panning/groups etc

[pk1]

HEy guys, 1st post so be gentle lol

WAs just curious as to how you group/pan the various parts of your tracks...I make my kick & bass and then send them both to a mono group channel then add eq, compression. is this correct?

Do you also stereo group your other drum/percussion tracks together and put a compressor over them all or dya process them separately?

And as for panning, the SX3 panner goes from '100' Left to Centre to '100' Right... So say for eg. we are panning various percussion sounds about, does panning them just '1' or '2' to the Left or Right really make a difference, or should they be panned '20' or '30' to be worthwhile?

And while im at it... ... should i use things like Waves stereo imager caringly or just hammer it and spread everything out?

cheers

Paul

[Bitfiend]

Hiya Paul and welcome

"WAs just curious as to how you group/pan the various parts of your tracks...I make my kick & bass and then send them both to a mono group channel then add eq, compression. is this correct?

Do you also stereo group your other drum/percussion tracks together and put a compressor over them all or dya process them separately?"

IMHO, you should be eq'ing each channel individually (each channel is autonomous and the sum of the channels gives you the over all sound/feel of the track). I would think doing them in groups you wouldn't get the separation you'd want or need and you'd have some freq's kinda "stepping" all over each other, causing muddiness.
I try and start eq'ing things into freq's that other channels are not eq'd into to try and get them to stand out a bit with out having to bump up the level of the channel and to fill out the mix nicely.
Compression same thing. Plus in my experience (which with compression is VERY limited) a kick and bassline wouldn't be compressed the same way. I.E. - attack, ratio, etc. And as Meds will prolly tell you, compression should be used very sparingly. i mainly use group or fx channels if i want a common, over all reverb or delay on several channels. the only time i run compression on a group is using the OtiumFX compressor to sidechain the kick and bassline.

"And as for panning, the SX3 panner goes from '100' Left to Centre to '100' Right... So say for eg. we are panning various percussion sounds about, does panning them just '1' or '2' to the Left or Right really make a difference, or should they be panned '20' or '30' to be worthwhile?"

Pushing a sound left/right, anything under 10 really isn't an audible reference, again IMO. I "generally" set the hi-hat1, 15-30 left (since i'm a drummer i tend to set the panning to my point of view behind a kit), hh2 i'd go over to the right, and bounce back and forth for as many hh's and perc tracks i have. all the way up to 100. additionally with pads, background lines, even lead lines you can pan all over. Just watch that you don't overload one side.

[pk1]

It was computer music magazine (i think) that says about grouping kick/bass together & the drums together. I do eq each channel separately, but was wondering if then grouping them and slightly compressing them or something would help them 'gel' together more???

and yeah i normally pan similar to what you suggested cos i cant hear any real difference when i pan less... glad youve confirmed it!

Ive just started using the Waves analyzer and find it useful checking the stereo positioning.

[Bitfiend]

I usually don't compress anything. the rmx i just did i had the kick compressed kinda heavy ( i was diggin' the way it squashed it) but Meds pulled it off when he mastered and it actually made the kick fit into the song a lot better.
Really full, lots of sub and bouncy.
I don't know if running all the drums thru the same compressor setting, as well as the bassline would help them "gel" together better, fellas?
Meds and Sven can elaborate on compression much more than i can.

[admin]

Paul,

Hi and welcome.

Yes grouping the kick and bass on their own group is sometimes useful. Same with the drums or other 'like' elements. As you said it can help gel them together.

I don't do this too often myself, it depends on when it's needed really.

It's nice sometimes to have like elements on groups as it can make mixing easier as you can control a whole section of the mix with one fader.

As Bit said though I'd just be careful you don't end up over processing. Many times I have to start taking plugs off as the mix ends up getting flat from too much plugins. Also I've seen some guys go crazy with tons of groups and then for me the mix environment turns to a bit of a mess.

The one time I really use groups like this is for vocals where you've got lots of vox tracks going on that all need to be processed the same.

For kick and bass a lot of times I just use sidechain on the bass to get the gel going. The rest of the drums though are a good canidate to run through a group to make them sound more like a kit, if that's what you're going for. If you want a cleaner more separated sound then maybe skip this.

Panning wise I'll generally try to find a few things to spread out to the very sides, making sure I've got a complementary left and right action going on.

Wideners can be useful just make sure you're not going out of phase.