I love simple hacks that force me to get a better recording and mix. LCR panning is one of those hacks.
LCR panning (which stands for Left Center Right) is for some reason a hotly debated “method” of placing tracks in the stereo field. Although many of our favorite mixes are panned this way, people (including my friends) bristle at the thought.
But if you can get over the (non existent) reasons to hate on it, LCR panning can actually be a great hack for not just your mixes, but the recording stage.
There Are Only 3 Main Spots In The Stereo Spectrum
When you think about it, a stereo recording or mix has only three spots to place your tracks. The left side, the right side, and up the middle.
This is in fact how our speakers or headphones work. In reality there only two places: the left speaker and the right speaker. The third “middle position” is an auditory illusion where you have the same sound playing equally in the left and the right speaker. This gives us a phantom pan position called center.
Now of course in the modern DAW and console we have a fluid pan pot that allows you to adjust the stereo placement even more precisely than those three positions. But it wasn’t always that way.
Check out this old Universal Audio console. It doesn’t have pan pots. Just a three way panning switch with Left, Middle, and Right.
Big deal Graham. Who cares about the way things were “back in the day”?!
Here’s why I’m pointing all of this out: no matter where you decide to pan things in your mix, at the end of the day there are really only 3 distinct holes you can fill. The left, the middle, and the right. Everything else is simply a shade of those three.
This is critical to understand not just in the mixing phase, but in the recording phase as you build the song. Here’s why.
Good Arranging Is Good Mixing
One of my favorite sayings is that “good arranging is good mixing” – meaning that the song with the better arrangement (well thought out instrument choice, chord progressions, and linear flow) will always produce a better mix.
The mixer has his or her hands tied to what the arrangement gave them.
So if YOU happen to be the person recording and arranging the song yourself, your mixing can start (and should start) long before the mix.
And specifically one way to get a big wide (and full) sounding mix is to have all three key points in the stereo field covered: left, center, and right.
What this looks like in practice is that you have to record not just the parts that you think the song needs, but you must begin thinking about where in the LCR spectrum you will place those tracks.
For example: Will that guitar part be an up the middle part? Or will it be an off to the left part.
If it’s off to the left, what will you have on the right to balance it out? A doubled pass of that same part? Another instrument entirely?
This kind of LCR framework forces you to consider balance in your arrangement and recording – which ultimately leads to a fuller, easier to mix set of tracks.
You’re already hearing the mix from the audience’s perspective, much like a movie director keeps the final edit of a film in mind when she is story boarding (and eventually shooting) scenes.
Some LCR Suggestions
As you begin recording (and eventually mixing) your songs here are some helpful suggestions when trying to leverage the hack of LCR panning:
- Keep lead vocals, bass, kick, and snare up the middle. These are the foundation of your song and they should typically anchor things right up the center. That way they sound balanced on headphones and have equal volume in the left and right speakers.
- Have at least one main midrange instrument (guitar, synth) on the hard left and right. These might be your main double tracked guitar riff, or a pair of synths that work together. Either way, put at least one thing on the far ends of the stereo spectrum – other wise you’re leaving width on the table.
- Experiment with everything else. Sometimes I’ll put the lead instrument right up the middle on top of the vocal. Other times I’ll pan it hard left and leave it’s delay or reverb return hard right. I’ll even put percussion in the “panning pockets” at 50%. The point is, once your main instruments are covered in LCR, the rest really doesn’t matter. So go crazy!
Remember – LCR panning isn’t a restriction as some people say it is.
Rather it is a framework for balance in your mix that frees you up to focus on what really matters – a killer arrangement of a great song with great performances.
With that in mind – what do YOU think about LCR panning? Do you like it or hate it? Why? Leave me a comment below.
Do Not Create Another Song Until You Read This Guide
(Price: $17 Free Today)
Discover the 6 Steps for Creating a Radio-Worthy Song From Scratch
My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
What’s your take on this applied to Sum-Diff mixing?
