Whether you like panning your drums from an audience or drummer's perspective just make it sound good already. It's all that matters at the end of the day. Now, for some of y'all who ain't familiar with audience or drummer perspective mixing, I'll give you a quick synopsis of what it entails in simple terms.

Audience perspective panning:​

This means you grab your trackball mouse, touchscreen whatever, and move the panning knobs of every single drum sample in a mix towards the direction of how you'd hear these sounds if a drummer was playing in front of you.

Drummer's perspective panning:​

This means you kinda imagine yourself as a drum player sitting on your throne, then proceed to pan your percussion instruments like how you'd hear them while jamming.

For example, I am essentially saying:

Drum instrumentDrummer's perspectiveAudience perspective
Generic kick or bass drum0% center (or mono)0% center (or mono)
808 kick or bass drum0% center (or mono)0% center (or mono)
Snare or side drum0% center (or mono)0% center (or mono)
Ghost snare or side drum0% or 25% left0% or 25% right
Real or electronic clap sample0% center0% center
Closed hi-hat cymbal0%, 25%, or 33% left0%, 25%, or 33% right
Open hi-hat cymbal0%, 25%, or 33% right0%, 25%, or 33% left
Splash or crash cymbal33% or 66% left (or center)33% or 66% right (or center)
Ride cymbal33%, 50%, or 66% right33%, 50%, or 66% left
China cymbal33%, 50%, or 66% right33%, 50%, or 66% left
Floor or low tom drum33%, 50%, or 66% right33%, 50%, or 66% left
Mid tom drum33%, 50% right33%, 50% left
High tom drum25% or 33% right or left25% or 33% right or left

Summary​

If there are a few drum samples in a music project it makes more sense to narrow down the degree of panning.

For example, in cases where you are working on songs with only a kick, snare, closed hi-hat, and open hi-hat, you may not want both of your open and closed hi-hat cymbals panned beyond 33% left or right so that the overall sound isn't disjointed but cohesive.

And if frequencies of a closed hi-hat are colliding with a snare drum you can always filter them out and make room for your side drum to shine through with airy brilliance and watery punchiness.
  • Panning drums audience vs. drummer's perspective.png
    Panning drums audience vs. drummer's perspective.png
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