panning quad tracked guitars?

melovine

Member
Feb 10, 2009
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when you pan them, do you pan hard left and right on all four? if not what kind of tone do you like to get out of the hard left and right compared to the inside pair?
 
From what I have read. Most pan them as follows
Guitar 1 - 100% Left
Guitar 2 - 85% Left
Guitar 3 - 100% Right
Guitar 4 - 85% Right
 
No rules. I've seen people put the inner two takes at about 80% left/80% right or more. If it's a different take and not copy pasted, you can feasibly leave the sound the same on all four tracks but some like to use different tracks for treble, mids and bass. Some just eq slightly differently or go the extra mile with a whole different amp and cab on two of them....again, no rules.
 
2 LR 100% and 2 LR 85% Usually sounds great.But there are no rules at all.The OH stereo panning plays an important role too.
 
I hard-pan them all. 2 tracks 100% right, the other 2 100% left. I just have one from the left and one from the right side 3dB's lower than the other.
 
Every time I've tried the 100/85 100/85 approach I've liked it at first, but at some point during mixing I always decide that something about the sound bothers me slightly and I end up going with 100/100 100/100. Generally one take from each side is a couple dB lower, as well as EQ'd to have a bit less low end.
 
All in the middle!!
and doube-track bass hard left/right!!

Seriously tho, reduce the gain and lower the volumes.
 
I always hard pan them all. I often use the same sound for the 4 guitars and sometimes blend two different amps to get one sound, then I put the same blend on both sides. But I recently tried to have one sound on the left and another sound on the right and I liked it a lot! It helps to get a wider mix.
 
Ive hard panned them, I've 50% panned. Whatever it takes to make them sit right or achieve the effect you're looking for. I usually stay within the 100% and 75% range.
 
I always like rhythm guitars to be hard panned into the corner with no exceptions. If you want to get around the "doubling only makes things louder" conundrum, then use a different piece of gear when you double in mono.
 
Generally, 100/100 for the main sound, and 75-85/75-85 only on slower heavier sections, because most people can't play 4 takes for every riff tight enough.
 
depends on your DAW's pan law too...that will change level distribution