Whats your drum pan like?

[-Noodles-]

I use Drummers.
Same reasons as have been given.

No-one else will care but the drummer. it impresses them that someone noticed and made the record something which when you solo out the drums, it sounds like you're drumming.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Snare is usually balanced to center before hitting record

Can you develop a little, sound interesting?
When you say balanced to center, do you speak by standard A/B OH micing with a single kit or you have an other technic?

 

[Trevoire520]

I'm assuming he means adjusting the overhead mic's to get the snare centred.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

I'm assuming he means adjusting the overhead mic's to get the snare centred.

It's what I thinked about

 

[PhilR]

I'm assuming he means adjusting the overhead mic's to get the snare centred.

Yup. And tweaking the preamp balance as well. Saves a few tweaks later.

I always pan drummer perspective as well, purely because wide-panned stereo drums are inherently artificial. The only person that DOES hear it that way is the drummer (assuming he keeps his head still anyway!). Listen to a drumkit in anything other than a small room and the drums are barely more than a mono source with lots of reflections from room surfaces. So I stick with what I (as a drummer) feel comfortable with.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Kick -Center
Snare - Center

HH - 90 L

RT1 - 90 L
RT2 - 50 L
RT3 - Center
FT1 - 50 R
FT2 - 90 R

Ride - 90 R

OH - 100 L/R (Audience Perspective)
Ambient - 100 L/R
Mono Ambient - Center

The way I pan is in a way that ensures that the stereo image stays clear, I want the OH to be the strongest part of the sound, however I really need the snare and kick to sound direct, so those levels will be realtively louder (about 3db) than the OH. Because I am trying to capture everything in the OH the overall pan of items like the HH and Toms are towards the center as that is an effect of OH mics and because they are reversed panned to audience perspective from the rest of the kit, hard panning the direct mics doesn't make those close mics sound hard panned, it actually makes them sound truly panned as if you were really there.

One of the cooler effect is in the HH, because the OH is making up about 60% of the total HH (and tom) volume, having the HH panned hard left in the opposite direction of the the OH's pickup of the HH, you get the phasing and separation of the HH. The HH will sound about 50L however most of the sound on the right speaker is all ambient while the close mic is a volume supplement when needed helps make the HH sound ambient with its own space and allows it to really cut through the mix without actually hearing it. I have noticed this effect a lot in many commercial recordings, the separation of HH mics helps add a 3D space to them. And the same thing happens with the toms, but they will come out sounding huge and really atmospheric.

 

[ze kink]

The stuff I always do:
Kick - Center
Snare - Center
OH - Hard panned L/R
Stereo room - Hard panned L/R

The rest I pan according to the OH's and room. Usually my drums do not end up too wide, even if I use quite hard pans. I almost always aim for a quite natural sound (with panning I mean), but I usually try to acchieve that with careful mic placement rather than panning. There are times when I don't necessarily completely hard pan the overheads, e.g. if I use something like Glyn Johns or spaced pair, but it's quite rare as I don't currently really use anything like those. I think I have to experiment with panning verbs around too.

Oh, and always audience perspective, it's just a preference. I'd probably switch it around if a drummer asked me to, but none have.

 

[Dollarosa]

snare and kick = c
1st tom = 75 L
2nd tom = 15 R
3rd tom = 75 R
Overheads = 100 L/R

Drummers perspective

 

[crillemannen]

I dont like the OH panned hard L/R i usually stay between 70-80. I think it becomes a little bit smeared when you pan hard.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Yup. And tweaking the preamp balance as well. Saves a few tweaks later.

I always pan drummer perspective as well, purely because wide-panned stereo drums are inherently artificial. The only person that DOES hear it that way is the drummer (assuming he keeps his head still anyway!). Listen to a drumkit in anything other than a small room and the drums are barely more than a mono source with lots of reflections from room surfaces. So I stick with what I (as a drummer) feel comfortable with.

Ok, really interesting read, thanks

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Huh, I never posted here.

Audience perspective unless I don't have a choice (like superior for example)

 

[smy1]

Loren: there's a button on the left side of the Superior 2.0 mixer which automatically mirrors ALL channel pannings so you can switch from audience to drummer's perspective with one push of a button