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Does Anyone Pay Attention to Panning Laws?


Anderton

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Just wondering...I can't help but think a lot of the online threads about how DAW A sounds different from DAW B has more to do with selecting a different pan law for one DAW compared to the other.

 

Laws, schmaws! You don't worry about the panning law, you pan the sound to where you want it and then adjust the volume. But I can understand why, if you mix by eye or by number rather than by ear, different panning laws - that is, what happens when something is panned to the center - could be different. I believe I've read about at least one DAW that lets you choose among a few different panning curves, but I figure that's just feature creep, or a creepy feature that gives users something to discuss or argue about.

 

Or were you talking about the law where you pan the way the band sets (or would, if there was actually a band) up versus where you think sounds should be placed?

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Just wondering...I can't help but think a lot of the online threads about how DAW A sounds different from DAW B has more to do with selecting a different pan law for one DAW compared to the other.

 

 

I don't know how that would affect say shootouts with a same session (multitracks) loaded into three different daws. But probably it would at first perception. But then, a finished mix wouldn't really enter into this type of thing cuz, hey, a guy mixes something (regardless of pan law settings) and...well.... it's mixed. Load that stereo or mono mix into daw B and it's... well... it's still mixed already. Pan law settings won't affect anything after the fact.

 

I can see people picking up diffs if they're tracking, mixing with wild, active panning of stuff around the stereo or surround field. Your swooping left-to-right whammy dive will sound different if you're sweeping the pan with a -6 setting or whatever. Compared to then trying it again with a -3 setting... which would maybe cause you to also hold the fader with one hand (to adjust) while turning the pan. I dunno.... I'm not sure how this translates into people comparing different daw results.

 

But no doubt, there's a mindset that can be worked in there. I just use -3. And I don't really do as much active panning as I would've done in say, 1966. I do a lot of fader riding still, but pans are pretty much where I plant them at the start of a tune.

 

 

 

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Laws, schmaws! You don't worry about the panning law, you pan the sound to where you want it and then adjust the volume. But I can understand why, if you mix by eye or by number rather than by ear, different panning laws - that is, what happens when something is panned to the center - could be different.

 

It matters when you want to exchange projects among different DAWs. OMF was really designed more for video people, so IIRC panning information is retained only for mono tracks. But sometimes OMF is all you have to work with.

 

The other place where it matters is if you're moving sounds within the stereo field. You probably want to know what to expect as it moves across center, and whether you need to increase, decrease, or maintain the track level.

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Oh, yeah, I didn't think about moving between DAWs, but then if you're going to do that, you're probalby going to be fiddling with the mix anyway. And as far as knowing what to expect, when it comes to audio, I never expect that things will be the same every time. Digits may not change, but ears do.

 

 

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Pans, skillets..Apples and oranges. :bounce014:

 

 

Gravity - it's not just a good idea - it's the law. :cop:;)

 

I think the differences in the way different DAWs handle panning is a minor nuisance, but not really a huge issue - and I get a fair amount of stuff to work on from other people who use a variety of different DAW programs. As far as sonic differences in DAW programs, I would take any panning differences into account and adjust for them if I was going to do sonic comparisons between the programs.

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Related question - how should one pan the stereo outs of a rompler's combination patch? These patches come with panning already set by default.

 

Most ROMplers I know let you pan combi elements within the synth itself. So what I would typically do is pan the ROMpler outputs full left/right, and then do any other needed panning internally to the ROMpler.

 

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