L C R PANNING AND MIXING IN MONO

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MIXING LCR PANNING

• Using LCR means there are only three main areas of the stereo field you have to think about
(Left speaker, right speaker, and the centre).

• Pan the lead vocals, the kick, the snare, and the bass to the centre.

• Pan dominant instruments that occupy large amounts of the mid range frequencies all the way
to the left and to the right (Such as Heavy Guitars and/or Synths).

• Of course these ‘rules’ can be broken at any time… switch anything around and choose what
works best for you. The basic principal with LCR panning is the limitations of only choosing Left
Centre or Right will not only create space and width, but by removing and simplifying the choic-
es you will speed up your mix process considerably.

• Remember in LCR to try automation panning for extra creativity! High line percussive parts
sound great flying from one speaker to another!

MIXING IN MONO
• Low end comes across as Omni/Multi Directional or Mono sounding. Meaning Extreme lows
such as the Kick Drum, Bass guitar or Bass synth will always work best in Mono, Panned to the
Centre.

• Guitars with Multiple Mics and Multiple overdubs can easily have phase/polarity issues so be
careful to high pass them so as not to have an undefined muddiness in their low end. Typically
a gentle high pass around 80-150 Hz will work great! Checking them all together in Mono will
instantly reveal any Low End phase/polarity cancellation.

• Mixing your track in Mono for balances can work however bear in mind that the high mids of
guitars panned mono might effect how bright you make the snare drum and you may find your-
self removing seemingly excessive high mids from the guitars only to find the guitars sounding
to dull when hard panned.

• The moral is Mono is a HUGE tool! Use it frequently to check your mix!

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