Picture the scene ...
 
I've recorded an acoustic guitar in (pseudo) stereo. Two cardiods spaced, one around the twelfth fret (right), one to the side of the sound hole (left). The levels of the tracks are fairly equal. So I have two mono tracks. I pan one track fully left and one track fully right. I then set up a stereo buss for the two mono guitar tracks.
 
My question is:
 
If I want to narrow the stereo width of the guitar and put that narrower guitar so that it sounds more to the left of the stereo field, do I?
 
a. pan the left mono track say 80% left and the right mono track say 20% right and leave the stereo buss panned to centre? or ...
 
b. pan the left mono track say 50% left and the right mono track say 50% right and then pan the stereo buss say 50% left? or ...
 
c. pan the left mono track say 50% left and the right mono track say 50% right and increase the volume of the left mono track ?
Thanks

Which one sounds the best when you listen to it?

Hi gswitz
They all sound ok, but I was wondering if there was a specific (theoretically correct) way to do it.

You may find that you get a better range of answers if you were to post this in the 'techniques' forum.  The entire issue of stereo immaging and sound placement has some rather interesting posts there.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2820205
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2794306
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2761212

I generally don't think to pan at the bus and left centered it just reflects the track pans, but heck try it both ways. Also - there is the Hass pan effect -if one mic is slightly closer (an inch might do it), it would tend to pull it's image towards it.

If it were me, i would go with the first choice.

It's not scientific. It's what sounds best.

Were I to have things set up that way, I would get the guitar where it sounded perfectly balanced, and then I wold pan the bus as desired. Otherwise, you will have too many confusion factors if, during mix, you want to shift the position of the guitar.

I am guessing that you do not hear a very strong stereo image with this mic set-up, correct? I am not saying that is bad in any way at all--just that I would imagine that the stereo effect is subtle.

Do you ever use an XY mic set-up?

Hi, sounds like you are trying to position the image of the guitar track to sit well within your mix. hope i get the idea correct first...

if you want to do this it may be better sum both mono tracks to a single mono track. the reason for this is 
1.     12th fret mic - is used to record the slips and slide of the fingers and strings. it will still pick up a little from the guitar sound hole.
2.     sound hole mic - is used to record the plucking and acoustics directly from the guitar body. it will also pick up a little of the slips and slides from above.


by panning, you will get two different sounds on the left and right.


so if you sum to a single mono track, you will have exactly the same sound on both sides. with that, you may then experiment with the sitting of the track with whatever tools you may be comfortable with. they could be simple pan all the way up to phasing. 


you could think of this as similar to using 2 mics on a single guitar amp.


hope this helps...

Another option (and one I use all the time on stereo tracks)

Pan your mono tracks to 100% L + 100% R
Insert the Channel Tools plugin on your stereo bus.
Adjust to taste