can't hear panning

[dobro]

I've been tracking for a few months now, but I'm just starting to get into mixing. I'm having this problem hearing panning that I apply to my tracks. I pan tracks in my software (Cool Edit), but I don't hear it in the phones. I think it's a cabling/mixer problem. Can you help me with this?

I'm running two soundcard outs to two mixer ins. It doesn't matter whether I set the pan for each of the mixer ins to left, right or center - I still don't hear any panning. Any ideas?

 

[camn]

ok, man, lets take this one methodically.

a. If you run ONE line into your mixer... then on the mixer, pan it back and forth.. do you hear the change?? If so, your mixers fine.. if not, theres your problem.

b. Assuming your mixer's fine..I forget the card youre using...but the outs are mono, right? If so it SHOULD look like this: Cool edit sending to stereo pair 1/2. Outs #1 and 2 on different cables to ins, say, 1 and 2 on your mixer. Channel 1 panned hard left, channel 2 panned hard right.

c. now test by openeing a stereo wave in the editor. Highlight the left side, and play it... it should be just left. Same w/ the right side.

d. do all that, and report back... including what card and what mixer you have.

xoxoxoxo

 

[dobro]

camn - hi. Well, I figured it out, and since you use CEP, I thought I'd tell you. I use an 8-channel mixer (Alesis Studio 12-R) and an 8-channel soundcard (Wave/824). I'd been nominating channels 7 and 8 for playback, but CEP kept defaulting to channels 1 and 2 and I didn't notice for a long time. Twiddling the wrong dials doesn't work. Imagine that.

Every time something like this happens, I figure it's going to be something simple, and it usually is. Thanks for the input - I was just about to go through your steps and stages when I found out what was happening.