Question about mixing/recording

[Myrmidonlord666]

Well its going to be our first time recording and i wanted to ask about recording, specifically the drums?

We are triggering and micing the bass drums, a Friend of mine said we should pan the mic'd ones Half left and half right respectively? Is this a good idea?

He also was talking about panning the snare a hair to the right?

And i was wondering since the bass guitar follows my guitar lines or is based off mine and the other guitarist who will be in the right side (we are hard panning the guitars left and right) If we should pan the bass guitar a hair to his side to compliment the fact that the bass is following pretty much what I play?

3 overhead mics 1 75% left, one centered, and the final one being 75% right? something like that...

See we are going to be recording for dirt cheap but we wont have a producer, he's telling us basically what to do (I've recorded before but never in a studio on Cubase which is what he uses) And i've never done any panning on the drums but the way my friend made it sound, it sounds semi intelligent. Whats your opinions all you guys who've actually done this before haha?

 

[JeffTD]

Oh god - tell your friend to die!


Kicks not centered, and especially two kicks, makes my head spin.

Snare in center is a generally good rule - some people like it a tiny bit one way or the other. I personally hate it

You're going to want to keep bass dead center.

Try the OH's panned hard L/R, and one in the center. If it's sounding too wide, pan inward.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Oh god - tell your friend to die!

+1

 

[NickL]

+1

+7,294

 

[Gnash]

The only things I pan when tracking are the OHs. Hard left/right. Track everything else straight up, and start panning during mixing. If you do buss the toms during tracking, and pan them in their place (to save on tracks), think about drummer and listener perspective, and matching your OH panning. When mixing, try this: Kick(s), snare, bass, and vox-center. Guitars- hard left/right.

 

[joeymusicguy]

The only things I pan when tracking are the OHs. Hard left/right. Track everything else straight up, and start panning during mixing. If you do buss the toms during tracking, and pan them in their place (to save on tracks), think about drummer and listener perspective, and matching your OH panning. When mixing, try this: Kick(s), snare, bass, and vox-center. Guitars- hard left/right.

how can you track in mono, i've tried it a few times, and the guitars just become a gigantic confusing mess of frequencies in the center, well sorta
i mean, to me i can hear whats going on, but the guitarists are usually like, what the hell

i pan from the get go

 

[Gnash]

First guitar is centered, then I pan it for tracking the next guitar, etc.

 

[doc_backmask]

First guitar is centered, then I pan it for tracking the next guitar, etc.

This is very similar to what we do in our studio. We track the first one centered, then pan that hard to one side and monitor the input panned hard to the other side. You know the take is good when it sounds like there is only one guitar playing.

 

[Myrmidonlord666]

So how do i track 4 guitars?

See we were going to record live? then record the 2nd set of guitars along with what we recorded live? is there a more efficent method?

 

[Gnash]

Yeah, your live guitar tracks would be normally considered "scratch" tracks, meaning you probably wouldn't use them. Usually the "keeper" tracks are the drums(played to a click), during the live tracking, then going back and overdubbing guitars, bass, vox, etc. to these "keeper" drum tracks. You can use your scratch guitar track as a guide, while you overdub your "bitchin" guitar takes. The scratch usually gets scratched after a couple of good overdubbed takes. When you overdub your guitar parts. Do a take, then pan that take hard and play that bitch EXACTLY the same. Don't even stop to take a smoke, just get the double done. Pan that hard the other way, then keep doubling them. I use 2 guitars hard left/right, and two guitars panned 80%. Leads down the center.

 

[Myrmidonlord666]

We are using a Jcm 2000 and a XXX any suggestions on best way to mix them? should we have alternate for takes or have each amp in a different panning?

 

[Aaron Smith]

Blegh, I can get some good rock rhythm guitar tones out of my JCM2000, but for metal it sounds thin and flabby, even with a tubescreamer in front. If anyone has recorded a good metal tone out of that amp, I would love to hear both the tone AND an explanation as to how the tone was accomplished.

 

[2012]

When you overdub your guitar parts. Do a take, then pan that take hard and play that bitch EXACTLY the same. Don't even stop to take a smoke, just get the double done.

Good advice.