Mono Mix to Stereo Master Track

[Holgmeister]

Hi,
I need some clarification for the best strategy to mix one mono track to the master track (in terms of stereo/width) :

So far, what I've been taught, when you mix a mono track to a master track, then you pan it to the left to a certain extend (lets say L50) and for the same amount to the right (R50). This gives you a decent center mix.
If you want to push it to the left, you make it like L70 R30. If you want to push it into the background, you make it like L90 R90 and lower the volume.

An SF audio engineer told me to imagine it like balls: Left and Right create the position of the ball, and volume makes it bigger or smaller.

Now, someone told me: All wrong. You either mix the mono track either a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right (in other words either L50 or R30) and leave the other channel to a default value.

I think, thats a little bit too easy.

Any opinion? thx hs

[Dietz]

Hm - if you really mean a mono-track, then all you have to do is to center the pan-pot, and you're done. The only thing to take into account is the so-called "pan-law" of your audio-host: Due to the psycho-acoustical increase in perceived loudness (as soon as a mono-signal comes from two speakers) most modern hosts lower the volume of a mono-signal that comes from the center by -3 dB up to -6 dB.

If you are talking about narrowing the _width_ of a stereo-signal, all better audio-hosts actually treat the two channels as mono tracks and pan their position respectively. Some less sophisticated hosts (like Logic, for example) just lower the volume of one side as soon as you move the pan-pot, which leads to a loss in audio-information.

HTH,