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Fix it in the Mix - Panning
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Jerome White
Aug 6, 2009, 5:18:43 AM8/6/09
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Avoid mixing with headphones only. Headphones make you interpret the
mix, the frequency response and the dynamics quite different compared
to the experience you get when you listen to the mix through ordinary
speakers.
However, there's one occasion when you can benefit from using
headphones and its when you're adjusting the panning. It's easier to
hear how the instruments are positioned in the stereo field when
you're using headphones than when you're using speakers. One reason is
that the sound which is coming out of each speaker will go into both
ears. With headphones, you'll hear the left channel only in your left
ear and the right channel only in your right ear. With speakers the
sound will bounce on the walls in the room and in the worst case you
might experience unwanted resonance, which reduces the stereo effect.
Such problems are not inherent when you use headphones.
So when you're working in your home- or project studio, you may have a
pair of headphones connected to the mixer (or the headphone output of
your sound card if you're using a computer based mixer). Don't use the
headphones when you're adjusting the levels or when you're working
with filters etc, but only when you need to adjust the pan settings.
That should be relatively seldom.
Normally (but there are no strict rules, this is art) a mix shouldn't
contain any extreme pan settings. In other words try to avoid panning
instruments to the far left or far right. It's better to stay within
the range of say 50% to the far left and 50% to the far right.
Non symmetric layouts might work in some cases, because it depends on
which instruments that are used on each track. Instruments which only
occur a few times in a mix can indeed be panned to the extreme left or
right. On the other hand, the more frequent an instrument is used, the
more important is it that its panning is balanced by another
instrument in the opposite direction.
There are several reasons to avoid extreme pan settings.
If your track is played on mono gear, then some vendors might have
connected only the left (or only the right) channel to the speaker.
Then if you've panned an instrument to say the far right channel, that
instrument will sound much lower than the rest of the instruments
efficiently destroying your mix. Although this is not a problem with
most hi-tech gear, there are indeed simple and cheap FM radios, which
don't sum the left and right channels, but connect only one of them to
the speaker.
Another problem with an extreme panning layout is that it becomes more
difficult to create a mix which sounds good, balancing all the
instruments correctly. The panning could feel strange for the
listener. It can be very irritating to have, say, the bass in the left
ear throughout the song, not the least if the bass sound is very
unusual and there's no corresponding instrument in the right channel
which balances that instrument. The same applies to drums. Panning,
say, the hi-hat to the far right might create a stereo field which
doesn't feel right for the user. Symmetry is the keyword here. If you
put something to the left, then you need to put something in the right
channel to compensate for it. And if you choose to put an instrument
such as a hi-hat to the far left, then you're in trouble because it
will be played continuously, for example 4 or 8 times per beat. To
compensate for that, you need an instrument in the far right channel
which is played almost as frequently, to balance the hi-hat. And your
song might contain very few instruments which can do that. It's not
impossible, but it's difficult.
An easier way out is to stay within a reasonably narrow panning range,
e.g. between 50% to the left and 50% to the right.
Then it will be easier to distribute the instruments across the stereo
field, because an unbalanced layout won't be as noticeable and
irritating for the user as it would be if the whole range of the
stereo field was used.
So how could a panning layout look? Let's have a look at a 10 track
recording which contains the following instruments.
Track 1 Bass
Track 2 Pad
Track 3 Lead synth (left)
Track 4 Lead synth (right)
Track 5 Bass drum
Track 6 Snare drum
Track 7 Hand claps
Track 8 Open and closed hihats
Track 9 Ride cymbal
Track 10 Crash cymbal
The bass is played reasonably fast, all the time. Thus it occupies
quite a lot of space in the mix. Then we keep it in the centre of the
stereo field, because otherwise it could create a bad feeling for the
listener if it's played all the time and is mixed to the left or
right. So we're conservative and position it in the middle of the
stereo field.
The pad plays chords, around one chord per beat, so it lies more in
the background and doesn't play as many notes as the bass does. So we
can experiment with this one and position it a bit to the left in the
mix, to be more precise 50% to the left.
Now the balance of the whole mix has been damaged, because there's one
track in the middle and one to the left. It'll feel strange for the
listener when there are things going on in the middle and to the left,
but nothing's in the right channel. So we need to do something about
it.
The lead synth is a stereo sound (two channels) which we use to
compensate the panning in track 2. Track 2 has moved the overall mix
over to the left side so we need to balance it back again to the right
side. So we put the left channel (track 3) in the middle and the right
channel (track 4) 50% to the right in the mix.
Now we've compensated for track 2 and got the mix back into balance
again.
