Where do you guys put your mixing elements?

[silvermaples]

I went to one of those Guitar Center recording classes just to see what it was all about and one of the things the teacher brought up that I felt was odd was where he would but the vocals, bass, and bass drum in the mix. He said he would actually pan the bass drum 20-30% off to one side and then put the bass 20-30% off to the other side. Same thing with the vocals.

I just wanted to see what you guys thought, I've always been more comfortable with having my bass and drums down the center, I might do a dual track of the vocals and pan them out a little but its still mainly straight up the middle.


Opinions?

Cheers
-Cory

 

[JeffTD]

As usual with GC employees, this guy is retarded.

 

[jipchen]

That sounds super weird.. I believe they did that kind of panning when stereo panning was still new, and you would end up with the snare on one side and the guitars on the other.. but that was LONG ago and it is no good idea imho. Bassdrum, bass and snare are always centered for me.

 

[LeSedna]

This guy knows nothing about what he is saying, unless he got stuck 50 years ago.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

It works on very rare occasions to give the mix a special vibe. Check out Hellacopters' Rainy Days Revisited. Most often it just sounds really weird and isn't justified at all.

On a side note, one thing I often like to do is pan the vocals just 2-3% to one side. It's not really noticeable in the stereo placement but it can open up the middle of the mix nicely.

 

[RevoltStudios]

Sounds like some of the guys here in Nashville who refuse to move on. In some styles such as bluegrass/jazz/ect...this style of panning is acceptable par the olden days where stereo was new. These days...I laugh at it and how awkward is feels to listen to it. There are old farts who know what they're doing and are crazy good and embrace new...then there are the old farts who can't look past their 8 tracks. Oh well.

 

[drope934]

You can hear it on some Beatles songs but... that's ok if you're looking for this "shitty" sound (never liked the Beatle's sound, horrible IMO)

 

[silvermaples]

Yeah I thought it was pretty odd when he was saying it, I guess everything has its place but I don't see me using it unless I'm going for an effect. This guy use to teach at Full Sail so maybe that's a sign? I've always heard that they teach you where to put the knobs, not how to feel the music which I believe is very important in mixing.

-Cory

 

[CubanDude]

You can hear this as well on the new Slash album, although it's only during a special section of a song, where the rhythm guitar and the vocals are panned on different sides. And it's only to create a special vibe, like already mentioned (some old Simon & Garfunkel songs have it too, throughout the song, but this was like 40 years ago)

 

[BlackwingGabriel]

Well, it's not nowadays norm. But it could work, depends on the song.

 

[LeSedna]

Just don't do hard panning (100L/R) it's so annoying it's tiring for the brain. Back in those days, mixes were listened in mono or through the home hifi system, and rarely on headphones. Since today everyone listens to music on headphones, the stereo images needs to be more balanced.

 

[smy1]

I actually like to put a kick at R5 and Snare at L6 or something. Just a hair off the center.

 

[greyskull]

I put double vocals at like 5 or 6 left or right sometimes

 

[Skinny Viking]

On a side note, one thing I often like to do is pan the vocals just 2-3% to one side. It's not really noticeable in the stereo placement but it can open up the middle of the mix nicely.

I do this with bass and snare actually

Bass is usually about 5% off to the side opposite floor tom, snare about 10% off to either side depending on perspective

like you said ... can't notice it too much in the big scheme of things but opens the center just a little more for the kick / main vox / whatever

 

[Riku]

This trick with this is to have a fast double kick and pan 1 kick hard left and 1 kick hard right. Opens up the centre nicely!

If you want to hear bad stereo mixing then listen to some of the early Cream. Guitar 1 side, Bass the other side, virutally unlistenable in stereo, but great in mono

 

[-Noodles-]

Guitars 100L 100R
Kick, snare, bass, lead vocals C
Toms 45/20/-20/-45

Solos will either be C or 20+/- if it's dueling or harmonising.

 

[icos]

Everything I have ever read or heard is that the the lower the frequency, the less the human brain can process directionality. So panning low frequency instruments is a bit pointless IMHO.

I have been known to pan the "click" of a kick drum slightly off centre (10% L/R alternating sides) on fast double kick parts to emulate the live sound of a drummer with two kick drums hitting them on alternating strokes, and this also means the grind of the bass guitar is left to fill the dead centre so you don't lose it in fast parts.

Obviously, this means you need to split your kicks and high/low pass the tracks, or you can do it with samples (but needs to be done manually, so is kind of a pain)

I had a mate who used to hard pan his bass drops, which is the dumbest thing i have ever heard, but he thought he was a genius.....

 

[nwright]

This trick with this is to have a fast double kick and pan 1 kick hard left and 1 kick hard right. Opens up the centre nicely!

This IS a joke, right?

 

[The StabbinCabin]

Clips please of awesome panned kicks

 

[Morgan C]

You can hear this as well on the new Slash album, although it's only during a special section of a song, where the rhythm guitar and the vocals are panned on different sides. And it's only to create a special vibe, like already mentioned (some old Simon & Garfunkel songs have it too, throughout the song, but this was like 40 years ago)

Which section/song in particular? They used an interesting recording method for this one (there was a thread on Gearslutz), so it could just be that the loud OH/room tracks are dragging the kick+snare from the centre.

Everything I have ever read or heard is that the the lower the frequency, the less the human brain can process directionality. So panning low frequency instruments is a bit pointless IMHO.

I have been known to pan the "click" of a kick drum slightly off centre (10% L/R alternating sides) on fast double kick parts to emulate the live sound of a drummer with two kick drums hitting them on alternating strokes, and this also means the grind of the bass guitar is left to fill the dead centre so you don't lose it in fast parts.

Obviously, this means you need to split your kicks and high/low pass the tracks, or you can do it with samples (but needs to be done manually, so is kind of a pain).

TP Basslane plugin, lets you set everything below a certain frequency to mono. Super useful this situation or say, using a Z4/5 Kick sample - you can have it loud and stereo, but keeps your kick bass nice and centred. Or if you wanted to put chorus on your bass guitar to stereofy it, whilst keeping the lowend centred. And its free!