modern music drum panning

[Vince Latulippe]

Hi, i'm kinda new to mixing and i'd like your opinion. In modern music (EXAMPLE: Paramore, Simple Plan, Taylor Swift, Hedley etc..) everything like that, how would YOU panned drums. If it was from the drummer point of view , or the audience point of view. High Toms to Low Toms From Left To Rigt or Rigt To Left. I'm asking this for a whole drum kit. Kick, Snare, HH, Crash overhead, Ride overhead, etc...

I use 3 Toms. 1 high toms and 2 floor on the right of the drummer.

How would you pan those up and this kit?

Thanks

[jordanvoth]

Audience perspective. Everything hard left and right. I don't like the sound of toms that wide but a lot of guys do it.

[guid0]

It all depends on what you want to achieve. In certain applications, even mono drums can sound great.


For me panning is either full L-R for true stereo recording or it's used to put something in a precise location in your soundfiled.

You can either put up the OH in stereo to get a realistic "full kit" sound or set each mike in a position to capture a particular element of the kit. In the latter case, you adjust the pan settings to place the element at a desired point in the stereo field.

Generally, I go with a mix of both approaches to find the sounds I'm looking for.

[jeremy.c.]

I would say there is no right way to do things because it's all material and taste dependent, but for the most part the really loud, compressed modern rock is layered with samples so you can get a lot more isolation and pan out of the individual drums.

I have always mixed drummer perspective because I grew up a drummer and it seems natural to me, but the only people who have ever even noticed are drummers (they tend to like it, of course).

[Vince Latulippe]

thanks !

as far as the tom goes, i have 1 high, 2 floor. are you hard panning these or its more: 100% Right for high, center for floor 1 and 100% Left for floor 2 ? if i make a fill with the 3 toms, i'd like it to sound that it goes from one speaker to the other

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by Vince Latulippe

thanks !

as far as the tom goes, i have 1 high, 2 floor. are you hard panning these or its more: 100% Right for high, center for floor 1 and 100% Left for floor 2 ? if i make a fill with the 3 toms, i'd like it to sound that it goes from one speaker to the other

I would say experiment and see if it works against your overheads only because in your overheads/room mics (if stereo, if not please ignore) you probably won't have such a wide stereo field and both of your floor toms will be to the right. It might give you a skewed perspective. I honestly pan my toms relative to their position in the center, so that would be right 25%, left 25% and left 60%. But that's just my preference and would more likely rely on overheads for the pan, sounds more natural to me.

[IdiotManchild]

Perspective (audience vs. drummer) is totally subjective, do whatever you and the band prefer.

Panning is generally hilariously wide. Overheads hard-panned. Highest and lowest toms hard-panned, any toms in between split between the extremes.

Kick and snare are generally in the center.

Hi-hat can go anywhere from center to hard-pan and anywhere in between.