Call and response using stereo panning

[Furorezu]

Hi everyone, I'm working on a song with a call and response structure and currently, my vision is to have each guitar panned left and right. They will be changing duties between playing lead and rhythm guitar and I've done some testing on my own and so far, I'm not liking the way how abrupt the hand-off of rhythm guitar duty is sounding so I wanted to see if there's anyone else who's done something similar or knows maybe a trick or tool that I could use to make the transitions sound smooth. Here's a screenshot of what my tracks look like at the moment, if that's any help. I'm using Reaper 5. 

 

 

[timaeus222]

If anything, I would not hard-pan guitars that alternate. I don't use Reaper, so I can't tell if you did that or not, but try about 30~50% L/R and I think that'll be less awkward. Also, since panned instruments stick out more than centered instruments, make sure that their EQs are approximately the same. You don't want a bunch of low-mids on one lead but little low-mids on the other lead (e.g. you might have some low-mids frequencies in the picking noise), because the "imbalance" in the frequency distribution will be more noticeable on those panned instruments.

[shadowpsyc]

Definitely try dialing it back a bit. Especially where they're trading parts and not playing something similar, just snapping from one side of the stereo field to the other like that is going to be jarring.

[Eino Keskitalo]

You might be able to address this in part-writing too. The non-active part doesn't have to be complete silence, especially in the end/beginning. See if you can bridge the transitions.

[Moseph]

You might try double-tracking each rhythm part. Hard pan the doubled tracks as normal, but then reduce the level on one of them so you get the feeling of being panned left or right while retaining the fullness that double-tracking gives you. Adjust the balance between the doubled tracks so that when you switch which guitar is playing rhythm, the perceived panning changes enough to be noticeable but not enough to be distracting.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Moseph's suggestion is valid; I would approach it differently though, and create two new rhythm guitar tracks that aren't panned as hard each (maybe 30-40% each side). During normal double tracked rhythms, use the hard panned ones, during the call and response, use the less panned ones.

ILD (level difference, i.e. what Moseph is telling you to do) is pretty much what DAW pan pots do anyway (change the levels of the L and R to make one louder therefore "closer" to one ear). I would just let the knob do the work instead of trying to do it manually.

Or circumvent the need for extra tracks entirely and automate the pan knob. :3

[APZX]

There are a lot of things you can try to do a call & response. But first off pretty much the advice of hard panning L&R can be very jarring if you're not careful with how you approach it. With that being said I'll give you a few ideas of how to get away with the hard panning at least kind of. 

So, the ear is a fickle thing that really pays attention to the differences in the L&R. So, a single instrument just chillin' out there will be picked up almost instantly and become extremely grating very quickly. Though not all hope is lost as there are some tricks you can play with the ear. Without going into the changing the composition one thing you can do is actually hard pan the reverb to the other side e.g. Guitar in the left reverb goes to the right. Now, it will sound a bit funky and strange on its own. However, in the context in the mix it'll work especially if you've got something else playing in the middle. I cannot tell you exactly why it works, it just does. The only real thing to be careful is with EQ. 

Another option you have is to actually alternate the call & response's sides. That is to say if you put the call into the left the first time then you put it into the right the next. Again be careful with EQ. But doing this helps create something more interesting sounding, but also prevents it from being too jarring. 

Personally, what I'd start with is hard panned ping pong delays because with the proper use of filters would first prevent the jarring aspect by blending the L&R more, but it would also blend the call & response a bit better because they'd be feeding into each other as it were. Like echoes in a canyon or something. This is what I'd personally start with if you want them hard panned.

[Garpocalypse]

Brandon Strader, Rexy and Willrock did something similar for Dod's Indie Month if you want to check out how their mix sounded.

http://dwellingofduels.net/dodarchive/12-08-Indie/01-Brandon%20Strader,%20Rexy,%20some1namedjeff,%20Willrock-BreathOfDeath7-Peace-DoD.mp3

There are a lot of ways to pull this off but personally i really enjoy a response that is wider and further in the background than the call or vice versa.  Double tracking is an option but if you want to maintain better clarity of the notes send the part to an aux with stereo delay and low pass the entire part slightly and reduce the volume by 5db or so from the lead part.  That way you have a call that is straight up the middle and a wide answer that gives a greater sense of depth to the overall mix.  

 

[Furorezu]

Awesome suggestions! I'll definitely lower the panning a little on the guitars, the reason that they're so hard-panned is because for some reason, messing with the pan knob on Reaper is a downright pain that I've never been able to figure out. I'm going to try out moseph's suggestion first. Though Neblix, I'm curious on what you mean by automating the pan knob? I'm pretty new to producing so I've been getting familiar with Reaper for only the past month or so. Also going to definitely give a listen to your link, Garpocalypse.

[Furorezu]

Hearing Garpocaylpse's link and doing some more testing on my own's led me to realize that maybe I should instead have a steady rhythm guitar and have two lead guitars playing in turns and each guitar assigned to the left and right.