What Does Panning Sound Like?

What is panning in sound? In audio, panning is the process of positioning sounds at particular locations in the stereo image of a mix. Using pan pots, you can make an instrument sound as though it is coming from a specific point between your left and right speaker.

What does panning sound like in music?

What does panning do in music? Audio panning creates interest, width and a sense of space in a stereo mix by making sounds or instruments appear to come from different places in the left-right spectrum of the stereo field between two speakers.

What is Pan sound effect?

Panning audio lets you distribute sound across the stereo or surround spectrum to create balance or a special effect. For example, you can place more sound in the right channel of a stereo clip or less sound in the center channel of a surround clip.

What does panning do to vocals?

But even in non-experimental passages, panning vocals can have a major impact. When it comes to doubling vocals (like with rhythm guitars), panning both tracks opposite one another can add even more space to the mix. This technique often makes choruses stand out especially.

What does panning a song mean?

Panning. Panning helps an audio producer control the width of the song. Allowing the sounds in a song to move left or right from the stereo center.

Why is it called panning?

The term panning is derived from panorama, suggesting an expansive view that exceeds the gaze, forcing the viewer to turn their head in order to take everything in. Panning, in other words, is a device for gradually revealing and incorporating off-screen space into the image.

How do you use pan music?

1. Try hard-panning doubled instruments.
2. Complementary panning.
3. Remember panning conventions.
4. Try narrow verses and wider choruses.
5. Check your work in mono.
6. Consider the club.
7. However you pan, check your mix in various sound systems.
8. Don’t overdo any one panning location unless you want to stress out the listener.

Should you pan instruments?

Panning several instruments hard left and right can be tempting to create a wide stereo sound which can produce an excellent sonic sound, but generally should be avoided.Simply panning one left by 40% and the other right by 40% can help to free up mix room. There are no absolute rules for panning.

How far should you pan guitars?

One Guitar with Delay and One Without
This is a useful trick that some people call the Haas trick. What you want to do is pan one guitar to the left with no delay on it, and then the other one should be set up with delay, usually around 30ms. This tends to widen the guitars and make everything sound a lot more full.

Should I hard pan vocals?

The best way to give your mix a solid core is to keep lower frequency sounds in the center. That means kicks, basses and anything else below the 120hz range. If your track has lead vocals pan them center as well.But as a general rule lead vocals should always be panned center.

How should you pan backing vocals?

If your mix is center heavy, panning the vocals hard left and right will give you more width. If you have group vocals with each part layered, an effective strategy to make them sound full and balanced is to pan them symmetrically so that each side of the harmony vocal submix is a mirror image of the other.

Should I pan hard?

When you pan hard left or hard right, your sound is only coming out of one speaker and this can undo the illusion of the wider stereo field, ‘pinning’ the sound to just one speaker and thus making it stand out unintentionally in the context of the mix because it sounds artificial.

What happens if you pan a stereo track?

So with true stereo panning, the relative levels of left and right are not changed, only the positions of each half of the audio. But if you “pan” a Balance control to one side or the other, you’ll be raising the level of that side of the stereo track and reducing the level of the other side.

Who invented panning in music?

The obvious starting point is the pan pot, originally called the ‘panoramic potentiometer’ and invented in 1938 by Disney’s sound department as part of their pioneering work for the film Fantasia. The pan pot is a device with one input and two outputs, and varies the signal level reaching each output.

What is pan right?

In cinematography, a pan shot is a horizontal camera movement where the camera pivots left or right while its base remains in a fixed location. The term “pan” comes from the word “panorama,” which describes a view so vast and grand you have to turn your head to see the entire vista.

Where do you put background music on pan?

If you have several background tracks, you’ll want to pan them away from the center. This will create space for your vocal to live in. How much you pan your BGVs is up to you. It depends on the song and your own taste.

Why mixing in mono is the secret?

When we mix in stereo we can separate mix elements out in the stereo field to make them easier to hear. When we collapse the mix to mono, these different elements start to obscure each other again. The fact is, that if your mix isn’t clear and punchy in mono – it just “isn’t ready yet”.

What is LCR panning?

LCR stands for Left, Center, and Right, and it’s a panning technique where all panpots are set to either left, center, or right—nothing in between. Look it up on the internet, and you’ll find polarized opinions that vary from it’s the Holy Grail of mixing, to it’s ridiculous and vaguely idiotic.

Do you pan stereo tracks?

Something that many people do is pan all stereo tracks (like piano, acoustic guitar, strings etc.) around the centre. But this doesn’t always give you the best result. Whilst panning these around the centre with your chosen width can sound great, there’s nothing wrong with panning them off to one side.

How much does it cost to pan a guitar track?

You generally don’t pan all the way to each side (“hard left/right panning”) because it sounds unnatural (especially on headphones), but up to 80% should work. If you’re using more than two tracks, it would be best not to pan them the same amount. I generally track four times, panned 80% and 60%.

Should you pan snare?

Basics of Panning Drums. When you’re panning your drum sounds, you want to make sure that the most impactful elements remain at the core of your beat. Therefore, I advise you to leave all the kicks (including 808 kick drums) and snare sounds at the center. In other words, you don’t need to apply any panning to them.