Monitoring while dialing in guitar tone - centered or panned?

[He's Dead, Jim]

This is probably more applicable to amp sims to be honest, but I find that centering my guitar when I'm crafting a tone distorts my perception of what it sounds like when panned. The centering tends to make it seem bassier and gives it more heft, but when I pan it left or right it sounds much airier, fizzier, and more brittle. Am I just nuts, or does anyone else experience the same thing?

 

[Terminus]

Usually centered, but I don't have a rule in my head that says it needs to be done that way. Whatever works for you.

One thing that may happen is that your ears are not always equal to each other and certain sounds can sound different in either ear, due to your ears degrading at different rates, or in my case my left ear was infiltrated by a bug and has never recovered after 6 years, so I hear slightly less bass on that side.

 

[Sloan]

Glad you brought this up because I was dicking around recently and feel like it's better to dail in the tone with one speaker. I feel like having two speakers playing the one guitar can kind of trick you into thinking it's this big rad sound, but in the mix it's shit.

 

[53Crëw]

Centered for me...

Some people even suggest getting all instruments to "fit" in a mix in mono. That way it's easier to make sure instruments aren't stepping on each other or getting masked before placing them in the stereo spectrum.

But whatever works for you is correct.

 

[Ermz]

Panned

 

[HOFX]

Solo it centered to get the tone in my head with amp sim and IR and EQ fizz notches, then panned in the mix for any additional EQ and all other processing

 

[Melb_shredder]

Panned! I still don't quite understand how or why it causes us to perceive it that way, but yeah, panned makes more sense when reamping/ monitoring for me.

 

[Trevoire520]

If you listen to it centre'd then you're creating phase cancellations due to the sound coming out of 2 speakers at once and not hearing whats really going on. If you pan it to one side then you'll get a more accurate picture of what the guitar tone actually sounds like.

 

[Mooch]

or in my case my left ear was infiltrated by a bug.

As in virus or insect?

If the latter, then That's ok, I didn't need to sleep tonight.

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

There is a reason why many guys use a single center speaker. Monitoring a mono signal through two speakers is inherently different than monitoring it through a single speaker.

 

[Alphanumeric]

Panned, I always record a couple of chugs real quick and then again on the other side hahah

 

[Terminus]

As in virus or insect?

If the latter, then That's ok, I didn't need to sleep tonight.

Insect. Yes it was as bad as it sounds, and still bothers me to this day.

 

[crillemannen]

I start off in mono, when i think im satisfied i record a small clip in dual mono and pan it.

 

[Studdy]

I start off in mono, when i think im satisfied i record a small clip in dual mono and pan it.

The same clip panned both sides would just mono be mono again? Please explain, thanks.

 

[crillemannen]

The same clip panned both sides would just mono be mono again? Please explain, thanks.

If you record the same riff exactly the same doesn't make it stereo, that is dual mono.

So simplified i meant, i start off recording in mono when i dial in the tone. When i think im satisfied i record a small passage twice, pan and listen in stereo

 

[indecizo]

Panned.

A cool thing I do is to put a stereo widener or stereo enhancer, imager or whatever and put it at the end of the guitar chain then phase offset that shit about 15 ms or more so when you play guitar you are hearing your normal take on side and a delayed take on the other side creating the panned guitars effect without delaying it too much so it's not annoying. Then tweak your amp sim settings while playing your backing track so you get a more realistic picture of how your mix should sound. Ah and the mono tracks sound bassy and fizzy to me but when I pan it, it sounds middier.

 

[Studdy]

If you record the same riff exactly the same doesn't make it stereo, that is dual mono.

So simplified i meant, i start off recording in mono when i dial in the tone. When i think im satisfied i record a small passage twice, pan and listen in stereo

Ahh, 2 separate takes. Gotcha

 

[jval]

Panned