Stereo Drums

[weatherbox]

I like drummer perspective - stage backline position is my usual starting point for a mix, centered at the drummer. With my band I pan the snare a very little left in the mix, to make it even more drummer-centric. He's far and away the most musically talented in the group and a demon on the floor tom, so it just seemed fitting to reward him with panning priority.

[TooLoFi]

mixing is kinda strange. Image having a tiny ear on each tom, cymbal, snare, guitar amp, vocal, etc. Now imagine having two ears in a small venue where nothing but the vocal is miced. Can you tell where the drum sounds are coming from if you didn't see it?

Since usually your mixing for a band, the person who is most intimate with their instrument is going to hear it the most clearly. The person driving down the road will probably mimic the drummer more accuratly if the mix is in drummers perspective, but really this doesn't matter too much. What does matter is whether the floor tom on the Right is going to affect another instrument in your mix. You have everything individually miced, what's going to keep your from panning everything to the left ear to keep the background vocal isolated on the right side? What if that Ride cymbal gets in the way of the guitar if panned a certain way? Classically, you have two guitars, so the debate should also extend to whether the lead should be predominantly right ear, or if the 2nd guitar should take up that space.

But that even gets into left brain right brain sort of stuff. What makes the drums sound better? do they sound different in each configuration? should we just be set on one way of another or should we experiment?

Greg

[Mark Alan Miller]

*snip*
Now imagine having two ears in a small venue where nothing but the vocal is miced. Can you tell where the drum sounds are coming from if you didn't see it?

*snip*
do they sound different in each configuration? should we just be set on one way of another or should we experiment?

It's amazing how sensitive the ear is to localization of sound sources, even a few inches apart heard from a distance of many, many feet can be perceived. This of course depends on a lot of factors acoustically (the more prominent the early reflections in the room are can alter (not nessesarily diminish) localization perception.

And sure, they will sound different in each configuration, and thusly no, we should not be set on one way or another to work - do what's appropriate for the song, or for even different moments within a song if it's called for! IMO that is.

[joel hamilton]

Depends on the song, as always, but I almost always wind up audience perspective, but with a strong center image on a send, so whatever. The stuff that stays solid in the middle is more important to me than where the hat or floor tom "shows up."

There would be a ghost of anything hard panned going to the center comp chain for me on a buss, so the hard panning gets centered in a bastardized sum/difference technique anyway. Gives width without the "disembodied center" I never seem to enjoy.

[Professor]

I play drums, but have never actually played drums while sitting straight up, face forward, with the hats on my left and ride on my right. I find that at least MY drummer's perspective is that I'm always facing what I'm playing. Play hi-hat and that is centered. Play ride and that is centered. Play a tom fill, and it is centered as I move around.
But no, I don't mix in mono. I mix from the audience perspective because that is what a listener would hear (in theory) and I can safely say that it has never bothered me.

Same with piano, I will always go from the listener's perspective rather than from the player's perspective because that is where the sound is projected.

Oddly enough, where thing do often feel uncomfortable is with marimba which always appears as lows to the left and highs to the right when I'm playing. And even though it feels weird to me, I still mix it from listener perspective.

-Jeremy

[chris harris]

I usually go with drummer's perspective as a personal preference. Audience perspective just makes air-drumming awkward.

What really freaks me out is getting used to a panning method and then having a left-handed drummer show up.

[drumsound]

What if that Ride cymbal gets in the way of the guitar if panned a certain way?

Greg

The you pan the guitar out of the way of the DRUMS!

[Brett Siler]

If I'm doing FOH

Drumsound also mentioned FOH, whats that mean? Front overhead?

[Mark Alan Miller]

If I'm doing FOH

Drumsound also mentioned FOH, whats that mean? Front overhead?

Front Of House.

I usually go with drummer's perspective as a personal preference. Audience perspective just makes air-drumming awkward.

What really freaks me out is getting used to a panning method and then having a left-handed drummer show up.

Ha-ha! Been there on both accounts.

[2db]

I just recorded a jazz piano trio. When I started to mix I realized I had reversed the drum OH so I was hearing drums from the audiences perspective.

Now that I listen to it, really doesn't bother me.


What would have really bothered would have been to reverse the OH piano mik's ... that is to hear the high register coming out of the left speaker and the low out of the right.



I do favor recording drums from the drummers perspective too.

[joaquin]

Hi. For me, there's two things: First is the song's arrangement. Sometimes inverting the stereo image opens the Mix, creating new spaces that weren't there before.
Second, I rather use the Drumers perspective, cause I believe that he's using his artistic talent when deciding which cymbal to hit in the context of the ensamble..... uhmmm...I think that there's no rules and it all will depend on what sound's better to you at Mix time.......Joaquin.

[thethingwiththestuff]

that's a cool approach, but as a drummer, i'm hitting cymbals artistically based on their pitch, not their location

[joaquin]

that's a cool approach, but as a drummer, i'm hitting cymbals artistically based on their pitch, not their location

You are right, but...there's an almost strict realtionship between the pitch and the usual location in the Drum
When I go from an open HiHat to the ride the Kick opens and the snare changes character...for me there's a spatial relation with this variations in sound...it's sort of a fixed format instant mix...but...you are right, it's probably more of a pitch relationship selection. Cheers...............Joaquin.