how would you pan a trio?

[53Crëw]

What would your approach be for panning on an instrumental trio? Think of something similar to Jeff Beck type instrumentals, but it's just bass, guitar and drums.

Everything in the middle doesn't have enough stereo spread. Bass off to the side never sounded right to me. Bass and drums centered, and guitar off to the side is just lopsided.

So what else to try? I'm thinking maybe try the Haas Effect to balance it out. (Guitar panned left, then duplicate the track on the right while using a slight delay. Drums panned across the stereo spectrum, and bass centered.) Any better ideas?

Cheers

 

[crillemannen]

I'd probably pan guitat 50L bas 50 r and do the drums sligtly wider. I would just check mono combability a bit more.

 

[Revson]

Drums and bass like you normally would, guitar left and send it to a plate reverb panned right. Just like Van Halen used to do.

 

[Jormyn]

Depending on the style of music, you can also split the bass into two different tracks and pan them differently - one track EQed and compressed for the lows, down the center, and the second track mixed for grit/clank/clack/etc and panned opposite the guitar - maybe not as far out as the guitar, since it can sound weird, but even having the grit track panned 20-40% out can do wonders for your stereo image, especially with some Van Halen reverb on the guitar filling out the rest of that side like Revson mentioned.

 

[egan.]

It depends on the style but it's worth listening to what Andy Wallace did with RATM and the Rollins band. Things move all over the place based on what's happening. It's also worth considering your "big mono" options. Stereo bass and guitars with different amps panned differently, haas effect stuff; the list goes on.

 

[Jordon]

Use the drums and vocal reverb/delays for width, keep the low end in the center. Guitar up the middle, any overdubs (if applicable) panned a bit to the side. A hint (and I really mean only a touch) of plate verb or room convolution on a center-panned main guitar can give you a sense of wideness.

I recorded a live record a few years back, a trio of drummer, keyboardist/percussionist and acoustic guitarist/vocalist. I duplicated the single piezo guitar track, panned it hard left and right, and vari-pitched/timed one side of the guitars to create a fake double-track. It turned out pretty okay:

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/jordonglasswall/sets/beautiful-collision-live-at-the-house-pub-2012-predmima[/SOUNDCLOUD]

Since they didn't have a bassist, I also dup'd the guitar a second time, put it in the center, pitched it down an octave, did some trickery, and automated the fader to come in and out when appropriate. It doesn't always work, but in this case, it added some body.

 

[MrBongo]

use the room. put the instruments in a definite location as if they were playing a gig or rehearsing.
either do it via proper micing, or use plugins (depending on the sound you are going for). there´s a few pretty good plugins that let you position the source in a digital room and give you the particular reflections behavior of a room

 

[bryan_kilco]

Can you get another take of the guitar track and just pan them 100%?

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Here is a little video that might be what you're looking for:

 

[nezvers]

Check Royal Blood. They have only bassist/ vocal and drummer. That bassist is genius because he do magic with pitch pedals and make it sound like there are guitarists and record sound amazing in stereo.
I'd duplicate guitar and give some FX on both sides that makes them different (main pitch/ delayed track/ blended octave up or down/ few % flanger or chorus)