Good afternoon,
Coming from a backround of primarily recording acoustic instruments, I am unsure if panning tracks to left or the right is a thing in hiphop/electronic music. I'm one to experiment, however, I am just wondering what the "norm" is, other than using panning for a particular effect. Thanks in advance for any replies!
-Fur Trapper
Overall, commercially the norm is still to gain stage the split tracks on the speakers with hardware. Many engineers choose to focus the panning of most of the frequencies to the center and leave a pretty big gap between those and the hard panned elements in the mix. In a CLA style mix you have the side component rather dark and extremely light in density. Guitars are doing most of the high end work, hi hat is added underneath to finalize the balance and cymbals are added on top to cause impact. I find that the bass, kick and vocals should be panned center, because else you'll have a mix that drags towards one side.
A stereo panning scheme (excluding the one side-only mute choice) might look like this:
Vocals
Low: mute
Low mid: 25 %
Mid: 25 %
High: 50%
Background vocals
Low: 50%
Low mid: 100%
Mid: 100%
High: 75%
Bass
Low: 0%
Mid: 0%
High: 0%
Kick drum
Low: 0%
Low mid: 50%
Mid: 0%
High: 0%
Snare
Low: 25%
Low mid: 75%
Mid: 25%
High: 0%
Hi hat
Low: mute
Low mid: mute
Mid: 25%
High: 25%
Cymbals
Low: mute
Low mid: 100%
Mid: 100%
High: 50%
Electric guitar
Low: mute
Low mid: 50%
Mid: 100%
High: 25%
Acoustic guitar
Low: 50%
Low mid: 50%
Mid: 100%
High: 75%
Piano:
Low: 50%
Low mid: 50%
Mid: 25%
High: 25%
B3:
Low: 75%
Low mid: 75%
Mid: 75%
High: 50%
Pad/synth:
Low: mute
Low mid: 75%
Mid: 75%
High: 75%
Stereo/percussion/arpeggios/delays/reverbs:
Low: mute
Low mid: 100%
Mid: 100%
High: 75%
In reality you have one side-only mutes and side-chaining on low, low mid, mid, high on some of these elements in order to balance each speaker individually both in terms of rms and peak. All of these are of course dynamically fine tuned throughout the mix with automation. When you bring the highs in the mix somewhat towards the center overall, it adds softness to the mix. It is the mute of the lows on several sound sources in the mix that brings clearity and a good density. The worst mistake you can do is to have harsh transients panned hard left and right on loud volume.
Much of the impact created in hits that pop are done so due to the muting. The muting is what can make the vocals in the chorus pop. Muting is also what can silence the noise of the mix and make it sound as if it is played in vacuum, which is a very high quality type of sound, when it is done properly in the hardware domain it causes a very peaceful and emotional listening experience.
Take advantage of panning to make the listeners keep listening to the track. You have to use all of your tools and techniques to make the listeners engaged in your productions.
A great stereo image is the result of having center to side balance, L to R balance, L balance, R balance, mid balance, side balance, all of these balanced in terms of both rms and peak. It's not done just by touching a few knobs, it's a thorough work done with specific hardware and is always production oriented. And it has to be done such that when the listener turns up the playback volume, the right things happen with the stereo image. This means many things - you need to be aware of the perception threshold and in what way/order various elements should pass into perception as you increase the playback volume. You might for instance want the low end of the snare to become audible at a loud playback level and not to be audible on quiet playback. How you make the mix grow in the right way when you increase the playback volume is one of the most important things in mixing. These are balancing decisions you make in mixing and mastering. So listen to how your mix sounds while you are adjusting the playback level. Keep adjusting the playback level while you work, else you'll going to lock the whole mix to sound good only at a certain playback level.
