Pan Settings, any rules of thumb

[Scott Fraser]

Question: Except for am radio and tiny television sets, where else would commercial mixes be played in mono these days? Something where that was not the specific targeted delivery medium?

Every stereo playback situation other than headphones will sum left & right to some degree. Mono compatibility is as essential to good stereo as it is to good mono playback.

Scott Fraser

[Andreas Lassak]

Pan settings, any rules or general guide lines?

Panning rules? Well, I can't say anything about how it's normaly done in Nashville (never worked there). Let me answer with a quote from Jan Folkson:

"(...)for every rule that somebody comes up with, somebody else makes a career out of breaking it. (...)"

This "message" should hang right next to the mnemotechnic verse sam was suggesting.

best regards

[Andreas Lassak]

Every stereo playback situation other than headphones will sum left & right to some degree. Mono compatibility is as essential to good stereo as it is to good mono playback.

Scott Fraser

Very true!

best regards

[Andreas Lassak]

This is not by hazard, there is a scientific reason why this is so and it has to do with the pan law....

Science? I'm all ears! Let's hear this theory.

best regards

[Steve Devino]

You mean no rules except put it where it sounds good.

Wait! .......um....yes.......I think?

[Lawrence]

Every stereo playback situation other than headphones will sum left & right to some degree. Mono compatibility is as essential to good stereo as it is to good mono playback.

Scott Fraser

Summing on the way to the listener? To what degree and to what effect is that remotely predictable outside of studio conditions? I don't follow... but I'm willing to learn.

[Scott Fraser]

Summing on the way to the listener?

Yes, in the air, in the room.

To what degree and to what effect is that remotely predictable outside of studio conditions? I don't follow... but I'm willing to learn.

Totally unpredictable. The amount of summing experienced in my living room seated on the couch is quite different from the amount of summing experienced when you move further back into the dining room, then around the corner into the kitchen, where it is heard entirely as mono. This is why mono compatibility is essential to good recording practices. You can't dictate the playback conditions, unless you're doing sound for a museum installation or theme park ride, or some similar controlled situation. I would even speculate that the majority of real world playback conditions for stereo material are in fact more mono than truly stereo, when overhead restaurant speakers, rear deck auto speakers, supermarket, hotel lobby, etc, are accounted for.

Scott Fraser

[Dave Collins]

Apparently if you use the Cardinal Points® Panning Law, it solves a multitude of problems.


DC

[Jim Easton]

Just wondering... when you guys mic a mono source ie a guitar or bass amp using two or more mikes are you spreading the two mikes out L-C-R or do you pan them to the same point? If so does it affect a mono source? thanks

[Todd Robbins]

Just wondering... when you guys mic a mono source ie a guitar or bass amp using two or more mikes are you spreading the two mikes out L-C-R or do you pan them to the same point? If so does it affect a mono source? thanks

For a mono source, I usually blend the 2 mics and commit the blend to the recording. If it is intended as a stereo recording of the source, then I always start hard panned L/R.