Many don't understand why pros do hard panning, therefore I am going to explain this.
I have mentioned the importance of having a high headroom setup, so let's forget that for now, but it is related to the topic and it too improves the result of the hard panning approach. The same amount great monitoring. (so both are a must have)
When you arrange and record the music you do so with mono compatibility checks. This ensures that within the stereo mix you have a very nice spread of frequencies and lots of air, so that all sound sources are clearly separated, fit and so that the sound of the recording is balanced and lush. During this work you try out various combinations of setups, you try various microphone pairs, various miking positions, you work to separate the frequencies on each side more, you tune the phase etc. All of this improves the mono compatibility.
But, this kind of approach has a very important value later on when it is time to mix: Gain staging
In my view you should have the second last bus panned a bit more narrowly until the final master is ready. It provides you a clean option to further widen the mix.
Now, when you have a great stereo recording, that in combination with hard panning, automatically improves the quality of the gain staging. Here is why.
Normally when you mix with a random panning approach, what happens is that you can get a lot of frequency masking on each speaker, meaning that the sound sources sound less clear within the stereo image etc. This makes it so that every single processing move you do in the context of the mix, whether it is EQ, compression, reverb, delay... you are going to over do. Yes, you can bypass the issue by processing in solo, but a great stereo mix must have each sound source work in their context, so in this way you would not achieve other nice qualities about the stereo mix. Therefore it's not a great option.
Now, because you can hard pan instead, you can balance the sound sources with the volume faders and pan knobs first. When you have such a balance, you can now try out on which side each sound source is louder and choose to hard pan towards the side where the sound source is louder and then compensate with the volume fader for the increase in loudness. This you can iterate several rounds until you find no more optimal side for any sound source in the mix. This can release a whole lot of signal and make you able to go much more gentle with each processing move at the same perceived effect.
Now, because you are not applying processing against a heavily frequency masked context, you now apply the right amount of processing. Think about this for a while, think about what it does to for instance your pass filtering. When you apply the processing, it might change the frequencies to such a degree that some of the sound sources again are louder on the other side, so you iterate the pan knobs again.
When you become good at this, it means you end up with really precise processing wetness and really precise volume and pan knob settings. The sum of all of these moves, especially when you have recorded really well, have really nice monitoring and when you have worked on the sides really well before you start mixing, free up a lot of signal.
Now, when you add that signal back into the mix, it is not the kind of signal that is going to make your mix too loud and uncomfortable, because the mix is now consisting of really good volume and pan balance as well as really good processing. So as you add the signal back in, it's just going to amplify all of those great moves and further raise the resonance potential of the mix.
This is not why commercial mixes are perceived more present and loud (that has more to do with other things), but it contributes in an important way.
I have mentioned the importance of having a high headroom setup, so let's forget that for now, but it is related to the topic and it too improves the result of the hard panning approach. The same amount great monitoring. (so both are a must have)
When you arrange and record the music you do so with mono compatibility checks. This ensures that within the stereo mix you have a very nice spread of frequencies and lots of air, so that all sound sources are clearly separated, fit and so that the sound of the recording is balanced and lush. During this work you try out various combinations of setups, you try various microphone pairs, various miking positions, you work to separate the frequencies on each side more, you tune the phase etc. All of this improves the mono compatibility.
But, this kind of approach has a very important value later on when it is time to mix: Gain staging
In my view you should have the second last bus panned a bit more narrowly until the final master is ready. It provides you a clean option to further widen the mix.
Now, when you have a great stereo recording, that in combination with hard panning, automatically improves the quality of the gain staging. Here is why.
Normally when you mix with a random panning approach, what happens is that you can get a lot of frequency masking on each speaker, meaning that the sound sources sound less clear within the stereo image etc. This makes it so that every single processing move you do in the context of the mix, whether it is EQ, compression, reverb, delay... you are going to over do. Yes, you can bypass the issue by processing in solo, but a great stereo mix must have each sound source work in their context, so in this way you would not achieve other nice qualities about the stereo mix. Therefore it's not a great option.
Now, because you can hard pan instead, you can balance the sound sources with the volume faders and pan knobs first. When you have such a balance, you can now try out on which side each sound source is louder and choose to hard pan towards the side where the sound source is louder and then compensate with the volume fader for the increase in loudness. This you can iterate several rounds until you find no more optimal side for any sound source in the mix. This can release a whole lot of signal and make you able to go much more gentle with each processing move at the same perceived effect.
Now, because you are not applying processing against a heavily frequency masked context, you now apply the right amount of processing. Think about this for a while, think about what it does to for instance your pass filtering. When you apply the processing, it might change the frequencies to such a degree that some of the sound sources again are louder on the other side, so you iterate the pan knobs again.
When you become good at this, it means you end up with really precise processing wetness and really precise volume and pan knob settings. The sum of all of these moves, especially when you have recorded really well, have really nice monitoring and when you have worked on the sides really well before you start mixing, free up a lot of signal.
Now, when you add that signal back into the mix, it is not the kind of signal that is going to make your mix too loud and uncomfortable, because the mix is now consisting of really good volume and pan balance as well as really good processing. So as you add the signal back in, it's just going to amplify all of those great moves and further raise the resonance potential of the mix.
This is not why commercial mixes are perceived more present and loud (that has more to do with other things), but it contributes in an important way.