panning

[DTermination]

just wanted to know why would we pan a stereo mic technique like spaced pair or co incident pair or if your using 2 mic's a condensor and a dynamic to the far left and far right in our DAW or mixing console why couldnt i just leave it in the centre?

[chris carter]

You can!

[DTermination]

You can!

ok but why is it generally panned hard left or hard right? as i have seen this done all the time but never known why

[Foggy]

It's all about the fact that humans have two ears and use this to give us the information of where the sound is coming from (could say 3 dimensions) .

Now in the context of music , we separate the different elements via frequency , ie. a bass line being lower than the melody (higher freq/tone) , when composing and mixing .

You should use the "two ears" to separate across the "three dimensions" of the stereo image when mixing .
Not only is this done for separation of instruments , it is done to make elements/song sound natural and also as an effect .

* yes , I know the analogy is not strictly accurate "3D" *

[Djnx]

just wanted to know why would we pan a stereo mic technique like spaced pair or co incident pair or if your using 2 mic's a condensor and a dynamic to the far left and far right in our DAW or mixing console why couldnt i just leave it in the centre?

Because if you leave it at the centre, you are not really hearing how your mic placement is working. Just record with hard left/right panning and modify it when mixing.

[chris carter]

Sometimes I mic stuff up knowing I want it stereo. Sometimes I mic stuff up knowing I want it mono.

Example: I might mic an acoustic guitar with an LDC on the body and an SDC where the neck meets the body. I might pan L/R for a stereo acoustic guitar. I might blend them in mono for a full sounding mono guitar. Another guitar example: a Royer 121 on one cone and a dynamic on another - usually I'm panning both to the same position; rarely for 'stereo' effect (in fact, never have).

Their just two mics, for two different sounds. It might be the sum of those sounds that you want so you will pan them the same. Or maybe you want the two different mics for two different sounds you will pan L/R. It's just about what you want.

Sometimes I get a record to mix that has two different mics and the producer intended for it to be stereo. And I listen to it and I think it sounds like total **** and I pan them both to the same place and it sounds great. One intention, different result.

I now see that you said "coincident" pair. Same rule (or lack thereof) applies though.