Mix Question: to pan or not to pan?

[solvents]

Just looking for opinions here, unless there are technical reasons behind the "right" answer...

I have 12 tracks to work with. Usually, I fill 10 with the music (drums, bass, rhythm guitar, etc) and bounce them down to 2 tracks before continuing on with overdubs. My question: would you pan the bounced two tracks (the backing tracks) or leave them straight up and down? I just cant tell sometimes which I like better! Thanks in advance!

[Snarl 12/8]

I would pan if there was stuff worth panning? I like to record stuff in "stereo" though. Like one mic on the beater of the kick and one on the resonant head, hard-panned. Or, two overhead mics, hard-panned. If you've recorded everything with just one mic, then maybe not, but I'd probably at least pan the two guitar tracks left/right, etc. At least slightly.

Oh, and the reason is...

...because I've got two ears.

I also shoot all my video in 3d, for the same reason. Just kidding. I do that because I've got 2 eyes. Actually, I don't shoot much video.

[Scodiddly]

Whenever I'm listening with headphones... which these days seems to be a lot, I'm always disappointed when everything except the stereo reverbs are all right down the center. The weird old vinyl I've been mostly listening to puts stuff all over the place.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Whenever I'm listening with headphones... which these days seems to be a lot, I'm always disappointed when everything except the stereo reverbs are all right down the center. The weird old vinyl I've been mostly listening to puts stuff all over the place.

Yep. I went on a Rudy Van Gelder bender a year or so ago and totally love where he puts things. There's no Left/Center/Right going on at all. Very little hard panning but also usually nothing panned center either. It's very refreshing even if the record are 50 years old.

[floid]

sounds like you're working on a SIB. on a practical note, you should be able to bounce in groups: 5 or 6 drum tracks, maybe throw the bass into that bounce as well. maybe you've got 3 guitar tracks, bounce those down. etc. you can still make both panning and level adjustments in reaction to what you record on the tracks you've freed up. and if you're doing mono bounces of those groups... if you get creative in what you consider a group...

[drumsound]

IF you're bouncing to 2 tracks, that implies you're doing a STEREO sub-mix to those open tracks. If that is the case, then you'd need to hard pan them to have them play back as intended. If you prefer them panned center, just use one track, because you're making it mono anyway, so just do your sub-mix in mono.

[Nick Sevilla]

Pan, pan and AWAYYYYYYYY!!!!

[lyman]

It's tough to say without knowing what you've got on those bounced stereo tracks, what you're going to be overdubbing, and the aesthetic you're going for. Drumsound raises a good point as well. Don't forget that straight up the middle and hard L/R are not the only options.

[RoyMatthews]

I say pan hard L/R. You can always narrow it later.

[Recycled_Brains]

one mic on the beater of the kick and one on the resonant head, hard-panned.

Really? Interesting...

I like things in stereo generally. I've mixed very few things in mono. I think I'm not great at recording with a mono end result in mind. I would take that into consideration. Things stepping all over each other, etc... I do better with panning to keep things separated and a better overall balance.

Also, I just like stereo mixes better for the most part. One mostly mono mix that I do love though, is Yob's " Atma" record. Sounds so awesome. there are others too obviously. I think when done right mono is really cool. Demonstrates a level of skill as an engineer that I appreciate. I think it's a lot harder to do it well that it is to do stereo well.