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Sequencing drum samples is just about as important as ever in the music production scene, but one skill that is becoming ever more needed and valuable in the rap and hip hop scene is the ability to pan correctly. The reasons for this will become important soon.

Panning is, after volume, the most obvious step in the mixing process. Mixing can be extremely complicated to master, especially during the beat making process, but when starting to get into the hang of things, it does become easier with time.

The process and study behind panning is quite simple to explain and even to grasp for beginners. It basically works by distributing sound across the left and right speakers. If this was done evenly, it would be called volume mixing, but you are taking volume away from the left speaker and leaving the right intact or making it louder, and therefore changing the perceived location of that sound in the stereo phase. Especially useful with obscure drum samples and such, it’s a favorite of mixers.

When panning drum samples, there are a few things to keep in mind. For instance, you should not pan the kick and drum samples beyond a percentile or two, and I will explain why very soon. An example panning board would see the snare and kick in the center while supporting drums like the hi-hat and cowbell would be panned to the left or right, and the amount would depend on each project.

Now, why on Earth would we want to not pan the kick and snare drum samples at all? The reason comes down to sound distribution. This mainly applies to clubs, but there are other instances where it could be a problem. Here it is: clubs often lay out their speakers among the floor not in pairs, but in channels. So all speakers playing the left channel of a song could be toward the front while the speakers playing the music in the other speaker are located in the back. What does this achieve? Well, that depends on the venue, but it sure does not tend to support our own music if we’re panning the kick nearly all the way to the left side, and the snare to the right. One half of the venue wouldn’t hear the other main sound just hear whatever is on their channel, like the kick or snare. That’s why panning is best for supporting sounds and not the backbone of a song.

When drum samples occur more frequently than others, it can be good to try to pan the sounds out proportionally. What I mean by this is pan further to left for instruments and drums that don’t occure often. Take the cymbal for example, it may only appear once every four bars. So why put it right in the center and stop something else from being there? You could put the hi-hat pattern which is much more regular in the center and pan the cymbal all the way to the right for example.

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