The standard panning setup in drum recordings is:
Kick - Centre
Snare Centre
Hats - Half right/right
Cymbals - left - right
Toms - left - centre - right.
But if you look at a kit it isn't really setup like it should sound. The snare is to the right, the
toms have no spread etc. In fact if you were to put up two overheads left and right the stereo
image would have the kick centre and the snare to the right and the toms going from centre to
left.
Yet on recordings if you imagine looking at the kit from the front it looks (sounds) like the snare
is centre and the toms spread from left to right. (You will notice that I refer to the imaging as a
picture - well that's what it is!) So can we get the overheads to paint a picture like this? Have a
look at this setup which isup the kick and snare etc.
The microphone placement places a stereo image similar to where you want to go as far as the
placement of the different components.
You can now start to hear a stereo image of the kit as you will want to hear it in the mix. If you
were to put the mikes together in a stereo pair but aimed each side of the dividing line you
would get a stereo image but a narrow one. The width increases as you move the two mikes
away from each other. The placement in the drawings above are about normal with enough
spread to make the kit have some width. With practice and careful placement of these two
mikes you should be able to get a good balance of the kit. If you added a kick drum you would
have a real, open sound of the kit.
The next step is to mike the individual components so that their position and individual sound
can be emphasised.