If you have a really busy mix, panning the piano to one area can be great. Either that could mean panning the mics to both be in the same area – say 50% to the right – or narrowing the stereo field by panning one mic 100% to the right and leaving the other directly in the middle.
In cinematography and photography panning means swivelling a still or video camera horizontally from a fixed position. This motion is similar to the motion of a person when they turn their head on their neck from left to right.
Panning is the spread of a monaural signal in a stereo or multi-channel sound field - it is critical to the makeup of the stereo image. Panning adds space in a mix through panning the instruments center, left and right.
Technique #1: Basics of Panning Drums
In other words, you don't need to apply any panning to them. Around this centre, you can pan the other drums and percussion samples. Usually, I pan the hi hats, cymbals, tambourines and shakers, so the more basic percussion instruments, a little to the right and/or left of center.Pan the solo guitar off to one side. If the vocalist is doing anything vocally over the solo, pan them to the opposite side. Try to isolate the solo guitar as much as possible to make it pop out of the mix. The panning and EQ can all be automated and this will allow a smooth transition in and out of the solo.
Panning all of the violins to the left takes the listener's attention off of the main ingredients, such as a center-panned vocalist or solo instrument because they also often reside in the same range. Instead, pan your string bass parts to the middle to center the mix's lower end.
You generally don't pan all the way to each side ("hard left/right panning") because it sounds unnatural (especially on headphones), but up to 80% should work. If you're using more than two tracks, it would be best not to pan them the same amount. I generally track four times, panned 80% and 60%.
If you only have one guitar track, you should pan them equally in either left or right at the same panning setting value but in opposite. For example, if you start panning a guitar on LEFT 85%, then you should make a copy of that guitar and put it on the RIGHT 85%. This will ensure stereo balance of your guitar tracks.
Panning is the distribution of a sound signal (either monaural or stereophonic pairs) into a new stereo or multi-channel sound field determined by a pan control setting. A pan pot has an internal architecture which determines how much of a source signal is sent to the left and right buses.
The concept of panning is straightforward with mono tracks (as described above), but possibly less so with stereo tracks. Some DAWs feature two pan controls for each stereo track—one positions the left side of the signal, the other the right.
The 'LCR' stands for 'Left-Centre-Right', which refers to the mixing process of panning to only those three positions. Interestingly enough, early mixing consoles often didn't even have pan pots, but rather just had LCR switches.
Always pan the bass center
If the bass comes from both stereo speakers, it can be louder than if it only comes from one. Also, in the days of vinyl records, there could be problems with mistracking on playback if the bass was panned all the way to one side.Otherwise it will sound quite and flat, and they won't want to use it. However, when you add the vocals, you use the pre-mastered version of the beat, and master the beat and the vocals together when you are done mixing. Mastering on top of an already mastered beat will not sound clean and cohesive which is your goal.
What dB should vocals be recorded at? You should record vocals at an average of -18dB for 24-bit resolution. The loudest parts of the recording should peak at -10dB and be lowest at -24dB. This is to keep an even balance on the level of the vocals without distortion.
In cinematography and photography panning means swivelling a still or video camera horizontally from a fixed position. This motion is similar to the motion of a person when they turn their head on their neck from left to right.
LCR panning is one of those hacks. LCR panning (which stands for Left Center Right) is for some reason a hotly debated “method” of placing tracks in the stereo field. Although many of our favorite mixes are panned this way, people (including my friends) bristle at the thought.
Overdubbing (the process of making an overdub, or overdubs) is a technique used in audio recording where a passage (typically musical) has been pre-recorded, and then during replay, another part is recorded to go along with the original. The overdub process can be repeated multiple times.
The Simple Answer
To give you a simple answer, if you're recording vocals of one singer in a booth, you should record in mono. However, when you're recording vocals of more than one singer and instrument, you should record in stereo. If you make music, you've probably heard about mono and stereo before.
