simple question regarding panning.

[Leffield]

hello all...

I am recording the stereo outs (L/R) from my keyboard onto two tracks in my digital recorder, and am unsure how to capture the pan settings I applied to the tracks in my keyboard's sequencer. The pan settings for the destination tracks I am sending the audio to in my recorder are controlled by the recorder's onboard pan pots...

any ideas?

 

[ssscientist]

If you want to retain the stereo field set up in your keyboard or sequencer, simply pan the tracks you recorded it to hard left and hard right with the recorders panpots.

 

[jake-owa]

Really should be a no brainer. Unless I am missing something here.

You plug the keyboard into the recorder and pan the resulting tracks hard left and right to bring the stereo image back to normal.

 

[Leffield]

right, that is what I understood the process to be. I'll have to listen more closely today when I attempt this, but if I'm not mistaken, when I hard panned the destination tracks, the result was that the audio was driven straight down the middle due to the hard panning. (as opposed to keeping the panning applied to the individual tracks on the keyboard)

I'll try it again.

Thanks for the replies.

LEF

 

[ssscientist]

Really should be a no brainer. Unless I am missing something here.

You plug the keyboard into the recorder and pan the resulting tracks hard left and right to bring the stereo image back to normal.

Wow. I wish I'd said that.

Oh, wait! I did!

 

[MISTERQCUE]

What jake said!

 

[Leffield]

maybe you fellas can break it down.

I did receive the intended results with the hard panning. However, WHY that is the case is still unclear, as it would seem that when you hard pan the tracks that have been recorded, that would make all audio on that track be crunched way left, or right...why is it that the hard panning restores the stereo position I applied in the keyboard?

 

[Farview]

Because you already spread the sounds accross the left and right outputs of your keyboard. By panning the left output of your keyboard all the way left and the right output of your keyboard all the way right, you have just restored the stereo image.

 

[Leffield]

you mean the inputs on my recorder?

LEF

 

[Farview]

Now your confusing me. Left out of the keyboard to chnnel 1 (or left input) of the recorder. Right output of the keyboard into channel 2 (or right input) of the recorder. When you play it back, pan channel 1 to the left and channel 2 to the right. That is all there is to it. It really is that easy.

 

[lpdeluxe]

Think of "hard panning" as being a way of routing only the sound recorded on that track to your monitors. Each track contains sound from the opposite channel because the keyboard's outputs are set up that way so it won't sound like there's a hole in between the speakers. In other words, if you "soft pan" (not have the pan knobs all the way L or R), you will be sending a mixture of the L and R channels through the playback. With the pan all the way L or R, ONLY that track comes through. As a result, if you pan less than hard, you are playing back both tracks to a more or less degree.

Listen to a stereo mix with the channels panned hard L/R, then mute each one in turn. The instruments on the "Left" or "Right" don't disappear because there's still some audio data coming through on the unmuted track. This is the phenomenon that emulates the placement of instruments in a stereo field: that guitar isn't "really" 1/3 of the way between the L/R speakers, it's panned so that one side is louder than the other and your mind interprets that as being to one side to the L or R.

Hope this helps.

 

[Leffield]

Much appreciated. My misunderstanding was in thinking by panning the tracks the music is recorded to on my recorder all the way L/R, that it would position the sound at the extreme edges, as opposed to allowing the previous pan settings from the keyboard to "pass through"

LEF

Think of "hard panning" as being a way of routing only the sound recorded on that track to your monitors. Each track contains sound from the opposite channel because the keyboard's outputs are set up that way so it won't sound like there's a hole in between the speakers. In other words, if you "soft pan" (not have the pan knobs all the way L or R), you will be sending a mixture of the L and R channels through the playback. With the pan all the way L or R, ONLY that track comes through. As a result, if you pan less than hard, you are playing back both tracks to a more or less degree.

Listen to a stereo mix with the channels panned hard L/R, then mute each one in turn. The instruments on the "Left" or "Right" don't disappear because there's still some audio data coming through on the unmuted track. This is the phenomenon that emulates the placement of instruments in a stereo field: that guitar isn't "really" 1/3 of the way between the L/R speakers, it's panned so that one side is louder than the other and your mind interprets that as being to one side to the L or R.

Hope this helps.