tracks each! It' just physically impossible to have them both play the tracks the same way. I have tried it and it's just impossible. The tough part is convincing the second guitarist that he's not going to record most of the song. Most of them will not understand that.

 

[tagradh]

Kinda cute 8 year bump given that the OP is now a professional musician...

 

[Kaza]

How do you guys pan your guitars ?

Both 100 % ?

Or do you copy the left guitar to the right and set it soft and copy the right guitar to the left and do the same ?

I noticed ( on Silhouettes and first strike still deadly ) that when 1 guitar is played you can hear it softly on the otherside.

So can you get a fuller sound with this ?

i actually do 65% lol it has more of a punch. going full 100%, i feel like the guitar loses its body and starts to sound lifeless.

 

[dr.distortion]

i actually do 65% lol it has more of a punch. going full 100%, i feel like the guitar loses its body and starts to sound lifeless.

A body of guitar sound lies in bass guitar tone. If you have a right balane between your guitar and bass, you'll never find a lack of a body in guitar sound.

As for me, hardly panned guitars is an only way to huge heavy mixes, especially when you have only a doubletrack instead of quadtrack