Violating the "Bass in Center of Mix" rule

[Justine_X]

Ramones' first album. Drums & vocals center, bass and guitar panned hard left/right. VERY cool. Yet the only one I can think of.

Any other examples?

[kinger]

I've been listening to the Beatles lately and lots of their stuff has the bass hard-panned (not that I can think of any examples right now; I blame it on jet-lag).

[Nick Sevilla]

I mixed a song last year with the bass to the left...

It can work, depending on the arrangement, and the balance between the bass and the other instruments.

[Nick Frater]

the Derek & The Dominoes album has bass down the left on pretty much every track. Seems to work though.

[CurtZHP]

Bear in mind that a lot of records from the '50's and '60's were mixed on consoles that didn't even have pan pots. Things were either left or right. So I'm sure there are other examples.

On the other hand, I've also read that with the more bass-heavy stuff, the bass and kick HAD to be panned center in order to cut the record to vinyl.


I've also done mixes with the bass panned to one side or another. Not hard panned, but just nudged a bit out of center.

[the finger genius]

Live at Leeds. May not be totally hard panned, but it's pretty close.

[mwerden]

Sabbath.

[ott0bot]

I've been listening to the Beatles lately and lots of their stuff has the bass hard-panned (not that I can think of any examples right now; I blame it on jet-lag).

I'm pretty sure this is true of all the Beatles catalog on the stereo mixes. The Zombies Oddyssey and Oracle stereo mix definately had hard panned bass on most songs.

So yeah....like was stated most mixing desks back then had left or right panning. The only way they could have bass (or anything for that matter) in both speakers was to have it on two tracks.....which as you know were a premium back then. Even drums were mono most of the time.

Buy there are some newer records that don't adhere by the "rule" of keeping bas center. The last song of mine I mixed had a hard panned, lightly overdriven bass part. I think it sounds great as long as it's not all super low frequencies, and the volume is balanced properly. One problem is when you colapse a mix like that to mono, the bass is usually too quiet.

[Recycled_Brains]

The Bad Plus: Give

Some Rage Against the Machine songs have the guitar/bass panned oposite.

[iC]

Took a Turn - Young Widows

[drumsound]

I mixed a song where the bass and drums were hard panned opposite and switched at different points, and were mono center for the bridge.

[suppositron]

I do that for some of my own material where there is only one rhythm guitar track.

[Nick Sevilla]

BTW when the bass gets reproduced into the room you play the music into, it most always becomes omnidirectional.

Bass frequencies are by nature, the hardest frequencies to localize, in other words the hardest to figure out where they are coming from.

So putting the bass hard left or right, in the end is ok, since the bass will fill the room anyways.

Cheers

[Marc Alan Goodman]

yeah dude, do what you want. Bass hard panned. Drums hard panned. I pretty much just love hard panning.

As stated above the main issue was when cutting to vinyl. If the bass pulls too much to either side the needle will jump. If you're not making vinyl don't worry about it. And even if you are the bass doesn't have to have a ton of lowend in it! Hence all the classic examples.

[kuene]

I've mixed a few songs where the kick and bass are hard panned together, and the snare and overhead are hard-panned the other way. this actually works pretty well.e