Hi,
Wonder when/if I should be looking to use panning in mastering our bands recorded performance.
We have drum, bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
Thanks
Using Panning
Re: Using Panning
Panning in the mastering stage? Aside from any sort of "stereo widening" effects that you might want to do, all the panning is usually done at the mixing stage.
Assuming you mean the mixing stage, most people I know would do it like this:
Drums: Pan the way the drumkit was set up - if you've got a cymbal over to the left, pan it to the left. The snare is usually slightly off-centre, and the kick drum straight down the middle. Place everything in the stereo field as though you were stood in front of the kit. If you used overheads to the left and right, pan hard left and right then use that as a guide for placing the individual drums.
Bass: Straight down the middle, almost always.
Guitars: Loads of ways to do this. An often used technique is to layer two takes of the rhythm guitar and pan them left and right, then put your lead down the middle (maybe with some reverb to add a little width). Alternatively, just put one guitarist in one speaker and the other in the other speaker - Appetite for Destruction style.
Vocals: Lots of room for experimenting here as well - maybe have the main vocal down the middle with reverb to widen it, then accents and harmonies coming in from all sides to taste? Interesting use of panning is great fun with vocals...
All that being said, there are no hard and fast rules. Use panning either to add width and interest, or as a tool to make sure frequencies don't clash. I heard that on some Beatles songs they did stuff like panning the bass and cymbals off to one side and the guitars and other drums off to the other...sounds crazy, but hey if it works then why not?
Assuming you mean the mixing stage, most people I know would do it like this:
Drums: Pan the way the drumkit was set up - if you've got a cymbal over to the left, pan it to the left. The snare is usually slightly off-centre, and the kick drum straight down the middle. Place everything in the stereo field as though you were stood in front of the kit. If you used overheads to the left and right, pan hard left and right then use that as a guide for placing the individual drums.
Bass: Straight down the middle, almost always.
Guitars: Loads of ways to do this. An often used technique is to layer two takes of the rhythm guitar and pan them left and right, then put your lead down the middle (maybe with some reverb to add a little width). Alternatively, just put one guitarist in one speaker and the other in the other speaker - Appetite for Destruction style.
Vocals: Lots of room for experimenting here as well - maybe have the main vocal down the middle with reverb to widen it, then accents and harmonies coming in from all sides to taste? Interesting use of panning is great fun with vocals...
All that being said, there are no hard and fast rules. Use panning either to add width and interest, or as a tool to make sure frequencies don't clash. I heard that on some Beatles songs they did stuff like panning the bass and cymbals off to one side and the guitars and other drums off to the other...sounds crazy, but hey if it works then why not?
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