Placement of instruments in stereo image

[pieter]

Could anybody provide me with some pointers on how to position instruments in the stereo image. Fairly obvious with a rockband but I recently recorded an 8 piece brass band and was wondering whether I should pan the instruments as they were positioned in the studio or as they would be on stage.

[Dave Martin]

You'll probably hate this answer, but it depends. Try it both ways and see what works best.

I've done tracks with brass and winds panned hard left and right, and tracks with the horn section essentially all up the middle. I haven't been really pleased with panning, for example, the different parts of the sax section across the stereo field, but with some tracks it may work fine. There are lots of other choices, but you get the idea - you'll have to see what you like best.

[Bernd G]

Depends on the recording aesthetic behind the music: educate yourself and buy some CDs that offer insight into the stylistics of the music that you are after. Pan accordingly. Or, if anything goes, be creative but remember that placement, similar to equalization will affect masking of other sound sources in your mix !
Now, if you want it to sound "natural" or "classical" - you need to be careful with double images - ie. one instrument panned in one direction, but heard in a different place in the main stereo array. If you have bleedthrough from other mics, be careful that you listen to what it does to your image when added to the direct sound. In classical recording techniques acoustic instruments are always panned exactly WHERE they appear on stage. This means that spot mics (close) are usually panned to where the instruments appears in the stereo array. Hope this helps.

Cheers