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Jupiter 4 Studio
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Stereo Drums

Post by Jupiter 4 Studio » Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:00 am

In the past I always laid out the stereo image of the drumset from a listeners perspective. Lately over the last 6 months or so I've gone to a drummers perspective. That is high hat left, floor tom right kind of thing. I think I'm kinda digging the feeling of listening from behind the kit or if I was the singer, from behind my back. Gives the feeling of being in the band as opposed to being in the audience. Anybody have any comments on this or why it would be "technically" wrong? I know a lot of records are mixed listener perspective and that's how I was taught but this stupid little change has me smiling a lot.

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Post by surf's up » Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:59 am

I think its a personal choice, could go either way. To me, I usually dont consider it a big issue and sometimes I just pan em at random, but it does sorta feel nice to have the tom rolls go from left to right. The way I see it, most of the listening audience (unless the audience is engineers and drummers!) wont have a conscious objection to whats going on, if they even pay attention to the stereo spread of the drums.

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Post by Brett Siler » Sun Nov 27, 2005 12:07 pm

I always mix from the drummers perspective. It just seemed natural to me that way (and I am sure to some people it feel more natural to pn from the audience perspective). I think that It may make the listener feel as though they are part of the band more than just listening to them.

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Re: Stereo Drums

Post by rhythm ranch » Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:24 pm

Jupiter 4 Studio wrote:...this stupid little change has me smiling a lot.
End of discussion. :D

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Re: Stereo Drums

Post by drumsound » Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:17 pm

rhythm ranch wrote:
Jupiter 4 Studio wrote:...this stupid little change has me smiling a lot.
End of discussion. :D
YEP!


I mix from drummer?s perspective (wanna guess why?). I've been forced to mix audience and it still freaks me out...

From what I can tell, its 55-45% leaning audience. All the LA guys seem to go audience. A lot of folks with a lot of playing and stage experience go drummer's. A lot of converted live FOH folks mix audience.

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Post by Jupiter 4 Studio » Sun Nov 27, 2005 10:49 pm

Thanks guys. I'm really digging it this way. So I guess I'll keep doing it till someone that's paying asks me not to. Don't think anyone but me has noticed yet... And I'm not gonna be the one to point it out.

Steve
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Post by jmoose » Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:24 pm

I usually go with drummers perspective in the studio. If I'm doing FOH I'll go with audience perspective for the obvious reasons and sometimes in either case I'll stick the floor tom in the center or just off center if it's crowded there. Years ago I assisted one producer/mix guy who panned every other tom across from each other; First rack hard R, next hard left etc. When day when taking recall notes I asked him about why he did that and he said that nobody ever noticed besides him so why not have fun with it?
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Post by djgout » Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:26 am

i'm a drummer so i typically go drummers perspective just because it totally freaks me out to hear the toms be backwards.

but lately i've been playing for a fake fake country band where i only use a kick, snare, and a whiskey bottle for a ride and for the recordings it's been completely mono drums. so now my diiemma is do i pan them hard left or hard right? the center sounds too *not mono* to me. decisions decisions.

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Post by googacky » Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:10 am

Here's another vote for drummer's perspective. When I think about drums, I think about sitting behind them, so it makes sense to me. What's up with guys panning the overheads audience and the toms drummer's? That's the only thing that really freaks me out.

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Post by lobstman » Mon Nov 28, 2005 5:24 am

Live I hardly ever pan anything, for the simple reason that only a small part of the audience is going to be in a position to hear both sides of the PA evenly.

Studio I usually pan drummer's perspective, just 'cause it makes sense to me. Something I always try to do is bring up the OH pair, get them balanced, then if I'm using close mics on toms match their pan positions to where they are in the OH mics.

I've always wanted to do something sick like pan all the drums to one side like an old Beatles/Byrds record, but I've yet to find the right song/project for that.
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Post by Mark Alan Miller » Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:19 am

I, if mixing stereo drum in any kind of 'normal perspective', will go drummers if it's a studio recording, live perspective if it's, er, a live recording, and fit it to 'the wide shot' if possible if it's live with picture.
And then, sometimes just putting things in places because they work better against other elements in the mix is quite good too. (like panning rack toms hard left and right, floor tom center - makes those rack1-rack2-floor sweeping rolls do something new... or keeping the hi-hat away from another high frequency element in the mix by putting it somewhere other than what might be dictated by a 'normal perspective'... and on, and on...)
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Post by Red Rockets Glare » Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:28 am

depends 100% on what else is going on in the mix for me. If there is a hi-hat playing 16ths on the RHS of the mix, and I have a tambo doubling it, they never sound good on top of each other, ect, ect...

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Post by lyman » Mon Nov 28, 2005 10:12 am

djgout wrote:
but lately i've been playing for a fake fake country band where i only use a kick, snare, and a whiskey bottle for a ride and for the recordings it's been completely mono drums. so now my diiemma is do i pan them hard left or hard right? the center sounds too *not mono* to me. decisions decisions.
so a "fake fake country band" would actually be a real country band, eh? anyway, i ran into the same thing when recording a live project recently. though not totally mono, i panned the drums off center to get that early The Band album sound that they guys i was recording wanted. it worked for that.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:31 am

well i'll be the contrarian here...i'm a drummer and i always default to audience perspective. just seems right to me. i mean, you're listening from in front of the amps aren't you?

no one's ever asked me to switch it, which leads me to believe it's only dorky engineers who worry about such things. :D

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Post by Rigsby » Mon Nov 28, 2005 12:25 pm

I tend to go with what sounds right at the time or what i'm asked to do by the drummer and/or group, thouhg left to me it's quite often drummer's perspective because i play drums as well.
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