I kind of mix like the band is viewed from the front of house. Guitar full left, Guitar full right. I mix the drum kit as perceived from front of house. Bass and vocals in the center. After recording I listen to the song about …………..100 times or more listening for different instrumental nuances. IE: guitar lick, bass lick , Hammond lick, harmony vocals……..etc, then make notes. Do I want to highlight , or sneak it into the mix slightly? Then I use a kind of what you would call parallel compression. Copy track , compress and add effects to the copied track. If I want to move the left guitar into the mix or highlight it momentarily , it is all manual fader driven. I set the parallel track to center, then push it into the mix which shifts it a little off far left or right. I may do this momentarily or leave it like this. It seems to help with placement for me. I am not mixing in a DAW, but two stand alone 8 track digtital decks.
Any thoughts welcomed !
Nice. I think that’s a good way of mixing .
I did a mix completely LCR before, and while the mix did turn out pretty good, I feel like you lose a lot of psycho-acoustic elements of a mix by limiting yourself to just LCR. For example, if you want to make the choruses seem wider than the verses to keep the song interesting, I think going for the completely LCR route is very limiting. If most of the track is panned central in the verses, and then you widen it to its extremes in the chorus, it will sound off.
For me, I tend to work in doubles. So I may have a verse’s guitars panned 25% left and right, pre-chorus opened up to 50% left and right, and then have the chorus open up completely at 100% left and right. For me, those subtle differences in panning add up to make a big difference rather than a coarse LCR style… just my thoughts, though. I’m sure mix engineers far better than me always go for LCR.
This article couldn’t be published at a better time…for me, that is.
At the moment, I’ m working on an EP, simulating a live situation:
One lead vocal, two guitars, bass, drums and one backing vocal, if neccesary.
So, now I have a hands-on project to try and implement your suggestions!
Thanks Graham.
I love LCR panning! Also a huge fan of placing my guitar hard left, dry, with the reverb hard left. It means the guitar sounds hotter and leaves space for the vocals, percussion etc. Worked for Van Halen!
Hi Ben,
Do you mean GTR hard left, reverb hard right? Wouldn’t both hard left drown the GTR in reverb or am I overlooking something?
Greetings,
Pete
Yep.. that’s what I meant!
THX 🙂
At the danger of being extremely pedantic (but it’s a fascinating subject that I did research some): On the early Van Halen records the guitar is indeed panned hard left but there’s is reverb on BOTH sides. It’s just that we hardly notice the reverb on the left because of the hard-panning of the guitar track.
Anyway, those records are one reason I totally subscribe to LCR mixing now.
Simple suggestion that many times is overlooked. This is a great reminder for us home recorders with a bunch of cool stuff in our computers, but lacking the fundamental knowledge of good recording practices. With things placed LCR in the mix your suggestions about finding their place EQwise for each element also comes into play. I’ve also found the suggestion to mix in mono to get that EQ balance correct very helpful. (Thank you)
Totally agree. I used to get bogged down in panning this slightly to the left, then something else a bit to the right etc etc. LCR is just so much simpler AND gives you better, wider, fuller sounding mixes.
My question is, when you start panning more than one thing left or right, how do you eq them to have space? Is it simply eq’ing them like “this synth’s body is all at 500 so I’ll take some 500 out of the other one”?
Thanks
Basically the short version is to try to not overlap as much as possible, the low end of one hard left or hard right instrument should be at the high end of the spectrum of the last, so if your instruments bulk is at 500 hz, (guitar?) try to keep other instruments in that range out of it’s way. if you have 2 instruments that are the same range, put one on each side. and make sure their composition compliment each other.
Sometimes I find it gets a good effect to pan both to opposite sides and have their delay or reverb on the other side, so just the delay of one is over the other, if they are similar range and complimentary notes, this can create neat harmony effects. Sometimes, it’s awful though, use judiciously.
But the best answer I’ve found is similar the concept of LCR; That would be LMH, Low, Mid, High, Think about this one both sides, try to only if possible have one instrument in each range (other than bass drums and vocals for whole They over too wide of a space bit) also, always be planning how the instruments are going to harmonize and how the melody of one will work with the other, If you’ve been given tracks that weren’t composed that way, it makes things harder.
So if you’re working on your own work, try to plan low mid and high for each side, and make sure they work together, and try not to overlap much, (not always possible, that’s where the EQ comes in.)
