Spatial mixing?

[BlackPanther]

Ok since OCR is so awesome about everything, I figured I would bug you guys with another question. Messin around with ewql has got me thinkin about stereo space.

Are there guidelines with this type of stuff? I know things like bass and vocals are usually dead center, but what about other elements? How wide/narrow should certain elements be? Should lead instruments be centered as well? What about putting things in the left or right side of the soundscape? If one thing is on the right, what could I put to balance it with the left? If you guys can point me in the right direction I would so greatly appreciate it.

[Nase]

in the end, i'd leave those questions to your own intuition and experimentation.

people are gonna mention some examples of widespread consensus such as 'better leave the bass in the center'. definitely makes sense most of the time, possibly holds true for all the music you'll ever be doing, but that doesn't mean it's the best thing to do universally.

not meaning to kill the start of a discussion btw, as i could learn a lot more about using the stereo spectrum. just pointing out that as ever so often, there are no real absolutes to be found.

[zircon]

I second what Nase said, but here is my own personal approach for most electronic styles. I don't pan anything. Literally, nothing. I often use reverbs and stereo delays to add a spatial effect, and sometimes I have LFO-panned synths or drumloops, but I never hard pan things unless they're guitars (and only if they are double tracked.) Just my opinion. So many people listen to music on headphones these days and IMO intensive panning is distracting.

[Moseph]

Recently realized for orchestra stuff that I was panning things way too widely (as compared to live recordings). My approach now is to keep panning things wide but squeeze the stereo image with a stereo manipulator thingy on the master channel, which makes controlling the overall spread easier than it would be if I had to adjust twenty to thirty individual pan faders every time I wanted to try a wider or narrower stereo image.

[Cyril the Wolf]

Depends on the style, but I LOooooooooooooove burying things in the sides for people to hear and be all "ooohhhh"

For me, bass is usually dead center, unless you double it for certain electronic styles.

Vocals are dead center unless doubled.

That's it though, and I've gotten around the vocal thing becuase I had a musical argument going on and having each vocalist on either side was artistic in its own way.

zircon's approach is rock, imma try that.

[zircon]

I guess I should note that I do think orchestral music deserves realistic panning...

[Fishy]

I like to pan stuff heavy wide as long as it's balanced by something on the other side ala Steely Dan type stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ec7n0QL4k&feature=related

I think it makes individual parts of the mix stand out more. It's a lot easier to appreciate funky little guitar or piano/organ sounds if they have their own space, but it's gotta be balanced. Obviously this does not apply to all all genres.

In terms of classical music and recordings, the consensus is to pan things as they would appear on stage.

[Palpable]

I used to use panning a lot because I love the effect, especially on headphones. (Yeahhhhh, take that, zircon.) Over time I figured out I was overdoing it, so I use less of it and my panning is closer to center. Leads almost always get centered unless I have simultaneous leads or something, in which case they get slightly panned. Pads and atmospheric sounds get stereo delay but stay centered. But little fill instruments, percussion, that stuff sounds great on the sides and it's also a little easier to hear.

[Gario]

For orchestral panning (much like the rest of you, I go for a more realistic approach), violin I is the farthest left, followed by violin II, mallets & percussion, flutes, clarinets, horns, oboes (roughly center), bassoons, trombones, trumpets, tubas, violas, basses, cellos (farthest right). This reflects the position of the orchestra in comparison to the listener.

I never hard pan these instruments, though - it just doesn't sound right to go past 24-28 in either direction, for me. It's not like the orchestra is playing around the audience or anything. As for electronic or anything like that, I pretty much mirror what Zircon said, although periodically I pan some instruments and counter them with other instruments panned against them, so I'm a little more pan-happy than Zircon .

[Rozovian]

Willrock should come in here and explain himself.

Personally, I like panning, but believe in moderation in everything. You can pan the "wrong" instrument for effect, make a superwide section or fill, a wide stereoscape pad, contrast leads or rhythms, or just separate voices and counterpoint. There are, as already stated, central elements that work best in the middle, with effects to spread them. I do pan, but usually just slightly with volume and just slightly with phase. Except the background stuff, which I wanna pan opposite to something similar.

If you're emulating a recording, your approach to panning should be quite different tho. Then you should be figuring out the room you're in, where in the room the different sounds are coming from (and from how far), and how the room itself sounds (aka reverb). Orchestral, jazz, piano and vocals (if you want the space rather than a studio sound), garage indie punk stuff, whatever.