Panning instruments in metal

[Anamoirah]

I have 2 rhitm guitars tracks panned hard L & R and and 2 guitar tracks paned 80 L & R (this sound good 2 my ears).

The Solo guitar dubled and panned about 20-25 L & R . When there is no vocal on the song part, i'l go with the solo track in the midle.

Bass in the midle as kick drumm and snare.

Sometime i use double tracked vocal (on one reverse technique with reverb) and panning this tracks 10 L & R. Most of the time the vocal tracks are right in the midle, no panning.

And here is my novice questions:what's with the big space left empty in panning chart? Between 25-75 L and 25-75R. There's a big hole in the chart. It's normal, this should be empty?

And the main question: if i go with a keyboard (piano or strings) how should i pann the track?

If u dont agred with my panning settings i accept constructive criticism or tips. and sorry 4 my bad english. :Smokedev:

 

[Scott Horner]

This looks like a pretty common pan setting. I pan my rhythm guitars 100% L/R and occasionally throw an extra track either down the middle or about 75% L/R during the chorus to fatten things up. As far as your solo guitar settings, if you are simply copying and pasting the same track 25% L/R, then you are essentially making it a mono track and it will sound as if it is panned in the center. You will need to double the track (as in play it twice) for it to have any effect like that. A lot of this depends on which part of the song as well. If you typically keep your pan setting like this, and I don't see much problem doing so, then you can place your strings, piano, etc., in the empty space between. With piano, I usually will separate the left and right hands into two separate tracks and pan the left and right hands at around 30% L/R, respectively. As long as you aren't clogging up every single area so that it sounds like an non-cohesive wall of noise, you should be ok. Hope this helps.

 

[ahjteam]

And here is my novice questions:what's with the big space left empty in panning chart? Between 25-75 L and 25-75R. There's a big hole in the chart. It's normal, this should be empty?

drums n shit take that space

 

[theforgotten]

drums n shit take that space

+1 Toms,hats,cymbals,

 

[acappa]

How wide you usually run your main Oh´s?? And ride&hats ???

 

[Vinny]

drums n shit take that space

+1

 

[Vinny]

With piano, I usually will separate the left and right hands into two separate tracks and pan the left and right hands at around 30% L/R, respectively.

Damn. I thought I was the only one doing this! Haha it's an amazing technique. (Though I typically do 40% L and R )

 

[Trevoire520]

How wide you usually run your main Oh´s?? And ride&hats ???

I normally Pan the OH's hard left and right and then place hats/ride/toms to match up with where they sit in the overhead image.

 

[Anamoirah]

First of all ty all 4 replays.

I am a guitar players, and sometime i manage to play bass and keyboards at decent level, but i am not a drummer.
So when i record my songs i use supperior drummer 2.0 with "Metal Foundry lekteri" preset (snare drumm replaced and some volume changed). Nothing in panning whas changed. I know the basics off panning diffrent drumm component's, but i just dont know how they are panned in this particulary preset. It's just sound good 2 me and i use'it on my songs like a guitarist not having so much drumm knowledge. I gues that in this empty space will be the: toms, hats, cymbals. I dont have an urge to just fill that empty space, and i think that this way the song is more clearer.

At some songs i use just a strings pad on entire song, just to give harmony and dimension.
At some songs i use piano tema just on the verse's.

Ty aggain 4 advices!

I have some songs in Opeth stile, with hard parts and clean acoustic guitar parts.
Any ideas of panning the acoustic guitar?

This my be usefull 4 u all: http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

 

[DanLights]

Don't look at it graphically like that, and don't overworry about the theoretical details, use your ears a bit more, try comparing with commercial albums and see what works out for them to have an idea

 

[MondoLikeMetal]

I've been panning rhythm hard left and right but how about panning AND sliding one rhythm guitar part a few ticks later. I use Calkwalk, and a quarter note has 120 ticks. How many ticks should I slide forward one of the rhythm guitar tracks?

 

[Plankis]

Hm, I find lead guitars around 25 way too narrow. I am usually around 40-70 depending on the song.
Re: Acoustics vs heavy parts. I think acoustics should be narrower than the heavies. It creates more contrast, maybe around 50-70.

 

[Wolfeman]

I've been panning rhythm hard left and right but how about panning AND sliding one rhythm guitar part a few ticks later. I use Calkwalk, and a quarter note has 120 ticks. How many ticks should I slide forward one of the rhythm guitar tracks?

I would advise against doing this, you are essentially just manually creating a delay. Waste of a track IMO.

 

[Anamoirah]

Some other opinion on "Creating Realistic Stereo Image with Panning" may be useful:

http://www.audiorecording.me/creating-realistic-stereo-image-with-panning.html

http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-pan-drum-instruments.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5953899_mix-heavy-metal-music.html

 

[Omega_Void]

^ From that e-How link:

Pan your rhythm guitar. While the lead guitars should surround you, the rhythm guitars should be panned approximately 25 to 65 percent to the left or right.

:zombie:

Umm... no.

 

[Omega_Void]

Some other opinion on "Creating Realistic Stereo Image with Panning" may be useful...

For metal you don't want realistic imaging. You want larger-than-life.

Keyboards; pan them wherever sounds right.

If you use a mono reverb on them and give the reverb the same pan setting, this will help give the sound a more definite position.

Stereo reverb if you want it to have less well-defined position.

If you want big keyboards, layering two different but similar patches and panning one left and one right a bit works well for me. For huge, a stereo expander plugin, but check it still sounds okay with the mix in mono.

Some folks set up piano patches so the notes are arrayed across the stereo image from left to right. I think it sounds gay, but some people like it.

 

[Morgan C]

Kick, snare, bass and any lead/vocal instrument down the middle. Everything else as wide as it can go while still being balanced. If you've got say, a synth/lead line, accompanying a vocal, just pan it opposite what the cymbals are playing. If he's playing a crash on the right, that sounds positioned maybe 70R, then pan the synth 70L. Unclutters the phantom centre, keeps your mix nice and wide but keeps it balanced because it's not all on one side. Even if there's no vocal line down the middle, this can still be cool to do.


That keyboard trick mentioned above.. don't your patches already do this? If a piano is mic'd IRL, and not in mono, you'll have the low notes on the left and the high notes on the right. But I guess if you want it a little more extreme, then it's a good idea.

 

[Tommy Gun]

These are just my personal guidelines...

Center = Kick, Snare, Vox, Bass, Lead Gtr. (If there's only One)

L/R 100% = Main Rhythm Gtrs., Hi Hat, Ride, maybe China

L/R 90% = First and Last Toms and Crashes(Divide all others accordingly)

L/R 75% = Lower/Secondary Rhythm Gtrs.

L/R 50% = Occasional Dual Vox and Left hand/Right hand keyboards

L/R 25% = Lead Gtrs. (2 Lead players)

 

[Omega_Void]

That keyboard trick mentioned above.. don't your patches already do this?

My "piano" sounds tend to come out of a Korg, so no. I'd have to set the patch up specially if I wanted that. Naturalistic sounds aren't my style.

Oh, and sometimes I'll pan individual notes in a synth line around to create a bit more movement. Seems to work better with really synth-y sounds like saw waves, etc. But if you're going over from one side to the other don't spread it too wide, or the line will lose cohesion if the listener is much closer to one speaker than the other.