Panning

[Ascian]

100% agree with Ldizzy

And to the post above.. Yes, don't pan anything below around 400Hz although the exact point at which you should make things mono will differ slightly from track to track so trust your ears a little.

There are many ways to use panning to great effect. Just a few:

Percussive Panning: Used on 90% of the tracks I have produced. If you have a few different percussive elements, they are generally speaking going to be hitting in the same frequency band. Try to give each it's own space in the stereo field. This will let your track breathe and will make each element sit better. If two elements sound similar and are alternating fast, try to pan them equal amounts left and right, say between 4 and 10 or so

Psycho Acoustic Panning: A very interesting technique that I don't use as often as I should is offsetting the time that a sample hits between the left and right channel. So, say you set the right channel to come in 15ms after the left channel on the same sound. Because it takes the right ear 15ms more to hear the same sound that the left ear has already heard, that sound appears to be coming from the left. This shouldn't be used all the time as obviously the sound is pretty much coming from the center so it can clutter a mix if used all the time. It can add some great interest to a track though so experiment.

Pan Phasing: Not strictly panning BUT, if you take a sound (works quite well on some vocals), duplicate the channel, pan one slightly left and one slightly right, zoom in a LOT and make sure the sounds aren't snapping to a grid. If you SLIGHTLY move the left channel to the left and SLIGHTLY move the right channel to the right on the timeline (VERY slightly), then you can get a great and natural sounding phase + panning combo. Only works on some sounds and definitely needs experimenting with to get right.

[flatfaced]

I have pants with only 1 usable pocket...the other 3 are torned...so i have to put all the small things in it and all the others in the second notso broken,,,imagine it like that...I have filters, tobacco, paper, lighta, keys, coins and documents and it is real pain in the ass(the pockets are on the back side),,,but when I change them - am laughin...Now i have 4 instead of 1...so change your pants

[societyloser1]

Ok, I think what ldizzy said, makes the most sense...
Today I've been listening to some of my favourite music... and I realized panning was one of the most important elements of the track.

If you listen to james blake, his vocals are panned like hell.
Planet Caravan - Black Sabbath... the most beautifull mixdown I know & the guitar is hardpanned to the right!

Thanks guys & for all you kids out there, start panning... Dimension is really something you need in a track!

Peace.

[sixth sense]

I pan my drums out like a real live kit ya