The bass drum follows almost the same pattern as the bass. To make it
more interesting than putting the bass drum in the centre, together
with the bass, then we move the panning of the bass 10% to the left
and put the bass drum 10% to the right. Thus, the balance is kept and
we introduce a cool stereo effect when the bass drum and the bass are
played almost, but not exactly, at the same time.
The snare drum is played on beat 3, at the same time as the bass drum.
We can put it 15% to the left.
The hand claps are played on beat 3 as well, at the same time as the
snare drum, so we create a small stereo effect by panning it 15% to
the right.
The closed hi-hat plays on beats 1, 2, 3 and the open hi-hat opens up
on beat 4. So they are played quite fast and would cause too much
unevenness if they were panned to the extreme left or right. So we
keep them in the centre of the stereo field. It might be possible to
fine adjust these say 5% to the left or right, but we go for the
centre.
Now it's time to pan the ride cymbal and we suddenly realize that it's
played reasonably fast too, on beats 1 and 3, thus half the speed of
the hi-hats. But since the ride cymbal has such a long decay, the
impression for the listener is that it occupies as much space in the
mix as the hi-hats do.
So we adjust the hihats so they're 15% to the left and then put the
ride cymbal at 15% to the right in the mix, balancing the hi-hats in a
nice way.
The crash cymbal is used very seldom, only at the start of every 8th
bar. So it doesn't really matter how we pan it, because it won't
irritate the listener by knocking on either the left or right channel
all the time. So we can pan it say 40% to the left.
That's it. The individual tracks have been balanced against each other
so the balance is not falling over to the left or to the right side of
the stereo field.
If an instrument is panned to the left, then there should be another
instrument which compensates, being panned to the right.
As you might understand it's all about balancing the mix. And exactly
how you balance the mix depends on which sounds you use and how
frequently they're played. If a sound is playing rapidly over and over
again, then you'd better be careful if you mix it in another position
than to the centre, because you'd need to balance it with something
else.
It also depends on how long the decay of the sound is of course. The
ride cymbal has a long tail (decay), so it could be balanced together
with the hi-hats although they're played much more frequently, because
the hi-hats have a much shorter decay time.
In the end you need to listen carefully. Over and over again. Use
headphones to adjust the panning. Then listen to mix in speakers and
in headphones. Does it sound good in speakers? And in headphones?
Great. You've done it.
mix, the frequency response and the dynamics quite different compared
to the experience you get when you listen to the mix through ordinary
speakers.
However, there's one occasion when you can benefit from using
headphones and its when you're adjusting the panning. It's easier to
hear how the instruments are positioned in the stereo field when
you're using headphones than when you're using speakers. One reason is
that the sound which is coming out of each speaker will go into both
ears. With headphones, you'll hear the left channel only in your left
ear and the right channel only in your right ear. With speakers the
sound will bounce on the walls in the room and in the worst case you
might experience unwanted resonance, which reduces the stereo effect.
Such problems are not inherent when you use headphones.
So when you're working in your home- or project studio, you may have a
pair of headphones connected to the mixer (or the headphone output of
your sound card if you're using a computer based mixer). Don't use the
headphones when you're adjusting the levels or when you're working
with filters etc, but only when you need to adjust the pan settings.
That should be relatively seldom.
Normally (but there are no strict rules, this is art) a mix shouldn't
contain any extreme pan settings. In other words try to avoid panning
instruments to the far left or far right. It's better to stay within
the range of say 50% to the far left and 50% to the far right.
Non symmetric layouts might work in some cases, because it depends on
which instruments that are used on each track. Instruments which only
occur a few times in a mix can indeed be panned to the extreme left or
right. On the other hand, the more frequent an instrument is used, the
more important is it that its panning is balanced by another
instrument in the opposite direction.
There are several reasons to avoid extreme pan settings.
If your track is played on mono gear, then some vendors might have
connected only the left (or only the right) channel to the speaker.
Then if you've panned an instrument to say the far right channel, that
instrument will sound much lower than the rest of the instruments
efficiently destroying your mix. Although this is not a problem with
most hi-tech gear, there are indeed simple and cheap FM radios, which
don't sum the left and right channels, but connect only one of them to
the speaker.
