How wide do you spread your drums?

[DarkEcho]

do you utilize the entire stereo spectrum? do you pan the cymbals 100% left or right? if using a +/-100% spectrum, can you tell me where you Usually place your drum kit peices?

I have heard bass goes to 0 always, snare drum can be centered as well but sometimes off to the side (on the right?) where do you put your china/high hat/splash/crash/etc?

[NathanEldred]

Usually 9/3. I don't mic individual cymbals (usually it's 2 overheads spaced pair and ride, I might mic high hat just to make the band happy but it rarely if ever is used), IME it's a recipe for a phasey cluster**** to have more than 2-3 mics on the OH's at any given time.

[BlueRadio]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

I have heard bass goes to 0 always, snare drum can be centered as well but sometimes off to the side (on the right?) where do you put your china/high hat/splash/crash/etc?

Put them wherever they are.

Set your room/overheads up in XY or spaced pair formation.

The picture will paint itself, you can pan as hard as you like

[rcm]

This may seem like a smart ass answer, but you just have to let the mix tell you what to do. Some tracks sound great with big wide drums, other mixes sound best one the drums are basically mono. I depends on the vibe you are doing for and what other things you have going on in the mix. Kick and snare straight up the middle is my usual start point and it stays there most of the time.

[CKK]

Often I leave all but the OH right in the center. The OH I pan hard left/right and let that be the source of the stereo image.

No rules really - just play around with it.

-
(now with 6 hippies and a thumbs up!!!)

[Oroz]

Lately I've been using Recorderman's technique so I pan OH about 60-70%. Kick and Snare in the center. I try to pan Toms according to their stereo image in the OH's, usually not too wide.

[DarkEcho]

Sorry, I failed to specify that I am using Battery3 for all of my drumming needs. its just that most of the kits have zero panning by default, and I want to add a little more spatiality to my mix, to make it seem deeper or more surrounding.. I dont know if panning is how to accomplish this, but just according to my ears (and I know i shoud leave it up to my ears, but my ears are uneducated, so I want to bounce this off of you guys before I decide anything) anything panned more than 50% tends to sound like its too far out there, like its disconnected.. 40/30% seems ok for most things, (I am talking about high hat and cymbals mostly..

where would you pan special sound effects? like, things that dont normally exist on a drum kit, which therefore have no normal visual placement?, like a lightning strike, or breaking glass

[dropblacksky]

It's a whole different story using Battery as opposed to real drums. I wouldn't be panning stuff hard with Battery because it uses individual samples instead of a mic'ed image of the kit. I would just envision a kit in your mind and pan the individual pieces accordingly. Kick/snare in middle, hat a bit to the right, cymbals panned separately to each side, toms panned accordingly....but nothing hard- panned. Someone mentioned 9-3...that's a reasonable place to start. If you're looking for depth, run a parallel drum group through a nice sounding stereo room reverb, pan it hard L/R and blend it in with the dry drums to taste.

[Audio_Vault]

I love panning drums EXTRA wide, its creates a feeling of them surrounding everything

[bitman]

9-3 here.

[dnaflr2]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

I have heard bass goes to 0 always, snare drum can be centered as well but sometimes off to the side (on the right?) where do you put your china/high hat/splash/crash/etc?

What you are referring to is what a drummer's perspective would be. If you want the mix to sound as if you were playing the drums go for it, however there are much more interesting approaches. Listen to any of the minimalistic approaches- Beatles, Motown, etc. This will also vary depending on the song recorded. Is it jazz or dance music, etc?

[dnaflr2]

Originally Posted by DarkEcho

Sorry, I failed to specify that I am using Battery3 for all of my drumming needs. its just that most of the kits have zero panning by default, and I want to add a little more spatiality to my mix, to make it seem deeper or more surrounding..

Panning alone is notr going to make these things sound anymore organic or alive. You should be looking into dynamics processing to make these samples breathe a little. However we don't know what kind of samples you are using, electronic emulations, acoustic, etc.

You might also want to try and play these back thru an amp or speakers, and mic that. Get a little bit of the room/space in there.

[octatonic]

Wider than 9-3 create problems for me when mixing.

Overheads are 9-3
Toms usually 9-3 or 10-2.
I put the hi hat slightly to the right and kik and snare dead centre.

This is just a starting point in my template- it could change from there at any point in the mix.

[DarkEcho]

I am doing industrial rock type stuff I use many different kit types electronic, to taiko drums and what not, but its all usually in the rock context

[Jim Williams]

Wide as wide can go, on my console it's -90 db stereo crosstalk. It flatters a great drummer. It adds much needed space in an increasingly mono world. It adds depth to the mix, unless you are ITB, then it doesn't help that at all.

The worse the music, the worse the drummer, the pan pots get turned in. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with those folks.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[DarkEcho]

you are talking about panning a stereo pair of mics though right? because i am using Battery 3 drum kits, so do I even need to pan at all? or just leave things as they are setup in battery unless something sounds wrong

[u b k]

sometimes very wide, sometimes kinda wide, sometimes everything up the middle.

hell, sometimes there's nothing in the center of my mix but the voice and bass. this is generally the case when working with loops/samplers, i'll have things panned all over the map.

as others have said, let the song/mix make the decision for you. don't set things up then build the mix... build the mix and keep moving things around until they click.


gregoire
del
ubk
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[BLueROom]

100% depends on the mix ... majority of the time 9/3