Panning [Help]

[exe135]

How for example do you achieve the following: left channel panned center, right panned 75% right

That should be Balance +64 (75%), Width 64 (50%). But what really cannot be done - now that I think about it again - is: L center, R 100% right. Or can it?
So I think it's right - and you're right, there are dual mono setups that just cannot be done with balance/width.
I am a musician, not an audio engineer, but I find that interesting. What's odd, that I can't find any good ressources about this topic on the internet.
I only found http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Pan_mode but the example in the source ("full left + 100% width means the right channel will be centered") appears to be wrong or not apply to our mixer.

(What I said concerning mono channels; right, they can be mono in the mixer, but not bounced out as mono files - but that's another issue

[selig]

How for example do you achieve the following: left channel panned center, right panned 75% right

That should be Balance +64 (75%), Width 64 (50%). But what really cannot be done - now that I think about it again - is: L center, R 100% right. Or can it?
So I think it's right - and you're right, there are dual mono setups that just cannot be done with balance/width.
I am a musician, not an audio engineer, but I find that interesting. What's odd, that I can't find any good ressources about this topic on the internet.
I only found http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Pan_mode but the example in the source ("full left + 100% width means the right channel will be centered") appears to be wrong or not apply to our mixer.

(What I said concerning mono channels; right, they can be mono in the mixer, but not bounced out as mono files - but that's another issue

Those things you mention above CAN be done, the question is where do you put the knobs to do it correctly (and be 100% sure you avoid the "balance" issue from occurring). Anyway, I guess I'll never understand why things are the way they are with regards to the pan controls in Reason.

As for mono channels, it's a common belief you can't bounce to mono, but it's really easy - just bounce with "all except fader section" selected.

[exe135]

Those things you mention above CAN be done, the question is where do you put the knobs to do it correctly (and be 100% sure you avoid the "balance" issue from occurring). Anyway, I guess I'll never understand why things are the way they are with regards to the pan controls in Reason.

How? When I set Osc1 to L and Osc2 to R, I can't find a way to hear Osc1 only left and Osc2 on both.

As for mono channels, it's a common belief you can't bounce to mono, but it's really easy - just bounce with "all except fader section" selected.

No, it will still be a stereo file.

[selig]

Those things you mention above CAN be done, the question is where do you put the knobs to do it correctly (and be 100% sure you avoid the "balance" issue from occurring). Anyway, I guess I'll never understand why things are the way they are with regards to the pan controls in Reason.

How? When I set Osc1 to L and Osc2 to R, I can't find a way to hear Osc1 only left and Osc2 on both.

As for mono channels, it's a common belief you can't bounce to mono, but it's really easy - just bounce with "all except fader section" selected.

No, it will still be a stereo file.

Ok, then it's far worse than I was saying. Tried this with what I THOUGHT would be the obvious settings, and while it's easy to get the right side in the middle it's impossible to get the left to stay fully on the left. You would think these things would have been tested/important…

As for mono, I'm guessing maybe you are wanting to bounce a STEREO file to mono (collapsed stereo to mono conversion)? Because if you have a mono source (instrument or audio), and bounce while ignoring the fader section, you definitely get a mono file as I've already mentioned. If for some reason you DO want to convert a stereo file to mono and export as mono, there are fairly easy workarounds: Reduce the channel width to zero, create a new Mix Channel then patch the Left Direct Output of the original channel to the Left Input of the new Mix Channel. Bounce that new Mix Channel without the fader section and Bob's your uncle.

[tiker01]

As much I hear how beneficial to mix in MONO I wish more and more that Reason would be a better player with MONO and now I think with PAN too.
Until that happnes I think I will get Selig Gain to sort this out.

BTW Selig is there any latency added by Gain and how CPU friendly it is i.e. can I add it to all Mix/Audio channels without sucking the life out of my computer?

[Exowildebeest]

If Selig Gain caused latency, people would've had their pitchforks out a long time ago That said, I didn't actually test...

It's extremely CPU friendly in my experience, I've been using it without any trouble all over the place in projects that are already CPU heavy.

[selig]

As much I hear how beneficial to mix in MONO I wish more and more that Reason would be a better player with MONO and now I think with PAN too.
Until that happnes I think I will get Selig Gain to sort this out.

BTW Selig is there any latency added by Gain and how CPU friendly it is i.e. can I add it to all Mix/Audio channels without sucking the life out of my computer?

Selig Gain is zero latency and as CPU friendly as we could possibly make it.

[tiker01]

My next question is if the same wrong principle applies to send returns of the mixers in Reason especially the SSL?

[selig]

My next question is if the same wrong principle applies to send returns of the mixers in Reason especially the SSL?

Yes.

[Bobbyd93]

FINALLY, and this one is HUGE, there is one thing the SSL does that is absolutely NOT acceptable to me, mainly because it's doing something other than panning. When you pan the main panner on a stereo signal without FIRST adjusting the width control, you are actually adjusting the BALANCE between the left and right signal. For example, when you pan the main PAN control to the left, the ENTIRE RIGHT SIDE OF THE STEREO SIGNAL IS SILENCED! Sorry for yelling, but I find that not only completely unexpected, but also totally unacceptable. There is NO use case where this is the desired result of moving a pan control IMO. What does this mean? It means that for stereo sources you must ALWAYS move BOTH the width AND the pan control to avoid reducing the level of one side or the other. The end result is that this approach is MORE complex and requires MORE interaction than the simple and easy to understand "dual panner" approach as I have implemented in Selig Gain.

Sorry for the rant there, it's just that most folks don't even realize the Reason SSL mixer is doing this to their stereo signal, and I want to make sure this is clear whenever possible when someone brings up panning in Reason because I have yet to hear a single other person mention this - and there are PLENTY of folks producing tutorials that fail to recognize this basic flaw! Makes you wonder…

Very interesting topic!

“There is another place where the stereo image of your drums can become supremely wack… the Drum Comp Bus track. It should be panned hard left and hard right to avoid collapsing or narrowing the stereo image of the drums. If your Drum Comp Bus pans are centered, all the signals in the stereo parallel drum mix would be forced to the center, effectively summed to mono.“ - [Taken from an iZotope blog]

How would the SSL work once you’ve set pan controls for say your kick, snare, hats and percussion placed in various positions within the stereo field (with a dual L/R plugin such as Selig Gain) and then sent these to an SSL bus channel? With the bus at 127 width and central panning would this make previous panning redundant as it doesn’t have dual L/R functionality? Also, would setting the bus to pre fader rectify this?

Thanks in advance!