Question about panning while recording

[BluesPower]

I haven't touched my mixer in over a year and forgot how some things work.

There was some trick where you panned either all the way left or right
to record onto a specific track, or something to do with panning while recording.

Can somebody explain this to me, or maybe I got things mixed up.

The mixer is a tascam 312, recorder is TSR-8

 

[SteveMac]

You pan to the left for an odd number buss you pan to the right to go to an even number buss.

 

[BluesPower]

I kept my pan in the center, it seems to have recorded properly to both even and odd busses.