Funny fact, i’ve always mixed audience perspective, genuisly thought it would be the usual. I guess i will listen a couple of records tonight and pay attention how they were mixed.

In reality, audience perspective of drums would actually be almost in mono. The drums are usually center stage and if you're in the audience, and out of the entire stereo field, including guitar and bass rigs, the drums are in the middle 10 percent of that stereo field. If you think about it, the true stereo panning of a live band, according to where the actual amplifiers and drums are on stage would be messed up. The bass would be on one side or the other, the guitars would be good, keys would be on one side or the other and drums would be up the middle.

Drummer's perspective FTW

I've always mixed audience perspective and I'm an ex drummer, but you do make a good point. Drummers will play 'air drums' to tracks and that is going to be off putting. However, if you mix audience perspective, whether the track is a live video or studio recording, the band positions are going to remain consistent (guitars, keys etc). So the live recording will sound more familiar against the studio recording. It's a tricky one though.

Simple and effective explanation of this concept. Grateful for the content, Colt!

thx a lot! I didn‘t even know this was a discussion, but I always felt this way!

As a drummer... Thank you 🤘🤘🤘

I am 100% drummers perspective. I do this because generally the only ones who notice for the most part are drummer. much better for "air" drumming and visualizing parts. i only mix audience perspective when I am mixing a live concert going to video. so the positioning matched the video. albeit......every record......drummers perspective.

Am I mixing from the drummer's perspective, or is it possible that every drummer I record is left handed? The truth may never be known!

I'm a drummer and I always do the audience perspective. I want to feel like the band is playing in front of me.

Exactly what I thought you was going to say before I even clicked the video! :)

I’ve never really thought it mattered. I’ve done both and continue to be fluid in my panning decisions. Some songs are drummer some songs are audience. I’ve even switched from intending it to be one way but then the mix determined it should be a different way. I think it’s far more important to HOW you label it while tracking so if someone else is mixing it they are not confused. 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for this awesome advice dude!!!

Thank you for giving your answer up-front (even though I watched the whole video). I always prefered the sound of drummers perspective even before I started playing drums and knew what it was.

It's interesting that this video came up, earlier today I have chatting to a drummer who was telling me he prefers hearing drums panned audience perspective, even in a non live recording. He said that it helps him to feel like he's in the room with the band as an audience member.

ALWAYS drummer's perspective here. I'm not working on live videos though.

Too cool, Capperrune! 😎 Thanks for the support. 😉 And I agree only live situations require audience perspective.

I’ve always done drummer perspective because I’m a drummer and like it that way.

I always mix drummers perspective because I'm a drummer and that's how I hear them.

Drummer’s perspective always. No one air drums backwards, except for the villains and we don’t cater to them. 🤘🏻

This was literally something we went through at our band rehearsal last time. While making demos we obviously do drummers perspective but what made us think a bit more was how to do this right save for live. We have drummers perspective in our IEM but we really needed to think through how to name the channels for FOH engineer. We ended up calling OH L and OH R from audience perspective but in our in ears the pan is going vice versa. What an interesting topic 🥴

This is some of the best back and forth reasoning on this topic. To Colt’s point most people don’t care. Only those of us around here are going to sit in front of high quality speakers and analyze what’s going on. I like the idea of audience perspective but I usually mix in drummers perspective. Even when programming drums with midi. Like he mentioned, the first time I really noticed was when mixing for live video.

Had to pause the video to inspect the Fairchild and the try and figure out those Neve 1073 clones. Sweet!

I always mix drummer perspective because a wise old mix engineer once told me, "people aren't moved by just listening to drums, when the song is rocking, they want to play them" and like you said since most people are right-handed, when people air-drum they play like a right handed drummer.

Holy hell, I’m glad I got to that first minute mark, because I was about lose it. Analog, digital, hifi, lofi, that all opinions, and totally fine, but there’s ONLY one answer to this question.

Thanks, Colt! As a "NOOB", I found that you validated a number of things for me here.

Good topic. Having mixed live sound for so long, that translates to audience perspective for me. I tried drummer but just felt uncomfortable for me.

