Even when panned to 12 o'clock, the mono signal is just plain boring. Try adding a few milliseconds of delay to the instrument and panning the wet and dry signals opposite each other. You'll get a nice, wide stereo signal that sounds panned toward the dry side, without sounding processed. Drums Delay times between five and 30ms can really thicken a drum sound and make it sound more ambient. This works great in conjunction with a little reverb.
Toms can get really huge.
Go ahead and try longer delay times, too. You'll be amazed at how cool a very slight amount of 100ms delay can sound on a snare drum. The only effect it could do was delay, and it was not programmable. Today delay is often taken for granted. But take some time to call up a few delay patches and experiment.