So if you have no choice, and two instruments in the same range have to be in the same range, try to make as much room (without it being noticable) for both, maybe that’s cutting 500 on one and if the others main body is at 800, cut a little 800 from the other, try not to cut much, minimal amounts to make it fit. but try to keep the range of the fundamental body of the instruments out of each others way. it can be messy.
TL:DR
If you’re the composer, keep the instruments out of the others way in composition.
if it’s someone elses tracks and you’re just mixing, do the best you can with what they gave you. it can’t always be pretty if they didn’t plan well.
EQ is your friend, but try to use as little as you can to make it fit.
make sure everything has a in the sonic space.
Hi CSM,
And also thanks for this advice (L,M,H).
Reading things like this, make it sound so simple, but as soon as I am sitting at my desk I feel lost again. Nevertheless, I implement these techniques in my mixes the best I can and do it over and over again.
Have a wonderfull day!
Only if they need EQ. This is why I do all my EQ work in mono. So there is NO panning to help get separation. Once they all sit in a mono mix clearly then panning will only help.
Hi Graham, Is the digital panning same like a analog panning or is different? Example
100% digital panning is the same in the analog world, maybe 100% digital is 90, 80, 70 in the analog world, I don’t know is just curious. Another observation the stereo pan law in the daw is -3 but in the analog world is 100% 0, is there any different. I hope you can understand my poor english. Thanks
Should be the same
I’m really going back and forth with doubling or tripling guitar parts and panning them L or R. Things like Th3 make it so easy to reamp guitar tracks and get 25 different GREAT tones that it is really easy to waste time experimenting with 10,000 combinations. Sometimes to me the extra tracks sound more modern and professional, other times they make me long for an “old school” live guitar type sound coming out of a broken speaker. I’ve also created some interesting vocal mixes lately by having the lead vocal center and the harmonies slightly off to the LR (maybe 15%). To my ear that sounds more live and interesting.
Graham,
Any chance you edit this to add a short list at the end some of your songs that are mixed this way? Or maybe songs you think best exemplify this principle?
Thanks!
Too many to count! I would just start listening on headphones to some of your favorite songs and some of the current trending songs today. Write out mentally where every instrument is placed.
I almost always use this method since I saw an interview with CLA where he said he uses LCR. I find that most of my favorite albums were mixed by CLA, so if I tend to like that sound why not use it!? After all, if your nailing the eq and getting that vertical separation LCR should handle the rest.
Graham,
I’ve been a secret under the radar reader. I have your smart start guides love your work.
I can’t imagine mixing w/o panning.
It adds such space to the entire mix….
Thanks
Hi Graham – How would you pan a jazz trio, say bass, piano, drums? Piano would have the melodic and harmonic lead, but is usually (in a concert setting) generally on the left, drums in the center, and bass on the right. If the listener were in the audience, you would hear instruments in those respective places. But in a home stereo situation, you don’t necessarily want to recreate the concert venue setting. Ie, it’s a “song” that needs to “sound good” when played back. It doesn’t have to represent where those musicians were placed on stage. What would you recommend?
I would honestly pan it all up the middle. And by that I mean the piano an drums might be stereo but anchored up the middle. Such a stripped down recording, doesn’t need much separation.
Thanks Graham! A great reminder on understanding the basics plus the value of breaking out of panning habits to stay fresh and creative in developing each arrangement and mix
For what it’s worth, it’s important to remember that (depending on your DAW’s pan depth/law settings) any sound panned hard left or right will be anywhere from 2.5-6db LOUDER than if it were panned center. Keep that in mind, especially when automating pan from one side to the other.
I’m always torn with what to do with harmony vox. Do I stack them in the middle with lead vox and try to have them not overshadow the lead vox? Do I pan them har L/R? (this keeps the lead vox clear but might sound artificial given the genre of the tune. ) Do I pan them slightly L/R to try and create the illusion of a trio of vocalist standing near each other on stage, like in a 60’s R & B group or folk group on stage.?
I’ve done all of the above. Depends on the song.
Hi Graham,
I’ve heard that if you pan all the way L or R this will be lost, or “fall off the end” if you like, when you play the track on some systems, like in the car for instance, What’s your advice on that? Thanks 🙂
Doesn’t make any sense to me. There’s no where for it to “fall”. It’s all there 🙂
I always double background vocals and pan them L -R. I have never hard panned guitars, I will definitely give it a try.
