When you guys mix your tracks and you have multiple stereo instruments such as synths , pads, pianos, strings all playing at the same time what is your approach when it comes to panning? This is an area of my mixing game i feel I’m lacking and I’m seeking some guidance… What do you guys have for me?
---------------------------------------
I always approach it like this:
- center stuff like kick & bass always centered mono. Bass is sidechained with the kick and main freq of kick out of the bass and vice versa.
- all other percussive sounds are panned out of the middle to create a bit of room.
- synths, piano’s, etc are cut off low to keep 'm away from the center stuff. All isntruments are sidechained with the kick. EQ the main freq of the bassline out off the other instruments to give the bassline some room.
But all instruments are also EQ’d to give 'm room from eachother. Carefully select your instruments so that they don’t fight for the same frequencies (unless you want them too).
For the non-lead instruments you could opt for duplicating their channels and pan 1 hard to the left and the other to the right.
Hope this helps you a bit.
Yeah kind of second what <A class=SmlBoldLinks id=_ctl2_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl8_smAuthorName onmouseover=“window.status = window.location;return true;” title=“View daniaan’s Profile…” onmouseout=“window.status=‘’;return true;” href=“void(‘’);”>daniaan says about choosing your sounds carefully - if you have sounds playing at the same time that don’t clash too much in terms of frequency content, then you don’t need to worry about panning so much.
Especially if you are using a synth like Sylenth, where likely you will have the stereo spread dialled up, and so the multiple oscillators will be spread right across the stereo spectrum.
Then it becomes increasingly important to choose your sounds wisely, and not have anything too similar in terms of frequencies playing at the same time.
Yeah, just second or third what has been said, it is really more about frequency and where you can fit the sounds in the spectrum, than panning. .
I use panning very carefully, just slight positioning… when the frequency is all sorted out and you pan a little you can get some nice communication with the sounds, and they are not fighting, but playing together.
ok i think I’m getting what y’all are putting out… essentially the panning is more of a technique for drums… whereas with synths and other instruments its more of a matter of fitting everything together using eq. Correct?
Correct, but there are no strict rules.
If you want to pan one synth more to the left while panning another one to the left is just as okay.
It’s just what you want with all the different sounds.
For instance, if you want to layer a few synths to create a big lead stab or pad, you can always have one rolling from side to side. Or one centered and two on the left and right.
Same goes with bassline. The deep sound is best placed in the center along with the kick. But if you have a more mid oriented bass layer, you can always have that one panned outside of the center.
It all depends on what you’re aiming at.
I’ve found that when making your synth tracks, if you record them twice and layer them, with very slight imperfections or slightly different settings (like attack, release, cutoff etc…) and then pan one left and one right makes them sound huge. Pretty much the same technique they use on guitars, but it works. Also you can try using different FX settings on each of the tracks to create a more complex kind of layer. Since they are both panned to different sides they tend to stay out of each others way and add a nice variety (a little EQ is always welcomed here too).
Just another way to use panning. Hope that helps.
My opinion when it comes to panning is that the main thing to consider is the sounds energy.
If a sound brings a lot of energy with it (most your lead synths for example) then panning left or right may not be the best idea, as that will sway the tracks energy to the left or right with the sound. Instead use stereo widening techniques if you want to keep it out of the centre (double the sound up, pan one far left and the other far right and delay one of the signals ever so slightly) as this will still keep the energy on both sides.
Low energy sounds on the other hand can be panned, your percussion, cymbals, etc. They add to the sound of the whole track but dont necessarilly bring a lot of energy with it (depending on the sound, an open hat can bring a **** load of energy IMO so I tend to pan them only a TINY bit).
Other low energy sounds tend to include your pads, piano’s, fx, etc. All of it depends on circumstance though. Using your ears is always best as someone said earlier. Oh and Daniaan’s advice is pretty solid.