Sunday, November 3, 2013

Where To Pan Your Tracks When Mixing

One of the first questions new mixing and recording engineers have is, "Where do I pan my instruments?"
This may seem like a simple question to someone whose been in the field for a while, but even something like panning and setting levels can be daunting if you don't have any experience or know where to start.

Today I'd like to give you some suggestions on where to pan your instruments in a mix.

Note: This is not a cure-all or an objective rule to panning. The rules change. Music is subjective. Take it for what it is. [end rant]

First off, I'd like to touch on a particular kind of panning that helps to widen your mixes. I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears mentioning again.

LCR Panning

LCR panning refers to left-center-right panning. The idea is that you either pan something hard left, right, or dead in the center. This will help you to widen your mixes and get a huge sound. You certainly don't have to do this, but if you are going for a wide sound and don't have much experience mixing, this is a good place to start.

So, to the question. What do you pan left, center, or right? Well it depends. On a lot. But here are a few rules.

Center Panned

  • Kick Drum
  • Snare Drum
  • Bass Guitar
  • Lead Vocals

Those instruments and tracks are almost always going to be panned in the center. So that's a good rule of thumb to start with. Let those tracks cut through the center of the mix. 

Now, the rest of the panning process is going to depend on what instruments you have in your mix. If you have, say, only one electric guitar, you will probably want to keep it in the center. If you have two electric guitars, you'll have to play with it. I like to take two rhythm electric tracks playing the same thing, and pan them hard left and right. This widens the mix lets each guitar track breathe and not fight for attention. Then you can have the lead guitar or solo guitar cut up the middle. 

Whatever you decided to do panning-wise, make sure your mix is balanced. Try not to have 80% of the tracks coming out of the right speaker or your mix will sound unbalanced. Don't be afraid to keep your mix mostly mono if you don't have a lot of tracks. In fact, you should get your mix sounding good in mono no matter what, but that's another blog post. 

So, to recap: Pan your kick, snare, bass, and vocals in the center. The rest will depend on how many of that instrument you have. Also, try LCR mixing to create a wider mix. 

Soon I'm going to do a video tutorial on panning automation that will help you open up your choruses and get creative with your panning. 

As always, remember if you have any questions about mixing send your questions to info@willsterling.net and get your question featured in the Question of the Week. 

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