Panning

[societyloser1]

Hey Guys,

I was wondering... How do you aproach panning?
It's something I do quite often (like everyone I guess?) But it's the only thing I never read something about... You guys got any tips how to aproach it?
(Like: how far do you pan your elements? Do you think just a little bit of panning (like 5L or so) could make a difference? How about auto(matic)pan? & so on...)

Peace.

[jrisreal]

i never really pan anything...excet sometimes hats LFO'd to move left to right

[ChadDub]

I usually clone and pan my chords, like supersaws and stuff, to 100L and 100R. Keep my sub in the center, pan the hi hats a tad to the right or left, just to give it some room.

[misterdubwaan]

i think panning is something that should be used little and carefully,
it generally works well with synth sequences or pads when youre building atmosphere,
as mentioned above, its useful to give room, but if not sparingly then i always think pan can compromise clarity, since its easy to loose a rhythmic sound such as a percussion note to panning!

Experimentation is always the best approach!

[hudson]

I love panning, you just have to be careful with it. I only do it when it feels necessary.

[bRRRz]

I pan certain hats up to about 30% right or left depending on the effect I wanna have, but I pan the fuck out of FX, risers, pads, etc.^^

[kaiori breathe]

I pan the shit out of everything

/thread

[TheBassTest]

i think panning is something that should be used little and carefully,
it generally works well with synth sequences or pads when youre building atmosphere,
as mentioned above, its useful to give room, but if not sparingly then i always think pan can compromise clarity, since its easy to loose a rhythmic sound such as a percussion note to panning!

Experimentation is always the best approach!

EXPERIMENTATION IS ALWAAAAYYYYS THE BEST APPROACH!

I pan the shit out of everything

/thread

[EDN]

Just listen really hard and move stuff around. You will find the right place for it eventually.
Some things like Kicks/Snares/Sub-bass I never pan but everything else I pan the fuck out of.

It's all about having two (or more) counterpoint harmonies on different octaves hard left and hard right.

[makemerich]

ive found panning helps when you have a bunch of layers and you want things to stick out or in their respective position in the mix. for example if you have a guitar line and a synth that are in near the same register, throw one to the left and one to the right, as far of degrees of center, i say listen to it and rotate it until it feels good in relation to everything else. i usually do vocals (or main lead) at 0, main wobbles, and kick at 0, and the other things you want to be more atmospheric or backgroundy off kilter.

[zerbaman]

I use a flanger on arpeggios and stuff to give wider atmosphere.
Also use izotope Ozone4 for Stereo Imaging on the master

[blinx]

I once had a veteran audio tech tell me that every noise/instrument has a proper place in the stereo image. He used to record and mix live bands more then electronic music, but the mantra is still applicable to dubstep, atleast i use panning to create my stereo image and help give depth to my tracks..

In my drum sequencer i pan cymbals/toms and anything besides snare and kick. I usually only move them slightly 10-15r or 10-15l to keep the center clean for my bassline, snare/clap and kick. Visualizing how a drum set is usually setup in real life, to determine where you pan the individual drums noises, is not a bad practice either.

My synths get panned pretty hard left/right and this allows me to have several synth lines doing different things musically (in the same musical key)and they wont clash or run into each others stereo space.

Fx splashes and Aux noises also get panned fairly hard.

Vocals can end up sitting anywhere in my mixes, but i generally will keep them fairly up fornt and center (not directly center 5L/R). So they can be heard in the mix, unless they are more or less in the song to create ambience or aux glitch fills.

... i would be weary of doubling synths lines just to pan them all the way left and right. To me i feel like thats the same as running a single copy but in the dead center.. which would clutter your kick/snare/bassline space just the same. But thats my two cents.

[makemerich]

how do you feel in panning reverb in relation to the original sound.
for example if my hi hat is 30 R, where should i pan the reverb?

[jrisreal]

how do you feel in panning reverb in relation to the original sound.
for example if my hi hat is 30 R, where should i pan the reverb?

30 L!

idk

[hudson]

I once had a veteran audio tech tell me that every noise/instrument has a proper place in the stereo image. He used to record and mix live bands more then electronic music, but the mantra is still applicable to dubstep, atleast i use panning to create my stereo image and help give depth to my tracks..

In my drum sequencer i pan cymbals/toms and anything besides snare and kick. I usually only move them slightly 10-15r or 10-15l to keep the center clean for my bassline, snare/clap and kick. Visualizing how a drum set is usually setup in real life, to determine where you pan the individual drums noises, is not a bad practice either.

Yeah, I started out recording with and mixing bands, so I usually try to emulate a drum kit with panning and if i have two sounds in the front I'll usually pan them left and right, respectively, cuz that's what I'm used to doing with guitars.

... i would be weary of doubling synths lines just to pan them all the way left and right. To me i feel like thats the same as running a single copy but in the dead center.. which would clutter your kick/snare/bassline space just the same. But thats my two cents.

It is unless you nudge one of them forward very slightly, then it gives it a nice double-tracked effect. I do that with vocals a lot in almost any genre I'm working with, it's a really nice effect.

how do you feel in panning reverb in relation to the original sound.
for example if my hi hat is 30 R, where should i pan the reverb?

I think it's awesome, if you put some delay and reverb on a send and pan it opposite the sound it's almost like you're hearing it sideways or something Seriously though, I like it. A good example of this technique is the guitar in the beginning of Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead. But fuck numbers, dude, just use your ears and put it where it sounds good.

[JensMadsen]

I pan the shit out of everything

/thread

HAHAHAHA

I try to always pan hats and perc a bit. I also use a lot of effects which cause some kind of panning effect on top synths, atmosphere, whatever.

But yeah experimentation is always a good answer - But try not to mess with the lows.

[Ldizzy]

subject has been discussed a shitload,

best way to get better at this type of things is to lurk on gearslutz for monhts, realize its useless, open a couple plugins and experiment...

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=193944

my way of approaching it, u tell me...

[Filthzilla]

I only pan my percs.

[Ldizzy]

damn, ive never thought there were that many people who didnt pan...

people dont realize that, altho poorly done and exaggerated panning can wreck a track...

a lack of panning = poor mix

yall do realize that...

- panning is one of the main tools u have to carve a space for each of your elements... and to solve spectral clashing problems... people stick eqs everywhere cutting parts of sounds... but a panpot can save your life...

- panning is one of the main tools u have to make things clearer / solve the unintelligibly of certain tracks in ur tunes... people try to use compressors and eqs to split elements from each other and make them more ''understandable'' or ''noticeable''... but a panpot can save your life there too...

- panning gives a sense of ''bigness'' to ur tracks... while you're trying to squash a shitload of sounds within a strictly restrained dynamic range... and attempt to stretch your tracks around one dimension... u neglect the possibility to stretch your tracks on other dimensions...

i.e. a WIDE track is as astonishing as a LOUD track... (and an ugly overwidened bigmono track is as ugly as a squashed overlimited track)...

this is where a lot of people fail.

[flatfaced]

i heard there should be no panning <~400 hz (except reverbs, delays so on..)

a nice trick is to find multiband stereo imager but you should be careful like in all the other multiband tools and of phasings too...