Hey Sharke, I know you said your pan laws are the way they always are....but maybe that's the problem? Have you tried changing them and seeing if you hear results? Me personally, I wish we didn't have them at all and it was one setting and done. The reason being....I CAN hear the differences and in each version of Sonar, if I bring a project back from the dead in a version of Sonar where it wasn't recorded in that version, and my pan laws were not set (I always forget to set them in a new version) and something sounds wrong.
 
Speaking of that, I've been questioning some stuff in Sonar Plat and sure enough, my pan laws were set wrong. I either use the default (first one in the list) or the last one. I've had the best results with this, can notice pans and man...when I don't have it set for one of those settings...I always know something is not quite right. Try a few and see if it changes anything for you.
 
-Danny

man, if i'm sitting in the sweet spot, i can hear 5% difference on ANY track, panning left to right of center..
i use every position available.
 
the ONLY things i put straight up center, are vocals, snare, kick, bass guitar.
 
i like hard LCR panning schemes, and sometimes use them, but never limit to them.
 
if your room and monitors are setup properly, and you have good monitors,
you should be able to pick out phantom images, front to back, side to side, and in any increment.
 
if you can't, something's wrong... either with your setup, or your perception.
 

Danny Danzi
Hey Sharke, I know you said your pan laws are the way they always are....but maybe that's the problem? Have you tried changing them and seeing if you hear results? Me personally, I wish we didn't have them at all and it was one setting and done. The reason being....I CAN hear the differences and in each version of Sonar, if I bring a project back from the dead in a version of Sonar where it wasn't recorded in that version, and my pan laws were not set (I always forget to set them in a new version) and something sounds wrong.
 
Speaking of that, I've been questioning some stuff in Sonar Plat and sure enough, my pan laws were set wrong. I either use the default (first one in the list) or the last one. I've had the best results with this, can notice pans and man...when I don't have it set for one of those settings...I always know something is not quite right. Try a few and see if it changes anything for you.
 
-Danny

I have tried different pan laws before - I can hear the difference they make but I still perceive the movement of panning in discrete jumps rather than smoothly. To be honest I don't fully understand pan laws but I figure if you get used to one then it's not going to affect how your final mix sounds because you'll get there one way or the other. 

sharke
I have tried different pan laws before - I can hear the difference they make but I still perceive the movement of panning in discrete jumps rather than smoothly.

I've noticed this as well, but at the edges (see this post).  There's a jump between far right (or left) and the smallest bit you can move from there towards the center, so you can't go smoothly to an edge and back if you're automating the movement of a sound.  I figure there's some sort of low resolution being used to hold the pan position.