Panning

[Clogiron Brian]

Apologies if this has been previously covered, but I've had a 'daddy-look' and couldnt see it..
when panning vocals , what are the golden rules? ie main vox -down the middle? BV's at 10 o'clock and /or 2 o'clock or would you hard pan at 9 and 3 oclock?

guitars- bass down the middle, other guitars at 10 and 2 or harder at 9 and 3 ?

sorry for the generalisation of a topic thats really got no rules per se, just looking for guidelines..

thanks in advance

Clogiron Brian

[Lt. Bob]

I tend to put bass center and lead vox center ..... BG vocals are often at 10 and 2 but sometimes harder panned. Depends on how they sound.
Sometimes I'll pan BG vox all across the field but sometimes I'll put them all together as a single item and pan that somewhere.

But I am basically a no-rules guy and really don't do like mostly everyone else here does.
I still like using panning as an effect and very often go rogue on stuff like this so don't go too much by me!

[Greg_L]

No rules. Do what sounds good.

[Armistice]

Depends how many BVs you have. I've gone hard L & R with massed voices and lots of reverb, and pretty much centre for a tight harmony single voice.

[Tadpui]

I'm with Armi here. Panning backing vocals really wide really puts them out there on their own and (in my case at least) they tend to stick out like a sore thumb unless they're really smooth and in time...and heavily layered...and compressed to death. Even then, I've taken to panning backing harmonies more towards center, but not up the middle. A voice or two on one side, another voice or two on the other side.

[Clogiron Brian]

thanks guys, good advice as ever!

[JD01]

Ok, as a starting point I'd go with this.
Lead vocal in the centre,
If you have a single backing vocal, which just adds odd bits of doubling or harmony here and there, also pan it centre, but with a little more reverb and a little less volume.

If you've got 2 harmony vocals, start by panning them 50/50 L/R also a bit lower in volume and with a touch more reverb.

For guitars when I'm double tracking I tend to hard pan them. Particularly for identical parts.

Leave your bass guitar in the middle.

That's just a starting point though, do what you think soubds good. No rules. Its nice to have a start though.

[vomitHatSteve]

I usually do all my bgvox doubled and hard-panned

[Clogiron Brian]

I usually do all my bgvox doubled and hard-panned

thanks, do you mean to duplicate the same part and pan one hard left and one hard right?

[musicturtle]

I always have done panning as I were picturing the band playing the room.

Now bass, drum and lead vox almost always dead center for me.

But then I imagine were the guitarists are standing, where are the BG vocalists standing, keys, etc.

For me that helps get a natural spread. But in the it really just depends what kind of sound you are going after.

[WhiskeyJack]

For me by default i start every project like this.

Guitars 100% to 95% left and right
bass right up the middle 0%
snare i always nudge 1% right or left. I don't know why but i hear it come alive when i do that.
main vocals right up the middle 0%
any one part harmonies i nudge about 5% right or left of the main vocals and nestle it to the back and under the main.

thats by default how i have everything set up in my template. obviously once i start adding more stuff and start mixing at various volumes and various references i will start seasoning everything to taste. But typically i never stray too far from that.

Good luck.

[Armistice]

For me by default i start every project like this.

Guitars 100% to 95% left and right
bass right up the middle 0%
snare i always nudge 1% right or left. I don't know why but i hear it come alive when i do that.
main vocals right up the middle 0%
any one part harmonies i nudge about 5% right or left of the main vocals and nestle it to the back and under the main.

thats by default how i have everything set up in my template. obviously once i start adding more stuff and start mixing at various volumes and various references i will start seasoning everything to taste. But typically i never stray too far from that.

Good luck.

I do the snare slightly left too. Maybe 2%.

[WhiskeyJack]

For me by default i start every project like this.

Guitars 100% to 95% left and right
bass right up the middle 0%
snare i always nudge 1% right or left. I don't know why but i hear it come alive when i do that.
main vocals right up the middle 0%
any one part harmonies i nudge about 5% right or left of the main vocals and nestle it to the back and under the main.

thats by default how i have everything set up in my template. obviously once i start adding more stuff and start mixing at various volumes and various references i will start seasoning everything to taste. But typically i never stray too far from that.

Good luck.

I do the snare slightly left too. Maybe 2%.

Who hurt us to act in such a beastly way.

[Greg_L]

I usually do some version of the LCR panning. I used to pan things 22% here, 13% there, 52% over there, but then I just said fuck it and now I pretty much cram everything full wide or dead center. The only things that fall at odd places somewhere between 100% left and 100% right are things in the drum overheads.

[vomitHatSteve]

I usually do all my bgvox doubled and hard-panned

thanks, do you mean to duplicate the same part and pan one hard left and one hard right?

"duplicate" in the sense of do a second take, correct. I don't copy-paste it.

[Lt. Bob]

thanks, do you mean to duplicate the same part and pan one hard left and one hard right?

"duplicate" in the sense of do a second take, correct. I don't copy-paste it.

yeah .... copy/paste would serve no purpose since two identical parts panned still results in mono unless you delay one or the other

[vomitHatSteve]

"duplicate" in the sense of do a second take, correct. I don't copy-paste it.

yeah .... copy/paste would serve no purpose since two identical parts panned still results in mono unless you delay one or the other

Exactly.

[Armistice]

thanks, do you mean to duplicate the same part and pan one hard left and one hard right?

"duplicate" in the sense of do a second take, correct. I don't copy-paste it.

You sure don't. One day I hope to get back to that track for which you sent me a zillion separate backing vocal tracks in various harmonies. I may de-crypt it and see if I can fix what was bugging me - which was nothing to do with the backing vocals.

Wasting a good idea is anathema to me.

[vomitHatSteve]

Lol!

I always find it hard to stop. Once I'm layering some harmonies, I tend to find myself saying "it'll take 30 seconds to do another take of this chorus"