I'm a drummer and music producer and I ALWAYS panned Drummer's Perspective without even thinking about it (except for Live Concert Recordings). So I'm 100% with you on this LOL!

Drummer's perspective for studio tracks since I like to air drum, and I hope the band likes the recording enough to listen to it in their spare time so I'd want the drummer who performed it to not get thrown off when they hear it. For a live recording though audience perspective makes more sense.

Very interesting perspective man! I've always done audience (by default as I'm a left handed drummer) but this is something to definitely consider, especially considering most drummers are right handed and indeed do wanna play along on their steering wheels 😂

New subscriber gained. 🔥

I have always panned audience perspective. This has me wondering if I should mix drummers perspective. I'm going to give this a try. See how it comes out.

Perfect. Case closed. Done. Over. Finally! :) I have always done drummer. Because that is obviously the perfect way. Right on, Colt! lol!

I’ve always mixed drummers perspective just because I don’t want the drums sounding weird to the drummer when they listen to their own playing.

I drum left-handed. I've always mixed drums in a right-handed drummer's perspective. I couldn't care less either way to be honest. It's the kind of things I don't pay attention to that much when listening to music. However, when mixing, depending on the song, there might be reasons to pan a way or the other because of other instruments interacting in the mix.

I'm a drummer / engineer. I always mix audience perspective. That is just how I believe the person will listen to the song. I don't hard pan overheads or toms but it is like you are standing in front of the band listening

Drummers perspective for me. Also being a lifelong drummer i like to hear music like it's on stage. Great as always colt thanks!😁🤘

I’ve only ever done live performance mixing so I’ve never done drummers perspective I’ve always done audience. I’m just now getting into studio recording might have to give this a try.

Same comment on Instagram… there is NO AUDIENCE perspective. From the audience the drum kit is a point source. The only person who has a perspective of where the instruments are placed is the drummer. By my profile pic - you can tell why I choose. I’m a left handed drummer… play right handed. That’s how the teachers kits were set, so I learned. Same as batting. ( Dad couldn’t teach me to swing left)

i love to mix on audience perspective specially on live audio.

Your pal is VERY good at the drums. 🙌🏻

Excellent point. Mix for the only people who really care about the mix...the drummer...who nobody EVER cares about. 🤣 As a drummer and live mixer, I completely agree with what you are saying. Great advice. And yes, if you are mixing for a "live video," you absolutely want to pan based on what you see, otherwise it will be "incorrect" from a referential perspective.

LOL I'm still puzzled why this is a debate at all. But you are 100% correct in saying that the audience doesn't care. I always mix from the drummer's perspective. When a drummers listens to the song and starts to "air drum" he/she will do it as if he/she was playing the drum kit.

Hi Colt, great video and great topic. Quick ?. If mixing for a video, on many occasions there is video from both perspectives. So would you switch it up depending on where the shot is from within a single video. Or would you leave it mixed in audience perspective when the shot is from behind the drummer? Thanks Colt!

Great points. For a live performance, stick the drums in the middle, no panning. Everyone’s perspective 😀

I'm a drummer and anything other than drummer's perspective just sounds weird to me

I mix for the audience and left handed drummers only. The right handed drummer will just have to be mad at me. Lol!

Audience is better for me, because if I have two guitar players, I also pan them slightly, also audiencce perspective, it would be weird to have them panned audience and the drums from the drummer perspective.

Exactly! drummer 🤘

I always mix audience perspective. In my mind I picture the band on stage - makes more sense to me..

I have always mixed drummers perspective unless its for video then I do audience so the panning will match what they are looking at.

I prefer drummers perspective... love the hats on the right 👍

Drummer perspective, the only ones who care is me, who has been playing a little drums, and drummers :) Also funny that your in-between music is audience perspective in this video :D

I see a song as a performance being watched from the audience, even if it's a studio recorded song. If you want to mention another big Nashville name, Jacquire King likes audience perspective for that very reason. For me the exception is technical music, so most Metal stuff, Jazz, etc... You know a lot of musicians are going to listen to that so drummer's perspective seems like the right approach to please the listener and have some kind of authenticity in the performance. But let's say I get to mix a Muse song, I'd never mix it drummer's perspective, I want the listener to visualize the show in their mind. I don't even have a personal preference for my own listening, but I'll admit I like to hear tom fills go from right to left haha.

