| Panning with Drum Samples |
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In rap and hip-hop music production these days, sequencing is still very important. Panning, though, is fast becoming a skill to really treasure, as it is one way to easily make 20-30 drum samples and sounds fit in a track without crowding the room so to speak.
In rap and hip-hop music production these days, sequencing is still very important. Panning, though, is fast becoming a skill to really treasure, as it is one way to easily make 20-30 drum samples and sounds fit in a track without crowding the room so to speak. Panning is, after volume, the most obvious step in the mixing process. Mixing can be extremely complicated to master, especially during the beat making process, but when starting to get into the hang of things, it does become easier with time. At its essence, panning is distributing the volume of an instrument over the stereo field in a decisive manner. You can pan an instrument or drum samples 'hard' (all the way) to the left or to the right, meaning that the opposite channel no longer contains any information about that instrument or sample loop. You can also pan slightly or moderately to either side of the stereo field, and this is the most common way to pan. When panning drum samples, there are a few things to keep in mind. For instance, you should not pan the kick and drum samples beyond a percentile or two, and I will explain why very soon. An example panning board would see the snare and kick in the center while supporting drums like the hi-hat and cowbell would be panned to the left or right, and the amount would depend on each project. Now, why on Earth would we want to not pan the kick and snare drum samples at all? The reason comes down to sound distribution. This mainly applies to clubs, but there are other instances where it could be a problem. Here it is: clubs often lay out their speakers among the floor not in pairs, but in channels. So all speakers playing the left channel of a song could be toward the front while the speakers playing the music in the other speaker are located in the back. What does this achieve? Well, that depends on the venue, but it sure does not tend to support our own music if we're panning the kick nearly all the way to the left side, and the snare to the right. One half of the venue wouldn't hear the other main sound just hear whatever is on their channel, like the kick or snare. That's why panning is best for supporting sounds and not the backbone of a song. The frequency of drum samples can also play a big part in the way that you may want to spread out the different sounds. For instance, a cymbal that occurs once every four bars can be moved all the way to the right of the stereo field as it does not occur often, leaving room for instruments that are more active. It could also be the other way, though, with common sounds occupying the far-reach corners of the stereo spectrum and gaps being left with no drum sounds for creative effect. DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. If you want the best drum samples available, check out My Drum Samples here: http://www.mydrumsamples.com/ |