If you want to create an engaging mix then you really need to get panning

Jon Musgrave

Jon is a London-based platinum award winning mixer, producer, composer and club remixer with a diverse CV that spans dance, pop, rock and music for media. He’s also a long term contributor to Computer Music. Jon usually handles final mixdowns, which is why we’ve got him to share some of his pearls of mixing wisdom here

Panning is a key component of stereo and multichannel mixes, and allows us to control width and placement to deliver a more sonically engaging mix. In this masterclass we’ll cover some of the important principles to bear in mind.

The widespread adoption of stereo in the 1960s created both opportunity and uncertainty among music producers and engineers. Initially this resulted in some very creative stereo mixes that wouldn’t be acceptable now. Still, this creativity paved the way for the more established practices that we have today. There are now a bunch of tried and tested panning techniques that we use. What’s more, although we’re typically trying to glue together the elements of our mix, panning can be a great way to retain separation of selected sounds.