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20 FX Topics: #2 Panning
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| StephenWiley |
I'll be creating a topic every couple of days regarding one specific audio effect. The idea is for everybody to post their tips, tricks, thoughts, etc. on that specific audio effect. Feel free to comment about how an audio effect might work in unison with another, but try to focus on the topic at hand. Not all topics will specifically be an audio effect (Layering for instance) but they will be something most of us view as an audio effect. I really think we can pool some ideas together and share some useful knowledge. Feel free to post youtube videos, links to articles, certain plug ins, whatever helps you get your ideas across.
Topic #2 - Panning
Definition from Wiki:
Panning is the spread of a monaural signal in a stereo or multi-channel sound field. A typical pan control is constant power. At one extreme, the sound appears in only one channel. In the middle, the sound is decreased in that channel by three dB, and the other channel is brought up to the same level, so that the overall sound power level is always constant.[1]
The pan control in audio gets its name from panorama or panning action in moving image technology. The audio pan control can be used in a mix to create the impression that a source is moving from one side of the soundstage to the other, although ideally there would be timing and reverberation differences present for a more complete picture of movement within a defined space. Simple analog pan controls only change relative level; they don't add reverb to replace direct signal or change delay timing.
Panning can also be used in an audio mixer to reduce or reverse the stereo width of a stereo signal. For instance, the left and right channels of a stereo source can be panned 'straight up', that is sent equally to both the left output and the right output of the mixer, creating a dual mono signal.
The pan control or pan pot has an internal architecture which determines how much of each source signal is sent to the two buses that are fed by the pan control. The power curve is called taper or law. Pan control law might be designed to send -4.5 dB to each bus when centered or 'straight up' or it might have -6 dB or -3 dB in the center. If the two output buses are further combined to make a mono signal, then a pan control law of -6 dB is optimum. If the two output buses are to remain stereo then a pan control law of -3 dB is optimum. Pan control law of -4.5 dB is a compromise between the two.
A pan control fully rotated to one side results in the source being sent at full strength to one bus and zero strength to the other.
The pan pot is not the same as a balance control on a consumer stereo receiver. The balance control takes a stereo source and varies the relative level of the two channels. The left channel will never come out of the right speaker by the action of a balance control. A pan control can send the left channel to either the left or the right speakers or anywhere in between. Note that mixers which have stereo input channels controlled by a single pan pot are in fact using the balance control architecture in those channels, not pan control. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
Love using auto-pan:
http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/4Pandemonium.mp3 ;)
There are lots of other effects in there as well. The reverse reverb combined with the panning gives it a cool sense of "whipping" around I think. |
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| Luke Terry |
| Pan controlled by LFO, love it :toothless |
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| sixofour.604 |
Ive not used panning much tbh...I make everything center unless its delay or so..
What I would suggest is that each thread you make, you put an index linking to the previous threads. That way when we are on number 12, people can still talk about filtering in number 1, and its easy to navigate. And when you make a new thread, update the index of all the previous. |
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| Wayne_B |
My tip for panning: Imagine you've got a synth sound and your sending some of it signal to your main reverb return. If you decide to place the synth at say 10:00, you should also try and position its reverb in the same place pan-wise. If you have your reverb as an insert it should be done automatically but through a send as above you may have to position it manually.
The idea is to keep your sounds(and their effects) out of each others way.
Hope this helps!:) |
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| cybernetica |
from another thread short time ago:
| quote: | Originally posted by cybernetica
If you plan to play out your stuff in a club, be careful. Some club PAs are mono, so if you used too much panning, things will sound weird or sometimes even disappear.
Even if you play your stuff on a stereo PA, the most dominant elements should still be mono, so they are equally powerful on every side of the club/location. In larger places, the phase shifting can get quite noticeable because unless you are standing right in the middle of the 2 speakers, sound will take different time to travel from the left speaker to you than it will take to travel from the right speaker. The dominant elements should be heard by all people at the same time at the same volume.
Panning in your bass is usually a big no-no, unless you know exactly and 100% what you're doing. Theres stereo phase shifting and a lot of ugly stuff like that. With stereo FX, in 99% of the cases the sub range loses a lot of its punch. There are only a few skillful producers that know how to make a wide panned bass without messing up the sound, I am not one of them.
If I want a "wide" sounding bassline, I usually just keep it mono, and add some wide, panning delay just on the >200hz range of my bassline.
If I am making a percussion set with some stereo width, I stick with the rule that I can pan everything but kick, snare/clap and open hihat. Adding a soft stereo phaser to a closed hihat line is usually a good way to widen things a bit without losing the punchiness of mono.
With FX, anything goes. Spacy Intro FX usually work best when panned wide. I like the effect of a sweep that moves from left to right, this sounds awesome especially when listening on headphones.
In general, from my personal experience: if you feel that a mid/high range element needs more movement or space, try to add a stereo delay, or a chorus/flanger/phaser on it, instead of just panning this element to one side. While the first option makes your element sound more "alive", the second option will most likely just make your mix worse, by unbalancing the levels of left and right. |
| quote: | Originally posted by Theran
You can however check the track for mono compatibility, this tool is very handy to do so, in that way, you can make sure your tracks sounds wide on stereo, but still good in mono.
You can use mid-side mixing to give a bass stereo quality, while there still is mono (it phases the side out, keeping the mid) compatibility, you are able to really widen sounds. Most of the time I use a stereo bass, it's not a big problem. You have to keep the low frequencies in the middle though, you can do that easily with this tool.
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(Another tool for narrowing the lows in a bass: http://www.otiumfx.com/basslane.php)
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...9&forumid=48&s= |
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