A contemporary multi-track stereo recording has nothing to do with a real stereo image. This is all illusion. In a studio there is not even a real soundstage to be recreated. All attempts to create a natural room are condemned to failure.
All sound reproduction systems, including 5+1, have nothing to do with reality.
Where does most listening happen? Graham describes it – not in the sweet spot.
One might just as well abandon this pan pot tweaking and use LCR for a relieve.
And then… how many boom boxes are mono?
I generally record two different guitar tracks and pan them hard left and right or one guitar and one keyboard track and do the same. It makes the track sound really big. I’m not a fan of doing multiple tracks of the same part, except vocal harmonies.
For a while there I wasn’t sure about LCR, but when I wanted the track to groove more with the actual drum part and low end feel, LCR really helped open that up. From what I’ve noticed, LCR translates a little better into the RW, or car. It seems to help with separation too…the guitars pull themselves away from the lead vocal more.
However, LCR does present a stange occurrence when folding a mix into mono. The mid range instruments do, in fact, drop a bit in magnitude. There’s a way to compensate, sometimes a copied paralle’d track will help that and/or just re-blend…or a stereo widener plug.
Just found out that a very famous mix engineer likes to go super wide on verses and then goes more “rainbow-to-center” during choruses! That’s one possible way around the 3-5dB drop off …
LCR definitely presents its challenges…like most things.
: )
Good post, deude !
Hahaha….I took a break from mixing to read this because I was having fun putting things in between. Now, I have to go back to do a complete LCR. But that will make me go back to the drawing board to eq them right. Thanks again.
There are no rules.
If you are working with instrumental music and are not adding vocals to the song, simply have your lead, melodic instrument centered.
And another thing about LCR, I could see myself sitting about 10 feet from a stage and the stage has only three spaces to fill in and you cannot have any instruments playing between the spaces.
My point is though, by sitting right in the middle of auditorium close to the stage, I could hear the snare drum a little in the right, and ride cymbals a little to the left of the kick drum. Then I could hear the electric guitar that is located far left of the stage. The synthesizer would be located in the far right of the stage. But what if I were to have an acoustic guitar be between the center and far right and an electric piano be between far left and center?
If you have an LCR framework like this, that would negate the sense of being there, right? I mean, to have the sense that the acoustic guitar will be between phantom center and the right speaker and the piano between phantom center and the left speaker. But if I take the LCR into account, then the acoustic guitar will be where the synthesizer will be located and the piano will be where the electric guitar will be as well, leaving two empty spaces in a big stage.
To me, that is how I see it when it comes to orchestra. With LCR panning applied, violins 1 and 2 (two sections of violin) will be heard in the left speaker, viola section will be in the center speaker, and cello and contrabass section will be in the right speaker. LCR does not apply to an orchestra when sitting in an auditorium, am I right?
Perhaps if you listen to my song called “Roamin’ ’round the World” (the orchestra samples are from the Digital Sound Factory Studio Orchestra), I hope you can understand what I mean. Except for two acoustic guitars, I did not apply the LCR framework to all my musical instruments.
https://graysonpeddie.bandcamp.com/
Today, a lot of people are listening through headphones. So I always check my mixes on headphones. LCR panning can sometimes sound strange on headphones.
I agree that LCR is the way to go for a lot of mixes and the “go crazy” part for me is to (now and then) add some stuff in the 10 after 2 position and the 10 before 10 position. Yeah, I’m a rebel.
I love LCR and have been using it for a couple years now. My main concern is when people are listening on a system with one speaker, or you’re in a store or restaurant where on speaker is FOH and one is in the kitchen, you only hear the left or right channel and he song falls apart or doesn’t make sense. I was out on my balcony with a couple friends recently and had pulled the left speaker of my home theatre outside because the cord is super long and it’s middle of winter so I had the window shut behind it. Listening to Grand Funk was essentially a drum and bass guitar solo with lead guitar reverb.
