Problem with pan balance, too light on left channel

Hi, I'm recording trax in Sonar X1 with an M-Audio Fast  Track Pro.  I have a dual core 1.6mhz with 8gig ram.  Playback on whatever I record is coming out strong on the right channel and weak on the left.  The pan is balanced in the center on the tracks.  When I am playing back, and swing the pan to increase on the weak channel side, it does not correct it.  Any ideas from the experts?  Thanks a lot.

FYI, this happens thru the headphones on direct playback.  It also happens when I take it down to a wav file and play it over the house stereo.  Also on mp3s.  No matter what I use to playback with.

wetwonder


Hi, I'm recording trax in Sonar X1 with an M-Audio Fast  Track Pro.  I have a dual core 1.6mhz with 8gig ram.  Playback on whatever I record is coming out strong on the right channel and weak on the left.  The pan is balanced in the center on the tracks.  When I am playing back, and swing the pan to increase on the weak channel side, it does not correct it.  Any ideas from the experts?  Thanks a lot.

FYI, this happens thru the headphones on direct playback.  It also happens when I take it down to a wav file and play it over the house stereo.  Also on mp3s.  No matter what I use to playback with.

When you say you are recording "trax" - what are you recording - what is the source, how are you capturing, is it stereo or mono? 

If I record in the first channel as Left, right, or  stereo, or the second channel the same - on the M-Audio fast track - I get a lot of sound on one side and very little sound on the other side.

sounds like an i/o problem,when you click on the track where it says input what are you selecting?
and in preferences are all your inputs and outputs checked for your fast track?

This sounds very much like a mono input to a stereo track where the track input is also stereo. X! sees inputs as left and then right and then stereo. If you have a mono source going to a a mono input on the card then also select a stereo input to the track it will be on one side of the L/R track. 

You should see one side of the track with audio and the other with little audio or none. Panning, should be, shall we say, difficult.

John it sounds like you are with me and know the answer, but I don't understand the explanation of what to do.  Can I trouble you to restate?  Thx Dave

wetwonder


John it sounds like you are with me and know the answer, but I don't understand the explanation of what to do.  Can I trouble you to restate?  Thx Dave

  Absolutely!  I don't know what your sound card has but it has at least 2 inputs. One left one right. I guess you plugged an instrument into either the left or the right input. Where you went wrong is in what you selected in X1 for track input. It should be  one of the two inputs but not both as this would be stereo when there is no stereo source. Choose one or the other as a mono input. X1 will know that its mono and create a mono track that can be panned.

The input for the track should have at least 3 choices. Left, Right or Stereo. It may not be lasted that way but it will resemble that to a great degree if the card is setup in X1 correctly.

What you need to know is how X1 sees your inputs. With that you can choose the correct one.

Let me know if this helps.

Thx John,

Below the message are the six options I am given in Sonar X1 for a selected audio track. 

If I am recording one mic at a time, I insert the mic into Line Input 1 on the M-AUDIO Fast Track Pro and choose the first option below from Sonar - "Left M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro"

If I am doing a second mic simultaneously (like I generally do for the bass and vocals and drums), then I put the second mic into Line Input 2 (this fast track has two balanced mic inputs) and for that input I choose the second option "Right M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro."  So with two mics, Input 1 is assigned to "Left," and Input 2 is assigned to "Right."

Otherwise, I always just use "Left" if I am recording one mic.  

1 - Left M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
2 - Right M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
3 - Stereo M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
4 - Left M-Audio USB ASIO S/PDIF in L Fast Track Pro
5 - Right M-Audio USB ASIO S/PDIF in L Fast Track Pro
6 - Stereo M-Audio USB ASIO  S/PDIF in L  Fast Track Pro

wetwonder


Thx John,

Below the message are the six options I am given in Sonar X1 for a selected audio track. 

If I am recording one mic at a time, I insert the mic into Line Input 1 on the M-AUDIO Fast Track Pro and choose the first option below from Sonar - "Left M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro"

If I am doing a second mic simultaneously (like I generally do for the bass and vocals and drums), then I put the second mic into Line Input 2 (this fast track has two balanced mic inputs) and for that input I choose the second option "Right M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro."  So with two mics, Input 1 is assigned to "Left," and Input 2 is assigned to "Right."

Otherwise, I always just use "Left" if I am recording one mic.  

1 - Left M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
2 - Right M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
3 - Stereo M-Audio USB ASIO Line In 1 Fast Track Pro
4 - Left M-Audio USB ASIO S/PDIF in L Fast Track Pro
5 - Right M-Audio USB ASIO S/PDIF in L Fast Track Pro
6 - Stereo M-Audio USB ASIO  S/PDIF in L  Fast Track Pro

It looks like you are doing it correctly. How is the setup in X1? What are you using, two tracks or just one? It should be two separate tracks. Track 1 should have the left input only and track 2 should have the right input only.

Don't use the S/PDIF inputs at all. The first three are the ones we need to be concerned about. Of those the the first two are the ones to use in X1 in this situation.

Also your pan should be set to center and your track interleave set to mono for recording.

John I just got it.  The recording was right.  My Master output was set at Left 1, instead of Stereo.  I got confused between how to set the input and the output.

wetwonder


John I just got it.  The recording was right.  My Master output was set at Left 1, instead of Stereo.  I got confused between how to set the input and the output.

Oh well now at least you will never have input problems.  I very happy you have it solved.