Strange stereo issue

[spottydog10]

I have a double tracked acoustic guitar rhythm part panned hard left and right.
The left hand appears to be louder but the Cubase meters indicate the same volume as the right hand as does the master bus.
Thinking it was monitor related I soloed the kick drum which is slap bang in the middle.
Both guitars were recorded on the same mic, same guitar and same position near enough and if I swap panning it's still louder on the left hand side.
Any ideas folks? Thanks.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

Could it be a phase setting that's been reversed on the one track?

 

[DM60]

Comb filtering? If two tracks, try shifting one just very slight (doesn't have to be much). See if that cures the issue.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Since the problem doesn't follow the recorded track and the meters say everything is equal,
I'd say you're looking at a monitor / monitoring environment issue, as you thought.

The kick drum test was a good idea, since it's mono and centred, but it's only testing with a limited range of frequencies.
Maybe try that again but with a complete music track, panned to be all centre / mono.

Also check the monitors - Some have settings for spacial compensation, eq, and independent tweeter volume controls.
Make sure all settings are equal.
Maybe even physically swap the monitors, just to rule that out completely.

If you're still having trouble, consider the environment.
If you have a wall 2 feet to your left and the other wall is 6 feet to your right, that's going to screw your stereo imaging.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

if I swap panning it's still louder on the left hand side.

Whoops - I missed that part.

 

[Papanate]

I have a double tracked acoustic guitar rhythm part panned hard left and right.
The left hand appears to be louder but the Cubase meters indicate the same volume as the right hand as does the master bus.
Thinking it was monitor related I soloed the kick drum which is slap bang in the middle.
Both guitars were recorded on the same mic, same guitar and same position near enough and if I swap panning it's still louder on the left hand side.
Any ideas folks? Thanks.

By any chance are your pan laws different on the channels? What DAW are you using?

 

[spottydog10]

" but the Cubase meters "

I checked on headphones and the image is as it should be.
It must be some room issue I think that kicks in on the frequencies of the guitar. The left hand monitor is about a third nearer to a wall laterally but cant be moved owing to the shape of the room.
The room is well treated, walls and ceiling and ARC correction (bypassing ARC makes no difference image wise)
They're both going to a bus so I'll just pan them so it sounds central until mixdown then centre them again.
Cheers!