When it comes to mixing a track, it’s difficult to insist that we adhere to a rulebook when we all know that, in the creative world of music-making, rules are there to be broken. We can learn a lot from past masters, and as Picasso once said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
This is particularly applicable at the mix stage, where we decide where to place instruments and vocals in the stereo image.
Whether you are a DAW-user or rely on a hardware mixing desk, you can’t miss the ‘Pan’ pot, which is normally located immediately above each channel fader.
It might surprise you to learn that pan is short for panorama, and is used to dictate where a signal appears in the stereoscopic panorama. (Now you know why we tend to abbreviate the term to just ‘pan’!)
Generally speaking, we still live in a stereo world. The vast majority of us are lucky enough to have two ears, which presents the natural world around us as an ambient 3-dimensional image.
Translate this into production terms, and we are effectively trying to achieve a 3D audio soundstage, albeit with a 2D speaker setting. We do this by using a degree of smoke and mirrors.
The two control elements we have in our toolset are volume, which tends to suggest distance, and panning, which allows us to control the signal left and right in the stereo image.
If you have your stereo speaker system or studio monitors set up correctly, you should get a near-perfect soundstage, where both volume and panning play an intrinsic role. If you are a headphone user, the left/right position becomes even more obvious, as the speakers are in such close proximity to your ears, positioning becomes even more obvious.
We must insert a caveat here, because while most of us continue to work in stereo, there are numerous surround and 360˚ systems also available, and in this regard things work in a slightly different way. So, for now, we’ll focus on the basics, sticking with stereo.
When we first start exploring production techniques, there is a temptation to pan instruments all over the place and apply too much reverb. This will probably not yield the best results.
If you have ever listened to material from the 60s, you may have noticed that some examples of early stereo usage (by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors or even classic jazz albums) are extremely panned.
You might hear a group of instruments, such as drums, bass, and guitar, all grouped together on one side, while the opposite speaker may reproduce vocals or leads.
During the early days of recording, technical restrictions meant that instrumentation would be presented in this way. This hasn’t stopped some bands from replicating the sound in contemporary settings, even though it’s not ideal for headphone listening.
As recording technology became more refined, it became possible to mix across the whole stereo image, placing instruments in specific, less extreme, locations, and we can draw some useful tips from this approach.
The most basic rule of thumb is that the lower the instrument in pitch (frequency), the closer to the centre of the stereo image it should be placed.
Think of your mix as a tree; the main trunk is centred and buried in the ground, providing a solid foundation. These are your bass elements, but as the instruments rise in pitch (guitars, keyboards, horns), they act much like branches, extending out left and right.
For this reason, we generally tend to place the bass drum (kick) and bass instruments, in the very centre of the mix. If you are using a guitar and piano, you might offset these to a left and right 45˚ position.
It's quite likely that they may have complementary parts to play in your track, so splitting them up in this way will sound great in stereo, as well as affording them some space, so that the musical phrases don’t collide.
If you have two guitars and a piano, try placing the guitars left and right, with the piano more toward the centre. A lead vocal is just that, and will want to be fairly central, but there’s nothing to stop backing vocals being panned to provide choral space.
Some contemporary music can get a little chaotic, so if you find yourself with multiple synth parts, a good starting point is to think about where in the stereo image they appear, so that they don't occupy the same area and become less distinct.
Think of each sound or musical phrase as having its own specific point in the overall stereo picture you want to paint, which will allow for more effective sonic separation.
Drums kits operate a little differently, because it’s a unit which contains a number of constituent elements.
Many drum machines or drum plugins will take care of the panning for you, but the basic guidelines suggest that we centre the kick and snare, while placing the hi-hat slightly off-centre. This is often placed to the left, to mirror a conventional drum kit setup, for a right-handed player. The ride cymbal would tend to be panned to the opposite side, with toms (normally three) moving from left to right, for each tom, high to low.
If you are lucky enough to have a real live kit drum recording setup, be aware that we tend to use a stereo pair of overhead microphones, alongside individual microphones for each drum.
It's important to ensure that the panning of the individual signals match up with the imaging of the overhead stereo mics, otherwise your result will sound pretty strange!
Dealing with orchestral instruments can present its challenges too. A useful tip is always to consider where an instrument sits, when it plays within a group. With an ensemble of around 80 players, a full symphony orchestra presents the biggest challenge of all, and also contradicts some of our tried and tested formulas…
Let's consider the string section; from left to right, we hear 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos and double basses. You will have noticed that the frequency assignment moves from high pitches on the left, to low pitches on the right.
Despite the fact that the basses are not in the centre, it will still sound impressive when panned. If paired with instruments from a band environment, your mix will feel nicely grounded, thanks to our previously mentioned conventions.
It can be very tempting to pan instruments all the way to the left and right, or ‘hard panning’ as it's known.
This can sometimes work well, if double-tracking instruments like guitars and keyboards, but in most scenarios it is just too extreme.
Always be objective - it might sound great, but if it doesn’t, adjust the panning inward slightly, away from the extremities.
As you are effectively using panning to create a mix space, you can create some wonderful effects using panning.
You can try automating panning in your DAW, so that appropriate sounds or instruments move from one side of the stereo image to the other. Alternatively, try placing an instrument to one side of your mix, with effects such as delay or reverb positioned on the opposite side. This can be particularly effective with electronic instrumentation.
Finally, it is always worth checking back your mixes in mono. Professional engineers tend to have a single speaker on hand, so that they can check that the stereo mix condenses and sums down to mono without phasing issues.
You can achieve the same thing in a DAW, by switching your master output to mono.
Despite our love of stereo, there are still lots of radios and phone speakers out there that operate in mono. We’re not predicting that mono will become the new stereo, but you never know - cassettes and vinyl are back, so why not mono?
Here's a more in-depth video guide to panning using Logic Pro as our DAW of choice
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