I pan depending on how the band is set up in the studio and how it looks through the glass.

But if the mix has drummer's perspective and the band decides to make a music video a while after the song has been released, do you then flip the stereo field for the music video? 😃

Live sound engineer here, doing foh I pan audience perspective. Doing monitors I pan drummers perspective for all inear mixes. Why? At foh there's always gonna be some cameraman/video production asking for a feed from the desk.No further explanation needed. Doing monitors I pan drummers perspective in all inear-mixes cause, in general, the musicians face the audience hence a more natural sound experience. That said, the number of musicians putting in their earplugs or headphones without looking what's left or right is countless (not the moulded fancy earplugs).

As a drummer I CANT STAND audience perspective! THANK YOU! Steering wheel is 100% me. THANK YOU!

What about left handed drummers?

Audience / music conductor perspective - Psychologically I need to be in the right spot when I'm arranging/mixing. That is, in my vision, in front of the band or the instruments -like a director is usually in front of the actors when shoting a scene. The In the band / behind the band [= drumer perspective] angle is a restricted and narrow spot to me. My mind-view wants distance, space and an open scenery with the music coming towards me for being able to control the sound . . and should not fire away from me [drumer perspective]. Watching the movie or watching the audience. It's all a matter of perspective. No pun intended

Hahahaha. I started mixing drummers perspective and then switched somewhere along the way. I guess you got a point. But for your whole point to be valid you need to care about the drummer's feelings and... who does? Hahaha. Nah, but seriously: good point.

Audience perspective normally. Only band I can think of that consistently mixed drummer's perspective is Van Halen. I'm sure there are tons of others, but they always stood out as having the guitar player on the "wrong" side vs where he stood live. Lol. As a drummer, I never cared. In the pre-MTV days I used the panning to decide which side of the stage to stand on based on who I wanted to see. Now that you can see every band live on KZfaq there are no surprises when you go to a show so it doesn't really matter.

I like to pan drums strictly by frequency. Everything low in the middle, everything high out to the sides, and the toms in which ever direction lets them bother bother the other instruments the least. This way the issue is avoided entirely and the mix still sounds great.

I randomly scatter the drum sounds in the stereo field so no one wins 👌🏻

I’ve always been a drummers perspective guy, maybe because even as a guitar player I’ve always secretly wanted to be like Stewart Copeland. Working with a left handed drummer throws me for a loop though.

I've never really put much thought into it. I've always defaulted to drummer perspective. But that is a very good point. It would piss me off if I was air drumming and I'm not even a drummer. 🤣

I usually mix Audience but it's because after many years playing bass guitar in bands I'm used to having the hihat in my right ear ...yep the one with tinnitus! 😀

Before i watched the video, i said to myself. "Drummer's perspective.That's the way i always mix and no one will convince me it's wrong." lol

Drummers perspective always!

I mix my songs drummer perspective cause I play the drums obviously, but just pull up any famous band songs from sabbath to metallica to red hot they all are mixed to audience perspective

I always do drummer's perspective by rote. not for any real reason. I guess the hi-hat gets played a lot in my songs, so i consider it an important instrument, which in my mind (that likes to read and write a lot) means it goes on the left so it is 'first' in the mix. (because I read from Left to right). Pretty ridiculous. but i'm pretty sure that's what my brain is subconsciously doing. Ultimately, i like to think of a mix more like a soundtrack. ie, it's very dynamic and immersive so i want any particular sound to be spatially located where it suits the song the best. I might put a tom on the left during one part of a track, and on the right during another part. whatever hits the hardest. i generally won't move things that keep the beat though. so snare, kick, and to a lesser extent hi-hat stay put. but anything that's a momentary effect, like a tom, crash, etc, those can get moved around to create emphasis and immersion. automation good. Ideally, i would also move the hi-hat around from song to song. one song might have it on the left, another song might have it on the right. and to varying degrees too. not just hard right or hard left. but so far, i just put it on the left in varying degrees. it usually sounds better there to me. maybe that's where the drummer heard it when playing it, so that's where it fits naturally? i dunno. (the drummer is usually me by the way, so that could be a thing too). Edit: finished watching... Colt has a great point. lol. ( and that was my first thought... who cares? though i didn't think to actually answer that question).

