Panning Instruments

You can try using the Channel Tools fx plug-in for panning instead of the regular pan control.

Or you may want to change your panning law... look up pan law in the SONAR help. Just be careful when doing this because it will affect all projects that you've already mixed with a different pan law.

Scott

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jwh


Hi
 
I find when I pan something eg. Snare the sound I have
when it's straight down the middle sounds great,then when I
pan it eg. To the right about 75-80% I loose the power  and
some of the dynamics,is there another way to do this and still
have the same power,dynamics and level.
 
Thanks
John

Be aware that pan means truly "pan" for mono only.  For stereo tracks, pan is basically a balance control (like you've got on your stereo amplifier).

chris, here's my guess. A mono signal can be 'panned' left or right and the entire signal will go left or right. A stereo signal is already split between two channels so the 'balance' of those two channels can be changed but if you were to pan a stereo signal hard right the remainder of the signal will be left behind in the attenuated left channel reducing the overall signal strength. As usual, others will know more

Keneds - no, your track panning will remain as you set it, provided you keep your buss pan at central.

First of all, make sure the snare is recorded in mono. There are few circumstances where there would be any benefit to recording any single drum in stereo. The usual exception is room mics and overheads, where the mic is capturing multiple instruments plus room reflections. Even then, mono is a perfectly acceptable choice.

The general rule (and you know what they say about rules) is that most tracks should default to mono, and you should only record things in stereo when there is a compelling reason to do so. Examples: solo acoustic instruments, a piano in a jazz trio, a Leslie speaker, a choir.

A mono track's timbre should not change as you pan (however, a stereo track probably will). A mono track's tone might give the illusion of changing as it's panned, due to the masking effect as it competes more or less with other instruments. This is a big part of the reason we use panning in the first place: to improve separation and make instruments sound more distinct by moving them away from other instruments that are competing for the same spectral space.

Sometimes, a mono track can become stereo without you realizing it. All it takes is to insert some effect that has stereo output. If you're using a delay or reverb as an insert, make sure it preserves mono. The easiest way to check is to freeze the track and look at the waveform.

I recommend that you do not use the pan control at all on stereo tracks and always keep it in the center position. Use the Channel Tools plugin if you need to pan a stereo track.

When you hear a mono source, you are hearing the same sound equally from two speakers. Naturally, two speakers are going to be louder than if you played the same level from one speaker.

The purpose of pan laws is to compensate for that summing effect so that - if you want it - the volume can remain constant as you pan. Otherwise, you have to manually compensate by adjusting the volume after panning. If an instrument's pan position is static throughout the song, then that's not a problem. But if you automate the pan you'll have to either use a pan law that compensates or automate the volume too.

Personally, I use the 0db Center pan law, which does not apply any compensation. This results in a 3db increase in the center position compared to hard left or right. That's just a personal preference, though. You may be more comfortable with the -3db Center pan law, which automatically compensates for the 3db center-pan increase.

Of course, all of the above is irrelevant if your snare drum track is stereo.