Panning

[Steez]

Just out of interest, how far do other people on here pan stuff when mixing a tune?

It might seem like an odd question but I'm just tryin to work out of my mixes are too narrow etc. and wondering what other people do

The furthest I go either side is usually 30% ish, usually on smaller percussive sounds, fx or stuff that doesn't need to be very prominent, to free space for the stuff that does

[Deset]

most my beats have a ton of percussion so it ranges from 70% for lesser hats and around 20 - 30% for my main ones.. snares usually 5-10%

[Steez]

most my beats have a ton of percussion so it ranges from 70% for lesser hats and around 20 - 30% for my main ones.. snares usually 5-10%
Sounds about the same for the main drums. 70% seemed really far still

What about the placement of horns and strings, horns specifically, they're a bastard to find a place for

['nuum general]

I think its something that depends on the style of the track. If there's a lot of percussion (which with me there tends to be) then I tend to pan things like hats, shakers & other percussion sounds more than 30%.

With non drum sounds I think it depends alot with what other sounds you have & how they work together.

[Deset]

i place the brass and strings opposite each other (eg: 30% left for strings and 30% right for brass) i also tend to have the lower instruments centered

[Steez]

i place the brass and strings opposite each other (eg: 30% left for strings and 30% right for brass) i also tend to have the lower instruments centered
Seen, I wasn't sure about this, my main instruments rarely go past 15% and I find that a bit far tbh ... but I've been having problems getting stuff to sit together and I wondered if it might be me keeping my mixes too narrow

[Breathe Beats]

go on my space and listen to 'polish bicycle'

i switched the panning of the main synths every 8bars

the outcome = hypeness:dozey:

[Retrofreak]

1. Kick, snare and bass in the middle, sometimes snare off center a tad.

2. Keyboards and backing vocals as wide as I can make them (stereo enhancement), with a mono feed in the centre.

3. percussion at 70%

I always check the stereo phase, to see how much I can get away with, then I play the track in mono to make sure that nothing has disappeared.

Club speakers are mono so it's important that the mix is solid and not out of phase...this will help you if your cutting to vinyl as well.

[Steez]

1. Kick, snare and bass in the middle, sometimes snare off center a tad.

2. Keyboards and backing vocals as wide as I can make them (stereo enhancement), with a mono feed in the centre.

3. percussion at 70%

I always check the stereo phase, to see how much I can get away with, then I play the track in mono to make sure that nothing has disappeared.

Club speakers are mono so it's important that the mix is solid and not out of phase...this will help you if your cutting to vinyl as well.

The mono in the centre at 2. is something I've never done still, could be a good look

When people mix, do they mix using mono or stereo audio files?

[striver kid]

What exactly how does it work

[striver kid]

What exactly is panning how does it work

[Deset]

.
Panning is the spread of a monaural (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaural) signal in a stereo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound) or multi-channel sound field. A typical pan control is constant power. At one extreme, the sound appears in only one channel. In the middle, the sound is decreased in that channel by 3 dB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel), and the other channel is brought up to the same level, so that the overall sound power level (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_power_level) is always constant.[1] (http://www.rane.com/par-p.html#pan) The pan control in audio gets its name from panorama or panning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panning_%28camera%29) action in moving image technology. The audio pan control can be used in a mix to create the impression that a source is moving from one side of the soundstage to the other, although ideally there would be timing and reverberation differences present for a more complete picture of movement within a defined space. Simple analog pan controls only change relative level; they don't add reverb to replace direct signal or change delay timing.
Panning can also be used in an audio mixer to reduce or reverse the stereo width of a stereo signal. For instance, the left and right channels of a stereo source can be panned 'straight up', that is sent equally to both the left output and the right output of the mixer, creating a dual mono signal.
The pan control or pan pot has an internal architecture which determines how much of each source signal is sent to the two buses that are fed by the pan control. The power curve is called taper or law. Pan control law might be designed to send -4.5 dB to each bus when centered or 'straight up' or it might have -6 dB or -3 dB in the center. If the two output buses are further combined to make a mono signal, then a pan control law of -6 dB is optimum. If the two output buses are to remain stereo then a pan control law of -3 dB is optimum. Pan control law of -4.5 dB is a compromise between the two.
A pan control fully rotated to one side results in the source being sent at full strength to one bus and zero strength to the other.
The pan pot is not the same as a balance control on a consumer stereo receiver. The balance control takes a stereo source and varies the relative level of the two channels. The left channel will never come out of the right speaker by the action of a balance control. A pan control can send the left channel to either the left or the right speakers or anywhere in between. Note that mixers which have stereo input channels controlled by a single pan pot are in fact using the balance control architecture in those channels, not pan control.

[Delirium_P]

Ive never panned anything apart from hats etc , but the brass and string pannin idea sounds quite interesting but try this out sometimes.

[croydonbeats]

I usually have a bunch of up-front sounds, then behind them a layer of really quiet stuff, that you might not always hear that clearly, but that adds a certain little something to the overall track. Usually I'll pan the quiet stuff out a bit more than the main stuff... it's like having the important people in the centre of a photo, and passers-by in the corners? Lets you get a bit of a stereo image going without things getting out of hand.

[HiTMAN22Productions]

Basically jus make the basics...then start panning from der...if u think it sounds good then leave it....otherwise jus work on panning other things to make it sound more live.

Panning can do alot to a tune, but u also gota have a good ear for dat stuff to realise if it actually does anything for the mix or not.