In short: broadcast or live mixing - Audience Perspective, Album mixing: Drummer Perspective. Thanks

Drummer here. Always mix drummer’s perspective!

Even as a non-drummer, I prefer drummers perspective. Audience perspective throws me off.

🥁🥁🥁 Follow the drummer!!

YO PLEASE HEAR ME OUT , CAN YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MAKE A TUTORIAL ON HOW TO GET THE BEST VOCAL CHAIN FOR A TWO TRACK AND ALSO TO MAKE THE VOCAL SIT IN THE TWO TRACK BEAT, HOW YOU PROCESS THE BEAT TO MAKE ROOM FOR VOCALS SO YOU CAN HEAR ANYTHING IN THE MIX

Send it all up the middle and forget about it

I did drummer's perspective for years but the last 2 or 3 years I have settled on audience perspective. I find it is actually more realistic, Maybe consider this? Mix for one guys perspective or mix for the rest of the world's perspective? I also like from a practical standpoint, when I stand in my live room my Blumlien stereo array is labeled as are my overheads. So do you look at a drummer from in front of their kit and label the mic up over the lowest floor tom left or right? I label mine left and I pan it left. Keep it simple stupid. Just my two cents. mileage will vary :)

drummers perspective always in the studio of course

I mean, Tom Sawyer is mixed audience perspective, so... 🤪

high hats being slightly left or right doesn't make a huge difference. If you go 100% in any direction it sounds weird, in my opinion. I usually pan my Hi Hat slightly Right (Audience perspective) but still pan the Toms drummers perspective and it sounds good

For me, I want to air drum to the album as I'm listening to it. Studio Album = Drummer perspective Live Album = Audience perspective

I always mix drummers perspective. Just felt natural and intuitive to me, and the opposite just sounds weird to me for some reason. Same with piano if I'm going for width, left hand on the left side, right on the right. Although when you think a bout it, if you see the band in front of you it should be the other way around... yet here we are.

You just had to stir it up…………🤣

Can you explain why you don’t use controllers ie soft tube console

3:40 Colt casually ignoring that some people play open hand so the high hat is at the side of the hand that's playing 👀

When mixing live bands I mix drums from the audience perspective because that is my visual perspective. Likewise, I mix from a right-handed drummer’s perspective in the studio because, as a right-handed drummer, I don’t want to do the mental gymnastics of how I play and see the kit vs. the opposite. Not having thought about it before, I guess I’d mix a left-handed drummer from the audience perspective…

There is something deep down in the thought process why in my humble opinion audience perspective is the only correct way to mix drums. That is , are you mixing for the consumer or the artist. The answer is of course.... the audience.

You can always experience thinga from an audience perspective by going to a live show (or at least by watching a live show). BUT you can feel yourself being in a band you're listening to through the eyes (ears) of a member of a band, as if you were performing yourself!!! Isn't that cool?) How else would you experience that other than performing yourself? Well, guess not everyone wants to perform or pretend to to so) And that's OK. But the drummer's perspective is the way to go 🤘🤘🤘

It always annoyed me air drumming to classic Rush songs and the drums are going the wrong way! I’ve always mixed drummers perspective

When I’m working on jazz albums I like audience perspective, cause I want it to feel like I’m in the jazz club listening. Otherwise I really have no opinion on it.

is the camera on a desk or something? I'm hearing some major comb filtering in the voice.

