Help with panning

[Eric]

I don't know much about the proper way to pan orchestral music (I assume there is more than one way). Right now I've kept everything within 10 and 2 o'clock, but I am not sure which instruments to put on which side and which ones to keep center. Also should anything get panned extreme left or right? Any help or ideas would be appreciated. I am using VI SE and this would be for a musical (so there are singers on top of the VI).

[Beat Kaufmann]

@Eric said:

I don't know much about the proper way to pan orchestral music (I know there is more than one way). Right now I've kept everything within 10 and 2 o'clock. but I am not sure which instruments to put on which side and which ones to keep center. Also should anything get panned extreme left or right? Any help or ideas would be appreciated. I am using VI SE and this would be for a musical (so there are singers on top of the VI).

Hello Eric
This tutorial will help you to get a bit further (VSL Audio).
http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/gentutorials/audio/index.php

By the way: Beside left and right you should handle close and far as well (with different reverbs). So the tutorial is about panning, different depths and "monoizing" instruments. Please consider while reading the tutorial, that it shows one possibility to get a mix. I hope that others will offer their help here as well because there are lots of tips and tricks around this matter. Most of them are based on good experiences.

All the best
Beat

[rgames]

Hi Beat,

Thanks for all of your tutorials - they're a great help.

A couple of questions, though: is there any reason you use the stereo expander plug-in rather than the "stereo dual panner" on the track? Shouldn't they do basically the same thing except that the panner can also position the sound right to left?

You seem to get around this by using the single panner to set the left/right position - doesn't that just cut one of the of the channels down and boost the other? So, if you pan left with the single panner, it's not actually "panning" the signal from the right channel into the left, it's just cutting the right channel and boosting the left. Do I have that correct?

If so, why wouldn't you want to move the right channel into the left (which is what (I think!) the "dual panner" does). That way, you maintain the "stereo" nature of the instrument but you shift it to one side.

(Do those questions make sense?)

Thanks,

rgames

[Beat Kaufmann]

@rgames said:

Hi Beat,

...is there any reason you use the stereo expander plug-in rather than the "stereo dual panner" on the track? Shouldn't they do basically the same thing except that the panner can also position the sound right to left?

You seem to get around this by using the single panner to set the left/right position - doesn't that just cut one of the of the channels down and boost the other? So, if you pan left with the single panner, it's not actually "panning" the signal from the right channel into the left, it's just cutting the right channel and boosting the left. Do I have that correct?

If so, why wouldn't you want to move the right channel into the left (which is what (I think!) the "dual panner" does). That way, you maintain the "stereo" nature of the instrument but you shift it to one side.

(Do those questions make sense?)

Thanks,

rgames

Hi again
Here is another link to "general tutorial"
http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/gentutorials/tipsingeneral1/index.php#532482973b1297b01

Your questions make sense and of course you could do the works like you suggest .
I have never measured and controlled monoized signals, but it seems to me, that the dualpanner function of the audio channels cuts some frequencies while playing the channels into each other. At any rate I believe that the new Stereo Enhancer Effect of cubase4 does a better monoizing - job (audio quality). Perhaps somebody is able to prove this thesis. Try all the possibilities and choose your favorite then. Important is the result not the way.

Beat

[garyeskow]

Beat... once again, you're incredible!

Gary