As a bit of a traditionalist, I pan the bass and kick drum in the middle. With a wavelength longer than the width of your head, you are going to hear them there anyway.

Vocals, always centered unless there is a good reason to put it elsewhere.

Instruments that share the same audio frequencies I like to pan to different sides. How much? It depends.

I also like to adjust reverb/echo according to the song. For some songs I like to put them all in the same room, but for others I realize that a guitarist might dial in different FX settings than the synth player or the vocalist.

When on the gig, I pan everything center. Only a few people in the entire room will be in the stereo sweet spot, and some will be near one channel or the other. I remember eating lunch in a restaurant, and if seated either in the front or the back of the room, all you could hear was one stereo channel. At times that sounded weird, like not being able to hear the lead guitar, just the lead guitar's reverb.

For tone and all of the above, I just twiddle the virtual or actual knobs/sliders and let my ears be the judge.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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