I had a brief affair with LCR a few years back when it had suddenly come into vogue again, and while it ultimately didn't suit my style it did change the way I look at panning. Since then, I often limit pan positions for supporting tracks to 100L, 50L, C, 50R and 100R. The result is a clearer, better-defined panorama, especially when listening to speakers off-axis. 

It's true that limited pan positions causes groups of instruments to stack up, but that's easily dealt with using equalization and is no different from creating a mono mix. You can think of an LCR mix as three concurrent mono mixes. 


Tip: make sure there is a comfortable balance between the L and R elements, both in level and spectrally. Listening with headphones is the best way to verify this.

Getting a good balance, while at the same time getting a good separation, between the L/R elements is to me one of the hardest things. It requires good selection of tones and parts for each side and careful playing to maintain the correct balance in tone throughout (unless you are one of those 'just mangle it with automation till it fits' people.)

And, inevitably it seems, the sound of an LCR mix in headphones is way off from the sound in the room, unless there's some stereo reverb to spread out the sounds a bit in a non-obtrusive way, or they are well blended into the center material I guess, since there's no crosstalk in the phones and they can sound wierdly separated from the mix. Just a wee bit off of far L/R can prevent that, it often seems to me. Get them up enough to be at the right levels in the room and they can be too loud in the phones.

I agree with Bat about the 100% L/R being a little much on overheads and almost anything else as well.  I did a little experiment a while back.  After listening to a cluttered mix in my truck that I was having problems with I finally got irritated  enough to cut the radio on which was playing a mid 60's Beatles song.  Can't remember which one, maybe "Strawberry  Fields" or something similar.  I remember thinking how uncluttered it sounded and ended up mixing the song somewhat like that.  The only thing I panned dead center ( unlike them ) was the lead voc.  I panned drums mono about 80% R, bass 80% L, Guitars about 50% L/R baking voc. 75%  L,  Guitar solo 20% R and such.  The clarity between the bass and drums was incredible .  Actually , I did pan the toms a bit.  
  Knowing that it would never be commercially acceptable these days I went back to a more standard panning scheme but if I thought I could get away with it I probably would use a Beatles-like mix on at least some things.  After all,  they must have kinda known what they were doing sometimes.  

Actually, the thing with the Beatles' stereo mixes is that nobody was interested in them til around Abbey Road / Let It Be time. Even George Martin wasn't generally bothered. They were mostly knocked off quickly after the mono mixes were done, often by junior staff.

I guess I'm the odd man out with this. I never really liked it...even when I finally learned how to deal with frequencies. When I first tried it, I of course had lots of masking going on which made it a bit difficult. But once I learned how to handle things, I still found myself not liking this due to the things being L/R just sounding too separated to me.

When I listen to things done this way on good monitors or in a car, it just sounds too disconnected and wide. In headphones, totally different story. Then again, with a world that listens to everything on earbuds these days, I guess it's not a bad option. It's just not something I'm crazy about.

-Danny

Yeah, I agree. I think it's worth experimenting with as a learning process, but as a dogma, it's a bit too limiting.

Danny Danzi


I guess I'm the odd man out with this. I never really liked it...even when I finally learned how to deal with frequencies. When I first tried it, I of course had lots of masking going on which made it a bit difficult. But once I learned how to handle things, I still found myself not liking this due to the things being L/R just sounding too separated to me.

When I listen to things done this way on good monitors or in a car, it just sounds too disconnected and wide. In headphones, totally different story. Then again, with a world that listens to everything on earbuds these days, I guess it's not a bad option. It's just not something I'm crazy about.

-Danny

You're not the odd man, cause I agree with that too!

I had watched a video about this and found this to be a great tip. I don't consider myself a purist; however, I have gotten the critique of pieces being too centered and do concur with panning making instruments standout. I must say this though - while panning has to occur for elaborate instrumentation, there is a problem as you just can't just throw whatever to the side.

Someone asked me about panning laws and while I don't recall or fully understand the "official" definition, I did use lamen terms even though I still may be wrong.

The problem one runs into is clipping/distortion because the further you push, space within the spectrum is truncated and has to compromise something. In the case with panning, it's volume. (Mixing - which panning and its laws are associated with, isn't what I'm explaining though)

Now, it may be that you're recording at -10dB (always record/mix @ low volumes, btw even if all is centered). at center, but as some say, it doesn't stand-out. Well, it wouldn't if 5-10 other instruments are in the middle as well.

If you can't hear an instrument, panning because of the volume compensating due to limited spectrum space, helps this - not only due to reducing a congesting "center-field", but you don't have to crank the volume or lower it from the other instruments to hear it.

I think "wanting instruments to stand-out" has taken a bad connotation though this isn't wrong. I've heard it said like this: "You don't want the instruments fighting each other." This is much more applicable when talking about frequencies within the spectrum. You also hear things like: "Muddy Mixes." 
Most relate this phenomenon to bass, bass-like or low-end/bottom instruments. 

Again, while this end of the spectrum is the most common, the higher ranges are also prone to this as well. This is due to too many instruments (guilty, but it's how I write). Again, though, like panning being "horizontal" while too many instruments is "vertical", you can get a pretty good mix with a hefty instrumentation (and you should be able to if you can get a bad mix with light instrumentation) You have to know what you're doing in both cases.

Anyway, in the video I watched. the guy said that you want keep the important stuff at the center and move the lesser important things to the side; however, you must keep the panning law and what happens in mind, too.

Many have probably implored this tip, too where instead of putting a track a dead center, make a duplicate of said track, and push both to the sides. It's quite obvious with vocal doubling, but the effect heard is one slightly ahead of the other. Stereo Separation. The chorus effect is exactly this in a sense.

What I am talking about though is what Philip mentioned as the illusion of center. If mixed right, one shouldn't be able to tell if something was centered or doubled + panned unless of course it's intended to be known that it was.

Going back to the pan/volume compensation issue, it'd be easiest to grasp when looking at a wave file. If the channel graphs are reaching towards the top or bottom (left/right channel) then something or things have been panned too far over. (Frequency Space isn't being discussed, but that can have alot to do with it as well)

One last thing:

It generally comes down to preference. There was a thread asking a question if one uses the same pan rules or not from song to song.

For me, personally, I do. While it is because I'm use to:

Bass, Drums, Piano, Harp, Strings centered (real or illusionary), Maracas left Cabasa right, etc. keeping in mind that I'm only listening from the left and right only (from speakers), but also from live music. Regardless of where they are placed, the sound from them is still reaching only two ears.

I've tried flipping things around, just for fun and it didn't sound bad, just weird. It's like someone learning to read backwards when since birth they've read forwards or vice-versa. Even if one has done both, one still may prefer one over the other.

Don't just pan stuff to pan it. "Centered Tracks" aren't a bad thing as you don't want everybody in one place; however, you don't want everyone all over the place either.

i had a buddy that had an old beat-up car in high school...


and a cassette player in the car, and when he hit a hard bump on the road,  the left side of the stereo would go off...

we were listening to van halen I.

and the guitar disappeared!!

LOL

i work with hip hop and i like to start off with an intro of my main piano or synth track followed by vocals coming in after the first 4 bars. but they both sounded like they were sitting on top of each other. so i made the synth stereo. panned hard left and right and when my drum loops come in. everything sounds like its in a neat little box. the stereo synth makes the walls and the drums make the floor. so far im liking it but i dont think i could do the whole mix like this