Panning - Binaural vs Balance

[JeanieLarkin]

Really depends on the genre and number of, and type of instruments. You mentioned a hybrid composition which sounds like an EDM style with added orchestral instruments. An EDM style kind of defines the panning in the mix.

As a general rule in mixing, the vocal, bass, kick, and snare are up center. Lower frequency instruments/sounds stay out of the sides, while higher frequency sounds can be panned harder to the sides.

But EDM as a rule is not hard panned L-R, because of Mono compatibility, and this mainly because of shooting for it being played in a club. In a club with one huge monitor on one side of the room and the other one on the other side, you might not hear all the instruments unless you were situated between the two monitors. So most EDM styles don't have a real wide spread.

Orchestral tracks usually do have a wide spread, this because of so many instruments, the space is needed. With Rock, the rhythm guitars are usually hard panned L & R.

A mixing trick if you have a lot of instruments is to limit the number of stereo tracks. Use mono instruments as much as possible. If not, you can use a plugin like Waves S1 stereo imager to make the stereo spread more mono, and then pan it where it best fits with other instruments.


L-C-R panning - this is when instruments are either panned strictly center, or hard left and hard right, nothing in between. I don't recommend this, but a lot pro mixers use it. (I almost never pan anything all the way right or left.)

Thanks Dave, all really useful info. I'm learning the power of mono! And hate it when I don't have the option, so thank you for the tip about the Waves S1 Stereo imager... I think I've actually come across a similar plug-in somewhere in my software a while back when mixing something else! But I wouldn't have thought to have used it for this purpose, thank you!

[JeanieLarkin]

Logic has three panning modes.

This video will help explain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riR9-NMIFbQ

Like Len said I would stay away from Binaural panning for most applications.

As Russell and Dave said sometimes super wide isn't great for all applications and there are plugins like the Brainworks eqs and the Waves S-1 and Center and the Direction mixer which is resident in Logic X that all handle stereo width.

For most things already in stereo they are pretty wide so messing too much with the width can make then sound wide and weak - a lack of center "punch".

Reference other stuff that is out there commercially. It usually "works". Use that as a guide for what you want things to end up like.

Hi Andy, oh my life - how did I not see the Stereo Pan option?! - that is much more preferable than Binaural! Still so much to learn! *Head in hands* I think mixing according to genre will be my first port of call, but as you said - keeping the punch of the individual instruments is so important - no-one wants a mushy mix! Thank you!

[JeanieLarkin]

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... ol_v2.html

this is really a handy tool if you want to really get creative with panning. you can play with mid and sides, mono-maker sets a freq threshold for what goes to the middle, phase(correlation) meter, balance meter, stereo widener...
you can experiment with things like a voice on the left, while the reverb or delay or effect pans mid or right... all with meters to monitor your phase and balance for adjusting your levels. You might experiment with the freq of your voice, and send any freq below a set freq to the middle while keeping the rest somewhere on the left side... It's great if you want to swim in reverb and still maintain clarity by panning the reverb return to the right of the position of the instrument or voice... If you've ever tried to match the reverb on an old record and only ended up drowning in reverb before you even begin matching the amount of reverb...

Thank you Len, I've just signed up to the website. You guys really are a goldmine of information. Yes, reverb can be so tricky - I use as little as possible for not wanting to sound like my music is straight out of the 80s haha! But definitely for some stuff, being able to keep the clarity but still have that dreamy feel that reverb can offer would be great. Thank you.