I'm sure there's now a better way to do it, but in Logic you have to go into preferences and I *think* turn off universal track option, then you can have independent faders and panners for each side of a Left and Right stereo pair, then you mute one. In Cubase I don't know how to do it. Anyone else know? I don't use this technique just keep everything in stereo (even if you reduce the stereo width quite considerably but don't go completely to mono using the powerpanner)
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In Cubase, you can change the routing for L and R channels separately. I don't have Cubase installed at the moment, but if I remember correctly, there is a "channel settings" window that you can open, which shows more details about the channel than the mixer does. Somewhere there, you can select the output target of L and R channels separately. I can't remember though, it might be too awkward to do that.
Also, you asked about how to do powerpan in Cubase. I think if you right click you can choose between different panning modes (you need the full version of Cubase, though). The "Stereo Combined Panner" is similar to VSL's power-panning plugin. If you make both sliders very close to each other, you get effectively a "almost mono" signal, but you can still move both sliders simultaneously to "place the mono signal in stereo". This allows you to control both "stereo spread" and "stereo positioning" at the same time... for solo instruments its better to reduce the stereo spread a lot.
I guess mpower88 and I have different experiences about adjusting the stereo spread... I suppose both approaches are valid, depending on the mix. =)
And I completely agree that MIR is much better solution overall. But I'm surviving with Vienna Suite for now. =)
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Ok thanks actually I'm going to check that out myself. VSL's Powerpan is quite a bit more powerful than the Cubase panner but yes it does have that function. As for mono instruments - I suppose I just never saw any particular gain in doing that, but I can see how it would be useful. It's definitely preferable (to me anyway) to use one channel of the stereo mix if you are going for a completely mono sound.
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@mpower88 said:
[...] It's definitely preferable (to me anyway) to use one channel of the stereo mix if you are going for a completely mono sound.... which is not necessarily a good idea, as you may lose signal components that are not inherent to both sides. It might be obvious in cases like grand piano, marimba, vibraphone, or any kind of ensemble. But the same is true (in a less obvious) way for any kind of instrument that isn't recorded exactly from the symmetry axis.
/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library -
Well there you have it, perhaps that's why I never liked the sound of doing that myself. IMO, you can go close to mono with the power pan, but not mono, and Dietz now says using one channel of the stereo pair is not advisable which in my experience is usually right - although I wasn't thinking of piano but more specifically individual instruments, clarinet, oboe, etc. Obviously I don't think you would want to do that for any ensemble parts or larger instruments like piano.
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@mpower88 said:
[...] I wasn't thinking of piano but more specifically individual instruments, clarinet, oboe, etc. Obviously I don't think you would want to do that for any ensemble parts or larger instruments like piano.Of course not - I was just trying to give some exaggerated examples to make clear what I'm talking about. 😊
/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library -
As long as you use the same features (and the same pan-law!), there should be none. VS Power Panner has more options, though (Pre/Post Balance, Phase Switches etc.) and of course better visualisation.
OTOH, VE Pro 5 offers full-fledged surround-panning, which VS can't do.
HTH,
/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library -
You know what, I think Dietz would better answer that. I tend to use the panners in VE Pro and suite fairly simply - for panning and playing around with the stereo width - it In fact I generally don't use the Suite panner, I find the one in VE Pro perfectly good. The one in Vienna Suite comes with more options, you can control the left right balance at the input and the output of the panner. Why don't you download the trial and try it out.
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Thanks for the answer. I've mostly used the VE Pro (4) version so far, but the VS version is visually easier. Sometimes I can't tell if there's a difference in sound because I'm deaf in one ear. So, a lot of my panning has to be done almost intellectually, as there's no stereo for me.
I need to try out MIR. Looks and sounds good to me. But I just bought VS, so have to replenish the purse first.
Mahlon
