I started a new piece on my DAW today, but I have no idea how I should go about panning.

Great job for starting out!

Panning is useful when sounds are in the same frequency range, and it sounds messy and overlapping, then you can spread the sounds out in the dimensional spectrum.

Also, it sounds more realistic. For example, C and D on a piano are slightly on a different location, so it should come from a different location, right? Same idea for orchestras. 

You can raise excitement of a sound by panning, for example, a guitar sound that goes from left to the right, then it's almost like a lightning strike (I imagine). *akin to imitating some sort of movement*

There's special effects that can be made, like footsteps closing in, or the doppler effect, where change in amplitude, panning, and frequency IIRC gives a certain desired effect. Look it up to be sure tho.

Play around with it, see what sounds good to you!

It depends on the ensemble that you're simulating, but the rule for them all in a recording is bass frequencies in the hard center.

Generally, if your piece fixates on a soloist as in a pop song, then the soloist/vocalist should also be in the middle.

From there though, there is not really any rule, do whatever sounds good.

Also, do not forget about depth; the front/back perception and not just left/right panning!

37 minutes ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Also, do not forget about depth; the front/back perception and not just left/right panning!

 

i'm unfamiliar with much of how panning works besides telling the computer how much to play the track from the left vs right speaker, so how does one adjust front/back perception?

3 hours ago, mossy84 said:

i'm unfamiliar with much of how panning works besides telling the computer how much to play the track from the left vs right speaker, so how does one adjust front/back perception?

 

Probably volume, closer things are louder.

11 hours ago, mossy84 said:

i'm unfamiliar with much of how panning works besides telling the computer how much to play the track from the left vs right speaker, so how does one adjust front/back perception?

8 hours ago, SoloYH said:

Probably volume, closer things are louder.

Reverb, primarily.

If you send it into a reverb with more wet signal, it will sound more distant; closer with more dry signal.

There is also that things which are more distant gradually lose high-end frequencies, but most good reverb units account for that too.

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