Hello everyone, my question is in regards to a Panning Technique that I have seen before but want to get some input about. I’ve heard where one could make a sound Mono, make a copy of that sound so there is two separate tracks of the same sound both in Mono and each panned wide opposite of each other, does it have to be 100% left and 100% right or can you pick say 90 80 70% etc? What are some thoughts on that? Furthermore another situation what if those same sounds were now say a little bit wide with some Stereo Imaging and panned not all the way wide but say 80 or 70% or whatever it may be so one sound is panned left the other right. My question is would this double copy of the signal present or create any issues down the line? Is there certain rules that apply when doing this?
If you copied an identical mono sound and panned them left and right you would still have a mono sound that was simply twice as loud.
The technique I think you are talking about is called ‘haas effect’ and that is where a mono sound has a delay on one channel say 15ms on the left. This creates a widening effect, as the brain still perceives it as a single source upto around 30-50ms depending on the source. The only issue with the haas effect is it does not collapse into mono very well. I would recommend trying the Izotope Ozone Imager, it is very good for collapsing into mono, remember you need to use the fader at the bottom if it is a mono source.
As for where to pan there is generally to schools of thought, some like to do L-C-R, where things are either centre or panned hard left and right. I much prefer utilising the entire stereo field, keeping the far sides for effects and placing each sound in particular parts of the stereo image, I find it sounds more natural, where the L-C-R to me, sounds disjointed.
Morning Paul! I have to say sir I appreciate your responses to my many questions so I’d like to start off with a Thank You! I have Izotope Stereo Imager and it’s a really great plug-in, last night I was getting creative and using the scope on the side of the Imager to make my sound a little bit hass effect wide but not to much. So I was curious as to what would happen if I were to make a copy of the signal and then pan them opposite of each other in a tactical way where their width would occupy the space that doesn’t have a lot going on, on those sides of Left and Right Pan and sort of make things a little more fuller while everything in the center was doing its thing (Drums, Lead, etc.) Do you think that would cause any issues? I’ve seen other people do it before but do you think that is perhaps not a good practice and I should try a different technique?
You are very welcome, I am glad to help.
I have never tried that particular technique before, if it sounds good then go for it!
The only suggestions I recommend are to go into Imagers settings, on the ‘Imager’ tab tick the box ‘Prevent Antiphase’, as this will help prevent phase issues. In addition, you probably want the crossovers at different frequencies for each channel to create more stereo difference. In this case make sure that Crossover Type is set to ‘Digital’ in the "Imager’ tab, as this will make the crossovers linear phase and prevent phase cancelation.
Very good to know I will start doing that!
So it’ was a situation where the width on my guitar was slightly stereoized, on the scope it looks like a focused amount of direct sound energy with a slight spread. I rendered it twice panned one at 60 the other at 60 and it makes like a cool effect where your hearing it on both sides and do the same with some percussion elements one at 90/90 the other at 30/30 (once again two signals) and it has like a trippy effect where you feel this energy surrounding while the kick Snare Bass and hats are in the middle! Just didn’t know if I would cause any issues down the line but it did sound pretty cool! I’ll keep my eye/ear on it and see what happens ,but once again many thanks!