Yep – that can totally happen. Listen to the Beatles 🙂
Hi Graham,
Thanks for your work and awesome resources you’ve made available to help us beginners get a leg up on playing with audio. This talk about stereo sound got me thinking about mid-side recording. What are your thoughts on the subject? Have you ever played around with it? Does it really have a place in recording for mixing or is it just an interesting trick? I haven’t heard you talk about it, so I’m very curious to have you share your opinion.
I’ve done it only a couple of times. In essence it’s a mono sound, that can have a stereo vibe to it. Super cool. I just don’t do a lot of stereo recording. That’s as far as recording goes. With mixing, I’ll sometimes roll off some low end on the SIDES.
Seems to be the set palette, kick, snare, bass and lead vox at center and most Engineers and Producers I worked with did just that. Just to be different, I recorded a song and mixed kick, snare, lead vox and synthetic at center, one guitar at left and bass at right. I noticed my kick had room to breath and didn’t have to eq or compress as much…unconventional, I know, but it sounded good…to me, that is.
Hi Graham.
Thank you for providing many with insight into improving their creativity.
Just a thought, at times going out of LCR can help. I occasionally find an out of phase copy panned hard LR give that bit extra for seemingly insignificant additions – shaker etc. Yes, when it is on AM radio it will disappear, but most people can listen stereo.
I think you should be very careful with that. It can cause a weird (and annoying) effect when you move your head between the two speakers. (if you’re talking about 180° phase invert)
Graham,
I use LCR. However, my drum mix follows advice from Young Guru. I like to mix the drums from the drummer’s perspective, as though I was sitting behind the kit. So Bass drum and Snare are Center. Hi-Hat – Slightly left. Toms – each one has its own panning spot to the right so when you play a fill it moves around the set. Each cymbal lives in its own location – ride on the right, crash on the left.
I like that sound.
thanks,
Josh
This is the way that is frequently recommended. It places the instruments in a virtual room one would perceive if standing immediately in front of the drum kit.
For a live setting, this will rarely be the case. On the contrary, if the listener is a fair distance away, all of the pieces of the drumkit would be perceived in the same location.
Consequently, the relative position of other instruments is wrong too and has nothing to do with reality.
With the shortcomings of customer stereo setups and imperfect reproduction systems, I bedoubt the significancy of any alleged additional spatial separation.
I forgot to mention….
Whatever one hears in a live situation, whenever one stands inmidst of a musical performance, cannot be reproduced by the current common recording and playback systems.
The ear/brain combination does some very tricky things to increase the intelligibility of sound sources.
No amount of trickery can reproduce or fake that (except maybe binaural recordings, but, as I said, common systems).
It is not a simple as a two channel (or more) setup with a little panning.
That alone is no reason to adhere to common panning methods.
Agreed. Drums is a different beast. I treat the entire kit like one instrument. So pan and mix the individual elements of the kid how you like.
I record with synths direct to DAW, the drum kits depending on what I use in the sequence are auto panned and the pulsating or moving patches are stereo so for the most part I leave everything in the center and get a full sound. Mix in mono and EQ to get clarity. I arrange on the fly. Keeps making music fun.
I think an historical perspective on things may help on this issue.
In the glory days of stereo vinyl recordings, LCR was definitely the best way to go, just because of the mechanical constraints of the vinyl groove, the stylus and the cartridge. If you got a stylus and cartridge at home, just examine how the 4 little wires are activated by the movement of the stylus. Then, listen to an early AAD CD version of some of the great vinyls made in the late seventies and eighties. Listen to how clearly the LCR panning stands out. Flick the mid-side playback options if you have that options, then only the L channel, and the R channel.
You’ll find The lower freqs are mono in the Mid – roughly 150 Hz and down (to roughly 50 HZ, because of the limits of vinyl, which doesn’t mean you can’t reproduce a 42Hz low E, but that’s another issue, about the “missing fundamental” – look it up).
Then you’d hear pretty well one instrument, like an acoustic guitar, all on the left, and another one, all on the right.
In terms of stereo image, that always sounded unnatural to me, and the CD and other digital playback formats make it unnecessary. And there are fine examples of beautiful stereo images that are done nowadays, like live concert videos that can play black in 5.1 or straight stereo.
Another source is movie sound tracks, that can also play back in 9.1 right down to straight simple stereo, even through YouTube and your simple computer 2.1 setup.
