Hey there everyone,
I'm certainly no expert when it comes to mixing a track, but am happy to share one or two thoughts for your consideration. I've dug around a little on the net and found the following tips re panning. I've condensed the instruction so as not to make the reading too tiresome.
Bass - centre behind the vocalist, This will ground your track. It's going to sound wrong if panned left or right.
Drums - Centre. If you're separating the various parts of a kit, then place the snare centre, the hi hats half right, the cymbals left/right and the toms left/right/centre.
Vocals - centre
Lead guitar - centre
guitar 1 - far right, guitar 2 - far left (However, I don't always follow this technique)
Massa, I think the following article will be worth reading for tips on Piano/keys:
http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-mix-piano-keyboard-panning-eq-and-compression-techniques.htmlHaving picked this information up from various sources and given it some consideration, I've got to say that when I'm mixing my songs, I like to close my eyes and pan a particular instrument, relying on my hearing to tell me when it has been correctly positioned. I want to hear the part that I've just written and don't want it to fight for space with another part that is equally important. I'd like to stress once again, that I'm no expert and am currently on a steep learning curve with the above techniques. If anyone can find information to aid all our understanding and find that it is more appropriate than that which I have included, then please share with the folk of this forum.
Hope that the above is of some help to everyone. Please post to let everyone know if the techniques have helped your mixing or not.
Thanks,
Paul