How to pan an acoustic guitar properly?

[Larsis]

Hello guys,

this is probably very simple and kind of stupid question, yet I didn't found any answer. When I record an acoustic guitar with two microphones to get stereo image (pan hard to left and right) and I have one mic point to the bridge and the second one to the neck, how to pan them in the mix? I'd expect, that logically from position of the listener, it should be R for the neck and L for the bridge? It makes sence to me. Or opposite, from position of the player, so P for the bridge and L for the neck?

[YamahaGuy]

Cool question, I look forward to answers from more experienced recording people. I would ask, is the recording just an acoustic guitar, or will there be other parts in the mix? If I have guitar + vocals, + bgv, I pan my guitar fairly hard left, lead vocal dead in the middle, and background vocal hard right. Listening in a car or stereo imaged space sounds really cool.

[jim1960]

There's no right or wrong to this. You do what you think the song requires and sounds best.

[Larsis]

Actually I didn't mean, how to pan the guitar in the mix in general. What I meant was, when I'm in the concert and listening some acoustic player in front of me, the same approach should be, when I'm recording. So my left ear's getting more sound from the bridge and my right ear's getting more sound from the neck. Obviously, it's completely opposite, when I'm in position of the player. So I'm curious, what approach is the right one. To me, listening solo acoustic guitar (in headphones for example), I would like to imagine, I'm sitting in front of the player, like in the concert scenario.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Larsis

So my left ear's getting more sound from the bridge and my right ear's getting more sound from the neck. Obviously, it's completely opposite, when I'm in position of the player. So I'm curious, what approach is the right one.

I'd call that overthinking, but it's yours.

[Chipotle]

Most people listen to music from the perspective of...well, the listener. So that's how I would pan it as a rule of thumb. But no one's going to say otherwise if you want to do it the other way.

[rick-slo]

In an orchestra the bass instruments are generally on the right. In a small jazz group the bass is often back a bit and in the middle. On a piano the bass is on the left for the pianist. On a solo guitar recording the sound is so centered and blended that I don't noticeably sense a different directionality to different pitches.
If you are recording a guitar as to be one instrument in a group of instruments it's probably better to be recording it with a single mike.

[hazmuz]

Originally Posted by Larsis

Actually I didn't mean, how to pan the guitar in the mix in general. What I meant was, when I'm in the concert and listening some acoustic player in front of me, the same approach should be, when I'm recording. So my left ear's getting more sound from the bridge and my right ear's getting more sound from the neck. Obviously, it's completely opposite, when I'm in position of the player. So I'm curious, what approach is the right one. To me, listening solo acoustic guitar (in headphones for example), I would like to imagine, I'm sitting in front of the player, like in the concert scenario.

what, if the player is lefthanded?

[Larsis]

Originally Posted by hazmuz

what, if the player is lefthanded?

I guess, that would be the opposite Maybe I'm overthinking, but it just came to my mind. Anyways, thank you for you opinions guys!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Larsis

Hello guys,

this is probably very simple and kind of stupid question, yet I didn't found any answer. When I record an acoustic guitar with two microphones to get stereo image (pan hard to left and right) and I have one mic point to the bridge and the second one to the neck, how to pan them in the mix? I'd expect, that logically from position of the listener, it should be R for the neck and L for the bridge? It makes sence to me. Or opposite, from position of the player, so P for the bridge and L for the neck?

Hi Larsis

It's a fun topic.

I either recorded my acoustics with a single mic or a two mic array which was centered. Occasionally I'd do a spread configuration at the same time (mics 3 feet apart and back a bit further), and in most cases I was simulating a larger space. My studio room was small (8 feet wide and 12 feet long), so I opted to make it a very non-reflective room and simulated a larger space in post.

How I configured the guitar at mix down was dependent on whether it was a solo recording, or with singer(s), or in a group. If it was in a group, it had to occupy it's own stereo space to separate it from other instruments, and still sound good played back in mono.

And if there were two guitars, then I usually arranged them opposite each other in the stereo field. I never mixed anything for 5.1 or other surround sound spaces.

I got out of serious recording about the time I discovered less people were listening on great rigs at home, and were doing most of their listening by ear-buds on phones, or in their cars.

[Bob Womack]

Alright, you've asked for it. Scientists researching the brain have discovered that we don't listen uniformly between our two ears. Right dominant people listen to continuously held tones on the left and staccato sounds like consonants on the right. As a result, people prefer more high-end and more activity on the right and less activity and more midrange on the left. I can give you a couple of anecdotes:

Being a recording engineer/producer and a left-dominant person as well, this was of importance and interest to me so I studied the phenomenon. At the beginning of my career back in 1980, my biggest prfessional influence was a producer/engineer named Bill Szymczyk who produced and recorded Joe Walsh and the Eagles, among a long list of hit-makers. Bill placed his hi-hats all the way right in the sound field. It was the only practice of his that bothered me. I eventually became convinced that I was left-ear dominant as well as left-handed and left-eye dominant when I heard all the records recorded with the hi-hat somewhere on the right. Because the rest of the world is reversed from mr and I needed to make a living, I assiduously trained myself to think and listen that way.

Nevertheless, I have one lefty colleague who always records his drums in "drummers perspective," hat to the left, and his recordings have always sounded darker to me. I've patched his mixes into the console and reversed the channels and they have sounded brighter.

As a result, I usually place the brighter channel of a guitar on the right. Spaced-pair configurations with one mic on the body and one on the neck naturally create a brighter channel for you. I don't like that phenomenon when the guitar is featured, so I use a pair of mics turned vertically like this:


It uses a pair of small diaphragm condensers spaced in the OTRF's spacing of 7" to prevent cancellation, and set at 110' but with the orientation reversed (pointing inward). I point it near the neck joint and it gives me both a nice stereo spread and matching frequency spectra for the mics. Back in the early 2000s I woke up in the middle of the night before a big session with this idea and used it with great success. I then reported it here on the AGF as my "great idea" but another poster sent me a private message saying that he'd read an interview with George Massenburg talking about the techniques he used in the late '80s for the Trio album (Parton/Harris/Ronstadt). He mentioned using mics in an x/y config vertically like this. Boing! I remember that I'd read that same article and so I've acknowledge George as the inspiration for this rig, supplying the idea in the dark of night at the point of need.

Bob