Panning Orchestral Bass

[DJ-Chilvan]

Why is bass in an DAW orchestra left unpanned (centered) while in a real orchestra it's to the right? A user on here told me to pan my bass center instead of to the right. Why is that?

[DJ-Chilvan]

I'm sorry, I kind of phrased myself wrong lol. I know, just because someone told me something doesnt mean I have to believe him, but he gave me a lot more relevant and great and useful information as well, hence, he's a trusted source. So he's legit.

[InvisibleObserver]

At 11/25/09 06:36 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote: Why is bass in an DAW orchestra left unpanned (centered) while in a real orchestra it's to the right? A user on here told me to pan my bass center instead of to the right. Why is that?

Well in real life, the bass instruments need to go somewhere, so right it is. In your DAW, that's just your instrument doing that, theirs probably no particular reason for it other then either sloppy scripting, or just what seemed like a default setting to the creator.

They likely told you to center the bass since it will be more pleasant sounding. If you have high freq all to the left, and low freq all to the right, your songs going to get this weird ping pong feeling. In real life, the bass sounds will be traveling and the acoustics totally different, so where the instruments may be placed to one side, the sound travels and generally encompasses your ears in a more centralized manner.

[Kazmo]

At 11/25/09 06:36 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote: Why is bass in an DAW orchestra left unpanned (centered) while in a real orchestra it's to the right? A user on here told me to pan my bass center instead of to the right. Why is that?

This is mainly due to the fact that it is hard to figure out from which direction bass comes from, since it has such a long wavelenth in terms of frequency being played, so it takes a long time for it to travel. Higher notes have shorter wavefengths, making them easier to pick out their directionality.

If you are planning on panning them, pan them to the right, but not all the way, and then monolize the lower frequencies (100Hz and lower) so that you don't get phasing issues, and so that it fills both sides of the mix.

[Trancik]

CenTer iT to Teh RigHt, AnD all WeLls DoNe, Mmk?

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

As a little experiment, take one of your trance songs and pan the bass sounds to the right. You know what to expect probably. It will sound bad and make your ears hurt, in the audio knowledge wise way.

[Khuskan]

It's hard to pinpoint where bass is coming from, and on anything other than headphones it's pretty much impossible. Since the bass end of orchestral tracks is provided by such a small group of instruments, it tends to get panned centered to keep the stereo field balanced.