Or just listen all different types of music put out nowadays, like in jazz, orchestral, whatever. You’ll find that the LCR is only used in some pop-rock stuff, and not all.
Final point – in simple stereo, you may have only two distinct sound sources, but each is heard by two distinct sound receptors, your left and right ears (same for 7.1 sound sources). Two sound sources are enough to give a full and complex stereo image because of how your brain handles it (the room acoustics are also a factor, of course). And that’s why mixing strictly on headphones is not a good idea, unless you adhere to the LCR faith (but you can always use a plug-in that simulates stereo listening in different room acoustics, but it’s rather risky).
Cheers,
Graham, I could agree with your mind about this LCR panning.
But, as I implement it in my mixing, the instruments that are placed hard-left or hard-right sound quieter than I put 25%, for instance, when mixing in mono. So then, I just find myself turn it up and it sounds louder when mixing in stereo.
LCR is good tips. BUT, really I overthink it as it impact the mixing result when played in mono. Instead, I use 25%-50% for panning
I think that just depends on your DAW’s pan laws. These can usually be changed in your settings. So experiment and see what works best for you.
Hey Graham, interesting thoughts on LCR in the post and the comments. I agree with you that LCR is a great tool for planning a song’s arrangement and figuring out what needs to be recorded (and how many times). I also agree that LCR is an excellent tool during the early stages of a mix, to place things in their quadrant, find good EQ (when not in mono), and generally set up the scene.
However, I have to pull the idea back a notch when I get into the meat of mixing the song. My opinion is not meant to debunk LCR or anything, and those who use it well should continue to do so confidently. But … I agree that stereo image is an illusion – and I would argue that is exactly the point of it. You don’t have to be even near perfect position to accurately pick out the spatial relationships of the instruments – though the relationship is obviously not as precise. Maybe I am just sensitive, but few things annoy me more than when the mouths of all the backup singers (or bows of the violins, or guitar amps) are located in the exact same physical space. That is far more impossible to accept than the illusion of a reasonably wide space in front of me, with sound sources at reasonable locations.
My assumption here is that we are not recreating a concert experience. That is typically all mono out the mains anyway. What I am talking about is the listening experience in my car, my living room, in the head gear. The psycho-acoustic phenomena that occurs when you hear a guitar on the left and the verb on the right definitely puts the image somewhere other than L or R … it puts it exactly where the differential of the volumes and timing of the two sources are, the same way that pan pots adjust relative volumes in each channel, or pre-delay pushes an image back. In my mind, LCR adds an additional layer of demands on the mixer. After all the planning, recording, level adjustment, EQ, etc, the mixer still has to find out if they have enough tracks to actually make the image acceptable – and that’s how we end up with tons of duplicated tracks mono-to-stereo channels and all the other complications with doing the final balance on the mix, when one simple quarter-twist of the pan pot would solve it just as effectively.
Personally, I use LCR a lot, when it is warranted. I also use partial pans a lot, when it is warranted. Maybe others don’t notice the problems that LCR *can* create. To me it sticks out like a sore thumb when I hear it.
All that said, thank you for your posts and your inspiration. It is good to think about these things and to understand their implications. All the best to you man, keep up the great work!
Psycho-acoustics can still be very present in LCR with Verb & Delay done right. For some great LCR inspiration, listen to The Beatles – Revolver. You’ll even notice the main vocals on the right at some point and the strings in the center instead. But just like a bespoke suit is a frame that highlights the face of a man, the mix must point to and highlight the song. This also means the song has to first be well written and ready to go. Again, The Beatles 🙂
George Martin may have had a little hand in this also. 😉
Good thoughts. Thanks.
Hi guys help here 99% I record Gospel and my arrangement is simple I Bass, Kick, Lead Vlcal, Snare, Hihat, Background Vocals, piano, strings and synth can I apply LCR panning here? Thnx
I have been using LCR for a year or so, and while it simplifies panning decisions it can sound odd at times. If I have an instrument panned hard left I will send the signal to a buss with a very quick delay on it (Haas delay) pan the buss to the opposite side at 50% and then raise the buss level until until the instrument appears and then back it off slightly. Makes things sound a bit more “natural” (whatever that means…)
This is great advice! I’ve actually learned (kinda on the fly) about panning tracks over time. Much better than running everything up the middle. Gonna implement what was mentioned and see how things sound.
