Is panning guitars hard left/right not common in commercial records?

[abyssofdreams]

I've compared my latest mixes to a LOT of commercial recordings lately and I tried to pay attention to the stereo/depth of field solely...

As for the guitars it seems that they are almost never panned completely to the hard left/right side or is it just me being paranoid?

I know many (if not all) pan the guitars 100/80 on both sides (if quad-tracked), however, comparing tracks commercial records are somewhat more geared towards the center?

Did anyone else notice that?

 

[Melb_shredder]

I'm gonna take a jab here and say that it depends on the style of music. I know most of the metal I listen to is geared towards hard L and R. But then some of the soft rock/ pop stuff has the guitars more centered but further back in the mix. Just my observation ofcourse

 

[abyssofdreams]

yupp, I am referring to metal only though. Take some of your fav CDs and listen closely...

 

[Melb_shredder]

Cheers, I shall do that and get back to you. Shame most of my faves are Sneap recorded albums, they are all left and right! But I shall dig into my other stuff XD

 

[Nebulous]

yupp, I am referring to metal only though. Take some of your fav CDs and listen closely...

Got any examples?

 

[evolutions_end]

metallicas black album (dont hurt me) is hard left and right. but those tones are pretty farkin big!

 

[abyssofdreams]

blah, forget my initial post then, I've come to think my monitors are fucked

 

[evolutions_end]

blah, forget my initial post then, I've come to think my monitors are fucked

baahhh dont be sucked into that trap! you end up spending hours and hours rooting around with speaker positioning, and then your never really happy till you go buy $20000 genelecs. keep em where they are because your used to them that way!

 

[Torniojaws]

metallicas black album (dont hurt me) is hard left and right. but those tones are pretty farkin big!

There's one rhythm guitar in the center too, widening (sort of centering?) it up a bit though.

 

[Keregioz]

Well, there are CDs where they have more than 2 tracks of rhythm guitar and pan the two hard L&R and the other two a little closer to the center. Maybe that gives you the impression that they're not hard L&R...
I know nevermore's dead heart for example is two tracks 100% L&R and other two 80% L&R.

 

[Keregioz]

metallicas black album (dont hurt me) is hard left and right. but those tones are pretty farkin big!

I'm pretty sure that black album has at least 4 rhythm guitar tracks. I'm guessing they're not all panned hard L&R.

 

[Nebulous]

In the "Classic albums" doco they said two hard L/R and one center "thickener"

 

[Exocaster]

It's pretty much standard practice with metal and hard rock. There's generally multiple tracks of guitar, though, some of which are closer to the center, or centered and lower in the mix. Even one-guitarist bands (Pantera, Decapitated, Tool, AIC, etc.) have multiple rhythm tracks L/R or L/R/C. It's very unusual to hear otherwise on any album with high gain guitars.

Just two tracks (well, two performances really, accounting for multiple mics or multiple amps) hard left and right is fairly rare, but not unheard of. Lamb Of God and some My Dying Bride albums come to mind immediately where the guitars are hard L/R and not quad+ tracked.

 

[if6was9]

same with thel atest Unearth and the guitars sound plenty big on that one I think anyway

 

[beyond dead]

in metal, hard panning really helps things sit nicely in the mix. with hard rock, rock, hard panning s not as necessary because the guitars are not so dominant. just an observation.

 

[Jackal_Strain]

I usually pan har L and R, but when only one guitar is playing, I usually pan it closer to the centre, like90-70, depending on the riff.