Stereo to Mono= +3db ???

I'm doing sweetener with click tracks. All click track going to one bus panned hard left, all sweetener tracks to another bus panned hard right; both buses feed the Master bus. To start mixing the sweetener side, I mute the click bus, then click on the stereo/mono interleave button on the Master bus, to hear the tracks through both monitors. But, the output level jumps 3db's... Is this "working as designed"? I tried dinking around with Pan Laws, but it made no difference. I worked around it by adding another bus and using a mute group.

But, the output level jumps 3db's... Is this "working as designed"

But, the output level jumps 3db's... Is this "working as designed"

That's normal operation when you have your pan laws set the way you have them set up. Its 100% normal. Think about it. You are combining 2 channels into one channel. The sum of 2 channels is greater than the sum of one channel when both are at the same level.  


Read about pan laws to learn more


CJ