Submixing — sending numerous tracks to a single “group” track or channel for the purpose of collecting all like tracks under one bus and fader — is nothing new. But when you submix, you have two places where you can pan a given track: individually, on the track’s own channel, or, as part of the overall submix. Often, a stereo submix is set up with the submix’s panners set wide left and right, then the individual channels are panned appropriately across the stereo field using their channel pan controls.

When mixing in surround, however, sometimes panning the entire submix is just what the doctor ordered. For example, you may want to place a crowd all standing to the rear-left of the listener. In this case, it’s better to leave the panning to the submix, so you can move all the submixed tracks to one location.

Also, if you want instruments or effects to move across the stereo or surround field over time using automation or effects, by panning the entire submix, you can move all of your tracks at once, together, so your entire crowd or racing cars or the like can travel across the surround channels, for example. This doesn’t work for everything, of course — you may submix all your guitars to one group bus, but only want your guitar solo to travel through the surround channels, not your rhythm tracks. In this case, you’d want to pan using the individual track channels.

Prev:How to Use Dual Compressors on Vocals

Next:Songwriters on Songwriting

Leave a message

Message List

Comments Loading...

Products Category

Products Tags

Fmuser Sites

Should I Pan Individual Tracks or Their Submix?

Leave a message

Message List