A Fun Test To See How Accurate Your Stereo Field Is.

GOODLAND

GOODLAND

New member
I may not be testing my stereo feild the correct way, but I just did a simple test. I slapped on a Signal Generator Plug-in in pro tools and panned it left to right using the pan slider. I closed my eyes and would try to guess how much it was panned as I was sliding the fader back and forth. I was guessing within 5% accuracy each time I opened my eyes to see where the fader ended up.

ie) If the fader was at <30, I was guessing in between <25 and <35.

I think my Stereo field is decent with the accuracy of my guesses. :D

If I'm not testing my stereo field the correct way, please let me know.
 
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northern cali said:
fantastic!!
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Hey, thanks for the response!
I was hoping someone would say something, even if it was one word.

If you guys want to make it interesting, go ahead and try it to see how accurate you can get.
 
GOODLAND said:
I closed my eyes and would try to guess how much it was panned as I was sliding the fader back and forth.
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I really don't want to rain on your parade, and slept on the idea of responding to this thread before I finally did, but you do know you're at least subconsciously, if not downright consciously, getting position cues from your hand and fingers, right? It's easy to close your eyes and guess when your body and brain can tell that you physically moved the slider that far. You're unconsciously cheating and probably don't even know it.

The only way to do it fairly and halfway accurately is to have someone else controllong the slider and randomly positioning it, muting it between position changes.

G.
 
Whoah! You mean you were moving the pan pot AND guessing where it is?????

Well, that's nothing. I beat my dog at chess 3 out of 5 times!!!
 
GOODLAND said:
I closed my eyes and would try to guess how much it was panned
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I don't want to rain on your parade either, but there's one perfect way to ensure you have accurate stereo imaging - put absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling. If you don't have those points treated, I promise your imaging is not optimum.

--Ethan
 
My initial reaction was... why would I need to know, precisely, how accurate my stereo field is? I can, of course, tell if a certain sound is left, or right. And, I can tell if one sound is farther to one side than some other sound. Why would I need to know how technically accurate my stereo field is? Just curious.
 
Alright, sorry guys. I see the flaws.
Carry on with the unintelligent sarcastic remarks.
I swear, my dog could think of smarter ones. :D :p
 
Ethan Winer said:
I don't want to rain on your parade either, but there's one perfect way to ensure you have accurate stereo imaging - put absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling. If you don't have those points treated, I promise your imaging is not optimum.

--Ethan
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My ceilling and walls are treated.
 
you could create a bunch of short clips and randomly scramble them up for the test.

when identifying a tone's position in the stereo field, what's the lowest frequency that someone should be able to pin point?
 
i don't get the point of testing your field. it may come in handy to guess the frequency...a little bit...ultimately when you're eq'ing you just go...oh..there's some mid high's that need taming and then you sweep in the area and find them...or you go..i'm hearing some mudd in the mid lows...or low lows..

the test seems almost worthless. unless you're blind or something...
 
cello_pudding said:
i don't get the point of testing your field. it may come in handy to guess the frequency...a little bit...ultimately when you're eq'ing you just go...oh..there's some mid high's that need taming and then you sweep in the area and find them...or you go..i'm hearing some mudd in the mid lows...or low lows..

the test seems almost worthless. unless you're blind or something...
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What does EQ have to do with panning? :confused:

Maybe you confused panning for your ability to detect pitches. It comes in handy when you're tight for time (ie, working for a paying artist) and need to be able to hear something and immediately reach for the proper frequency gain knob instead of wasting time trying to figure out where "high mid" exactly is.


The point of being able to know where a track is in the stereo pan is essential to be able to properly mix a track. The wall absorption is necessary because otherwise you're confusing reflections with direct sound, which definitely screws with your perception of the stereo pan field. Proper stereo panning gives the listener a good "view" of where the instruments are, and it creates more definition and clarity in the whole mix. Of course, you also want to make sure that it sounds good in mono, too.

This is even more crucial when mixing in surround. To create the surround image, you need to know where to place each instrument for maximum effect. What if you're mixing the audio for a visual project and say a plane is flying towards the screen from the right to the left. You want the sound to start where the image looks like it's starting in the video and have the sound move with it. Without a care to proper panning, you could see the plane move across the screen, but you might only hear it from center moving to left.


Ok, that was kind of confusing, I know. But it is important to know where you are in the stereo/surround field in or to create a "proper" mix.
 
IronFlippy said:
What does EQ have to do with panning?
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cello_pudding said:
it may come in handy to guess the frequency.
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frequency has to do with eq...yada yada.

doing frequency tests might come in handy...not really panning tests for me at least. i guess i have to find different pannings for all of my songs. i usually don't produce two of my songs exactly the same instrumentally, and i would always find the panning appropriate for a song. too many factors.

still...i guess i can hear frequencies good enough. like defining low low..mid low..mid..mid high..high...high high..is good enough.

knowing exactly 2.75khz...meh. whatever.
 
It might also be more of a test of how well you're able to guess where something is panned with sub-optimal stereo imaging.

For example, I have an untreated room, with computer speakers and a sub. I can guess pretty easily how much something is panned. Doesn't mean I have good stereo imaging, just means I'm used to the crappy stereo imaging I do have.

Not saying you have bad stereo imaging, just another way to look at it I guess.

I would think the best way would be to do room acoustics test with a measurement mic and some software. But that isn't much fun. ;)
 
cello_pudding said:
frequency has to do with eq...yada yada.

doing frequency tests might come in handy...not really panning tests for me at least. i guess i have to find different pannings for all of my songs. i usually don't produce two of my songs exactly the same instrumentally, and i would always find the panning appropriate for a song. too many factors.

still...i guess i can hear frequencies good enough. like defining low low..mid low..mid..mid high..high...high high..is good enough.

knowing exactly 2.75khz...meh. whatever.
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Ah, I just misread your post. It looked like you were saying that panning helps in determining frequencies.
 
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