Thanks again, Graham!
I often try to reproduce the audio image (instrument/vocal placement) as heard from a specific location in a specific live venue. I start by first recording all sounds as dry as possible in the studio. I then combine graduated panning with specifically timed and EQ’d early reflections and reverb to simulate reflections from the walls, floor, and ceiling of the venue. Each voice or instrument will have different pan, ER, and reverb settings based on its location relative to the listener and the room boundaries. I have written software that calculates all the settings based on the room dimensions; stage height; performer and listener locations; wall, ceiling, and floor materials, hall seating and isle layout; etc. This process fuses the various sounds together in a way that makes them sound as if they were recorded at the same time in the same space rather than sequentially in a studio. The result is a clean and well-controlled studio recording that sounds as if it were recorded at the best seat in a live venue, but without the crowd noise. I can also change the simulated venue by simply adjusting the pan, ER, and reverb settings without having to re-record or re-mix the tracks.
Loved turning off the pan pots, mixing LCR on Neve and being able to engage more than one selection along with the insert points on the busses – M/S but better.
The whole point here is to eliminate the phase shift from panning and advantage a different summing architecture and I’m not sure how to get the pan out of the way on a DAW. Hard panning is too much shift spread about the whole mix, the bit accumulator at the end isn’t acting any different and how do I select LC RC or LR.
I’m sure it can be done with bussing in the DAW combined with interface routing but see above. Without removing the pan pots which even when centered are still shifting dependent on the pan law on either the DAW or interface the advantage seems lost let alone the summing/accumulator architecture doesn’t Chang and may be working hard to do all that hard panning.
Now, I was looking at the Waves NLS and something like that might work if it could bypass the DAW pans and offer a differentited combiner with plug-in slots.
Better developers come up with an update to select LCR along with the pan law preferences. Give me Center ( mono/mid ) and LR ( stereo/side ) busses to stereo. Please ?
It sounds better for sure but the advantage seems lost to me when there are pan pots and the same summing/accumulator at the end.
Wow, what a great article! I joined the LCR ‘cult’ about 2 years ago but the article nails the concept in very clear and concise words.
I’ve noticed that hard panned elements tend to lose volume when the mix is folded to mono. My current practice is to pan elements like rhythm guitars around 85% left and right and to fill in the outer edges of the field with subtle (or not) ambient/modulation effects like delay, reverb or chorus. Graham, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on mono compatibility when LCR mixing.
Your pan law might be set to turn down things panned away from center so that could affect level a bit. But I do most of my mixing while listening in mono so I never have any mono compatibility issues. If it sounds killer in mono, it’ll sound even better in stereo 🙂
Graham great points to consider and you are correct, it prompts all sorts of discussion.
Don’t you also need to consider the planning laws used? I also think this perhaps make better sense in densely populated Rock/pop mixes. However, on acoustic jazz I am looking to find all instruments defined in their own space within the stereo field. It is not likely to matter too much when listening on today’s devices…phones, loudness restrictions, overly compressed / dynamically restricted mixes, and space saving formats…MP3 etc.
However, on a high end home system it is easily decernable with either and analog or digital front end.
See the Absolute Sound’s records to die for…mostly classical and jazz. There are some rock and pop that are also regarded as well done.
Thanks for a great article.
Interesting article! Right now I’m listening to Miles Davis’ Nefertiti album. Recorded in 1968, every track is panned the same – Trumpet, Sax and Bass in the center: Drums hard right, Piano hard left. There is a very slight amount of drum bleed in the piano side, and piano in the drum side. On track 2, playing now, there is a sax solo that moves around a little – there is a (chamber?) reverb panned right for the sax solo only that swells when loud notes are played, so the sax seems to move to the right sometimes. Fascinating stuff!
Ever since I first seen this tip by you and began using it, it’s all I use now. Like you I will put some things in at 50% now and then. This way of panning works well for me, and let’s me arrange and mix as I go. Once I have all my tracks recorded the song is already partially mixed. It’s just about adding FX, some EQ, Compression, Automation at that point etc. In the past I used to fiddle around with small panning changes thinking it was doing something, when it probably wasn’t doing much at all. Thanks for all your tips Graham!
