- Drummer's perspective - Hi-Hat left, floor tom right

- In front of drums perspective - Hi-Hat right, floor tom left

- Anything else - Kick drum left, snare right, mono drums, etc.

I'm not a drummer but I find myself panning my overhead and tom mics more and more to create a drummer's perspective stereo image.
I just got used to it and have to adjust for a second whenever I hear a record with In-front-of-the-kit stereo.

What's the word?

I figure the drums should sound normal to the drummer who played them. In the same way stereo piano sounds "wrong" to me if the bass is on the fight (opposite the way it would be if I were sitting at the piano) It usually sounds more normal with the drums panned to fit the drummer's perspective. It's the least we can do for them.

Which side what is on depends on the right-or-left- handedness of the drummer. Today, for example, it's hi-hat on the right, as it's a lefty drummer.

yeah, I always do it from the drummers perspective. It just feels right that way

no question, drummer's perspective.

i would also submit that the "in front of drums perspective" is a bit of a false one, since listening to a kit from out front, it doesn't have very much of a stereo image to it in the first place. versus sitting behind a kit, it has a much more spatial quality to it.

but regardless of that, hihat on the left, ride on the right. oh, and my guitar more toward the left, and your guitar more toward the right. >:D

Weird.

I'm a drummer (right-handed playing crossed-over so that I hear my hi-hat on my left) yet I love hearing and recording the drums from the audiences point of view.

Like, always.... (unless I get particularly vehement request otherwise)

bdp

I used to always do drummer's perspective. However, just recently our band recorded an EP entirely live in the studio. When mixing we wanted to represent the band as we sound live, so we mixed the drums from the audience prespective. When mixing other bands' records I now just ask the band and the drummer. To my initial surprise, most of the bands have prefered audience perspective to drummer's perspective. I am ambi-panoramorous, so Ill do whatever the band wants me to.

I disagree with the statement that when standing in front of a drum kit there is no stereo correlation. Cymbals in particular, and depending on the setup of the kit, toms also sound "stereo" to me. Obviously, it all depends on how close you are standing to the kit, what the room sounds like etc. If you are far enough away, even an orchestra won't sound "stereo" anymore.

mtar

michaeltheangryrussian wrote:I am ambi-panoramorous

you so win

michaeltheangryrussian wrote:I disagree with the statement that when standing in front of a drum kit there is no stereo correlation. Cymbals in particular, and depending on the setup of the kit, toms also sound "stereo" to me. Obviously, it all depends on how close you are standing to the kit, what the room sounds like etc. If you are far enough away, even an orchestra won't sound "stereo" anymore.

think of it like this... the band is on a stage that's 20 feet wide. you're 25 feet away from them. the drum shells are essentially dead-center, the guitars are on each side of the stage and are totally outside of the drumkit. yes, the cymbals *might* have some sort of stereo image to them. assuming a fairly reflective wall behind the stage, maybe that stereo image becomes a little less distinct.

get yourself up closer to the stage and the situation becomes more dramatic: the drums have a wider stereo image, though it's still pretty narrow, and certainly very narrow compared to the stereo image the drummer experiences. but now the guitars are spread even further apart, to the point where a record that goes for this perspective would have the guitars hard-panned. who likes hard-panned guitars for anything except a slayer album?

how do you mix it then? with the drums panned very narrowly, roughly dead center, and with the guitars hard-panned? i'm all for mixing to recreate an actual real-world soundscape. but i'm also a big fan of mixing drums to the drummer's perspective, which yields a drum image that the listener would only experience if they were sitting immediately in front of the kick drum. which is not a real-world perspective i'm a big fan of.

i love listening to records on headphones when the drummer does a roll and you can hear the toms bounce around your head. it's magical...

Jon wrote:i love listening to records on headphones when the drummer does a roll and you can hear the toms bounce around your head. it's magical...

fill goddamnit - IT"S A FILL! a roll is what starts off on the star spangled banner. a fill is what everyone air drums to on that phil collins song "air of the night" or whatever.

i used to be really confused when bandmates would try and tell me "do one of those cool rolls there..." and i was like, that's the worst idea i've ever heard, because of course, they meant to say fill, and i was hearing roll....

your resident crabby drummer...