LCR vs soft pan mixing -- which do you prefer? Why?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Title says it all. Do you prefer LCR or soft pan mixing, and why? Do you start w LCR and then soft pan things you want to pop out? Do you reserve the outermost edges for ambient fill information? Or do you use the holes created by LCR to register spacial info? Do you belong to the school of thought that +/- 20% from center is still "center"?

I know this changes from project to project, but I am more interested in what your go-to is. And how do you handle something that has a lot of different elements -- like guitars, guitar harmonies, synth parts, synth pads going on throughout the track instead of just popping up occasionally?

 

[uOpt]

Re: LCR vs soft pan mixing -- which do you prefer? Why?

LCR as in LCR network removing impedance from a circuit?

WTM TLAs.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: LCR vs soft pan mixing -- which do you prefer? Why?

LCR = Left, Center, Right mixing. Aka, rather than having stuff panned at any degree, you're limiting the info to either dead center, all the way left or all the way right.

When I learned about LCR, I instantly started re-doing my older stuff with it and I love the results. IMHO, the mixes are clearer because of the designated spots being farther away from each other and there's less overlap of instrumentation. Workflow is certainly faster and a lot easier to replicate and implement.

Some of the things that work well are vox , bass guitar, kick drum, snare as center, kick the guitars to the left and right along with ride, crash, toms. If there's no singing and there's a lead guitar break, I'll take it and pan it dead center to be the focus and then draw it back to the left or the right to make it blend back in. YMMV, but I dig LCR a lot and anything the simplifies the recording process and makes it more effective works for me.

 

[rashayritto]

Re: LCR vs soft pan mixing -- which do you prefer? Why?

I like having a nice complex wall of sound with stuff carefully panned. My mixing sucks though