please read with deep sarcasm and lightness... I just wanna repeat what Watsonstudios11 posted: There is no such thing as audience perspective, because true audience perspective would be with all the drums in the middle, and guitars on the sides, since the drumset isn't splayed all over the stage with Stretch armstrong playing them. Okay, i paraphrased. lol. that's their gist. but it makes sense. all the drums come from one point from a true audience perspective. AND... my own addition... where are you standing in the audience? i usually like to stand either on the left side front stage, or right side front stage, (yeah, i like to get blasted out with sound). but my point is that i'm not spread all around the audience like mister fantastic either. every audience perspective is from one point only in the audience. so if i'm standing on the right, everything sounds either center or left... there is no right. hence, there is no such thing as audience perspective. it's fictitious. it only lives in our minds. (As i scream SIMULACRA!!!! and point a tight trembling finger at you all). however, drummer perspective is real, since the drummer actually sits in the middle of a drumset all the time, every time. in this sense, what we call audience perspective is just a left handed drummer's perspective really! (is your mind blown yet?) They're both drummer perspective in any reality-based discussion, and not weird-made up fictitious scenarios that comfort our deeply fragile sense of self and the world. lol. hehe. anyone triggered yet? apologies if so, trying to have fun with exaggeration, as i assume nobody would be triggered by that ridiculous statement lol. of course... in medium, large, and Ginormous level concerts, the drums go through the speakers, so it's up to the sound person what get's panned where. but assuming that every sound person in the industry is doing the same thing... is preposterous. PREPOSTEROUS i SAY!!!!! and even if it wasn't, everybody in the audience is hearing their mix from a different perspective, completely negating the possibility of a thing called 'audience perspective'. So it's possible to like the idea of audience perspective. because the idea is real (as all ideas are). but the idea isn't based in reality at all, and loses it's objective reasons once we accept that. can people still like 'audience perspective'? yeah sure. why not? but believing it's actually an audiences perspective is fantasy. even if it is a comforting fantasy or one that people enjoy. (hey, i Love sci-fi and fantasy. it's cool man). Summary: Audience perspective may be cool... but it's not audience perspective. because that doesn't exist. (except maybe as a constantly and randomly shifting tsunami of drums swirling around us making everybody seasick and vomit uncontrollably, or perhaps all the drums randomly panned to one spot making us wonder why the drummer is playing in a different room from everyone else and just how bad their body odor has to be to warrant that)? But really, what i like to do is mix more from a cinematic point of view. ie, what immerses the listener the most in the song? Simulacra be damned! i just care about what sounds good. and i might move stuff around from place to place over the course of a song just like a cinematic producer. (but if something is keeping a steady beat you probably don't want to automate it around much, otherwise you might really induce some sea sickness and vomit. just a heads up).

I try hard not to make comments but, I can't seem to keep my mouth shut. As an "amateur" mixer I have to disagree. When I am mixing, I am facing my monitors therefore I take the approach that I am facing the band. When I am mixing a "live performance" I am hopefully in the audience, facing the band. (Very small venues my not be able to accommodate a full F.O.H. platform therefore you do what you have to do). When I am relaxing and just "listening to music I love", I want the experience of being in the "room" watching the band. (From in front of the band) As you said, "most drummers are right-handed". There are "some" of my favorite bands that I actually thought the drummer was left-handed until I saw them live. As far as a mixing environment you can place anything you want anywhere in the stereo field, and this is really cool but, this is kind of a production decision. So, I always pan drums audience perspective for mixing but, I will continually turn my chair around and "face the audience" to get the drummers perspective. This allows me to "just listen" as if I were the drummer in center stage rear. This takes my eyes off of the computer screen and forces me to "just listen". As I said, "I can't keep my mouth shut" but this is the reason I mix drums "audience perspective".

i always pan the hats to the left i never really gave it much thought, it's the way i always hear it in music also , i usually don't give a damn about other cymbals or toms. i pan then WHEREVER usually sweeping or alternating most of the time . F the realism

Any performance is only for the listener... imagine if the Keys insisted on their perspective... off to the side of the stage with everybody louder! 😁

I guess we can agree to disagree. I always mix audience perspective. When I'm listening to music I imagine the band in front of me, and not as if I would be standing on stage. You could have the same discussion with the other members of the band guitar / keys and their position on the stage, so why only consider the drummers "feelings". And honestly most drummers I work with, they don't mind as long as the kit sounds right. When I hear drummers perspective, first thing I check if accidently Left & Right got switched... :)

I sure don’t hear anyone talking about panning the piano in “audience perspective.”

Audience perspective unless client requests drummers perspective

i am not a drummer. no matter what i want the same amount of energy from both left and right, rather slightly more from right if anything