Love it!
I couldn’t agree more. LCR was the biggest “breakthrough” I’ve ever had in mixing. It did so much more then just help contribute to a fuller sounding, balanced, and clearer mix. It made everything I ever learned actually make sense. Its easy to understand the concept of masking, but until you have a kick and bass up the middle solely can it become much apparent and way easier to address. If the only thing with real power in the right speaker is a floor tom and a guitar (and half the mono), then it’s pretty simple to make decisions to make them shine and balanced. That being said.. the toms are usually the one thing I’ll bring in. In fact, everyone gripes that LCR isn’t taking advantage of 10-2 or 9-3, but it happens to be the perfect place for Toms with minimal competing elements. No more unnecessary eqing things and “carving out space” to get them all to work together. Naturally as they should, all elements have their dedicated space from the get go and phasing/masking/buried elements are kept at a minimum. I look at it just like mixing in Mono, but with three separate speakers. It’s easy to decipher your issues, when only certain instruments are in that said space/speaker. It makes everything I’ve learned about processing SO much easier and quicker to implement. If you’ve tried it and hated it, it might be because you took your already “mixed” song and just panned it after the fact. I’m sure it seemed empty because you did so much compression/eq to get everything to work together in the “narrower” field you started out with. Late to the party for the believers and old heads who didn’t have a choice back in the day, but LCR has truly changed my life. I say that because I’ve spent most of it trying to make the best music I can.
Great point about the toms.
I was a member of songtown USA and the first lesson I heard was hard panning of acoustic guitar right and left. it’s like the norm in country music but seems to be common in many styles. Sometimes I play twice, sometimes I just use 2 mics and use a slightly different fx. For my own stuff I use digi drums or drum tracks so you accept their mix or I setup my drum kit pans to be like what I think on stage live people hear. yes you can add a snare etc after. I think this method works for me.
LCR was the biggest “breakthrough” I’ve ever had in mixing. It did so much more then just help contribute to a fuller sounding, balanced, and clearer mix. It made everything I ever learned actually make sense. Its easy to understand the concept of masking, but until you have a kick and bass up the middle solely can it become much apparent and way easier to address. If the only thing with real power in the right speaker is a floor tom and a guitar (and half the mono), then it’s pretty simple to make decisions to make them shine and balanced. That being said.. the toms are usually the one thing I’ll bring in. In fact, everyone gripes that LCR isn’t taking advantage of 10-2 or 9-3, but it happens to be the perfect place for Toms with minimal competing elements. No more unnecessary eqing things and “carving out space” to get them all to work together. Naturally as they should, all elements have their dedicated space from the get go and phasing/masking/buried elements are kept at a minimum. I look at it just like mixing in Mono, but with three separate speakers. It’s easy to decipher your issues, when only certain instruments are in that said space/speaker. It makes everything I’ve learned about processing SO much easier and quicker to implement. If you’ve tried it and hated it, it might be because you took your already “mixed” song and just panned it after the fact. I’m sure it seemed empty because you did so much compression/eq to get everything to work together in the “narrower” field you started out with. Late to the party for the believers and old heads who didn’t have a choice back in the day, but LCR has truly changed my life. I say that because I’ve spent most of it trying to make the best music I can.
I always try to pan rhythm guitars separated LR, and leads Center.
What I struggle with is then getting my mix to translate well on, say a Bluetooth speaker. My rhythms becomes basically inaudible.
Its a constant, mixing tug of war. I believe most people listen to music, these days, on their phone speaker or some sort of Bluetooth speaker. It’d be great of they heard what I hear in my monitor speakers or headphones.
The mystery is how to get a good sounding mix that can exist in both mono and stereo. My room guitars are my foundation, its how I write songs, on an acoustic.
Hi Graham,
You mention that the centre is just illusionary, but every point in the spectrum can be just the same illusionary result, the fact is that your brain interprets it as coming from, say 50 degrees to the left. I still think that a recording should probably reflect where sources would be located in th ereal world. When you listen to a real band, sand the Beach Boys or CHicgo, have you ever seen the bass, drum and singers standing dead centre while the other instruments stand at the far left and right of the stage?