Another problem with an extreme panning layout is that it becomes more
difficult to create a mix which sounds good, balancing all the
instruments correctly. The panning could feel strange for the
listener. It can be very irritating to have, say, the bass in the left
ear throughout the song, not the least if the bass sound is very
unusual and there's no corresponding instrument in the right channel
which balances that instrument. The same applies to drums. Panning,
say, the hi-hat to the far right might create a stereo field which
doesn't feel right for the user. Symmetry is the keyword here. If you
put something to the left, then you need to put something in the right
channel to compensate for it. And if you choose to put an instrument
such as a hi-hat to the far left, then you're in trouble because it
will be played continuously, for example 4 or 8 times per beat. To
compensate for that, you need an instrument in the far right channel
which is played almost as frequently, to balance the hi-hat. And your
song might contain very few instruments which can do that. It's not
impossible, but it's difficult.
An easier way out is to stay within a reasonably narrow panning range,
e.g. between 50% to the left and 50% to the right.
Then it will be easier to distribute the instruments across the stereo
field, because an unbalanced layout won't be as noticeable and
irritating for the user as it would be if the whole range of the
stereo field was used.
So how could a panning layout look? Let's have a look at a 10 track
recording which contains the following instruments.
Track 1 Bass
Track 2 Pad
Track 3 Lead synth (left)
Track 4 Lead synth (right)
Track 5 Bass drum
Track 6 Snare drum
Track 7 Hand claps
Track 8 Open and closed hihats
Track 9 Ride cymbal
Track 10 Crash cymbal
The bass is played reasonably fast, all the time. Thus it occupies
quite a lot of space in the mix. Then we keep it in the centre of the
stereo field, because otherwise it could create a bad feeling for the
listener if it's played all the time and is mixed to the left or
right. So we're conservative and position it in the middle of the
stereo field.
The pad plays chords, around one chord per beat, so it lies more in
the background and doesn't play as many notes as the bass does. So we
can experiment with this one and position it a bit to the left in the
mix, to be more precise 50% to the left.
Now the balance of the whole mix has been damaged, because there's one
track in the middle and one to the left. It'll feel strange for the
listener when there are things going on in the middle and to the left,
but nothing's in the right channel. So we need to do something about
it.
The lead synth is a stereo sound (two channels) which we use to
compensate the panning in track 2. Track 2 has moved the overall mix
over to the left side so we need to balance it back again to the right
side. So we put the left channel (track 3) in the middle and the right
channel (track 4) 50% to the right in the mix.
Now we've compensated for track 2 and got the mix back into balance
again.
The bass drum follows almost the same pattern as the bass. To make it
more interesting than putting the bass drum in the centre, together
with the bass, then we move the panning of the bass 10% to the left
and put the bass drum 10% to the right. Thus, the balance is kept and
we introduce a cool stereo effect when the bass drum and the bass are
played almost, but not exactly, at the same time.
The snare drum is played on beat 3, at the same time as the bass drum.
We can put it 15% to the left.
The hand claps are played on beat 3 as well, at the same time as the
snare drum, so we create a small stereo effect by panning it 15% to
the right.
The closed hi-hat plays on beats 1, 2, 3 and the open hi-hat opens up
on beat 4. So they are played quite fast and would cause too much
unevenness if they were panned to the extreme left or right. So we
keep them in the centre of the stereo field. It might be possible to
fine adjust these say 5% to the left or right, but we go for the
centre.
Now it's time to pan the ride cymbal and we suddenly realize that it's
played reasonably fast too, on beats 1 and 3, thus half the speed of
the hi-hats. But since the ride cymbal has such a long decay, the
impression for the listener is that it occupies as much space in the
mix as the hi-hats do.
So we adjust the hihats so they're 15% to the left and then put the
ride cymbal at 15% to the right in the mix, balancing the hi-hats in a
nice way.
The crash cymbal is used very seldom, only at the start of every 8th
bar. So it doesn't really matter how we pan it, because it won't
irritate the listener by knocking on either the left or right channel
all the time. So we can pan it say 40% to the left.
That's it. The individual tracks have been balanced against each other
so the balance is not falling over to the left or to the right side of
the stereo field.
If an instrument is panned to the left, then there should be another
instrument which compensates, being panned to the right.
As you might understand it's all about balancing the mix. And exactly
how you balance the mix depends on which sounds you use and how
frequently they're played. If a sound is playing rapidly over and over
again, then you'd better be careful if you mix it in another position
than to the centre, because you'd need to balance it with something
else.
It also depends on how long the decay of the sound is of course. The
ride cymbal has a long tail (decay), so it could be balanced together
with the hi-hats although they're played much more frequently, because
the hi-hats have a much shorter decay time.
In the end you need to listen carefully. Over and over again. Use
headphones to adjust the panning. Then listen to mix in speakers and
in headphones. Does it sound good in speakers? And in headphones?
Great. You've done it.
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