Center Panned Tracks Sound Dull. Any ideas?

[heartparts]

For some reason, any track on any session that i listen to sounds really dull when it's center panned. When i pan to the left or right it clears up and sounds fine. This only happens when i listen through my monitors, when i listen to the track with headphones, it sounds fine center panned. What could be causing this.

I'm using a dual 2.0 G5, 1 Gig of Ram, and an Mbox running PTLE 6.4

thanks for any help.

[Sevenlights]

The only thing I could think of is that your speakers could be out of phase, but that would sound like a loss of bottom end and an unaturally wide stereo field.

[heartparts]

but would that explain why it sounds fine when it's panned at about >25 on either side?

[ggunn]

but would that explain why it sounds fine when it's panned at about >25 on either side?

Yes, it would.

[Bluemoon]

Like you say, unlikely to be phase, would sound harsh and empty, not dull. What monitors are they, and are they active or passive, if so what amp? Don't forget that when you pan a signal in/out the relative db per channel increases up to +6db* therefore whichever direction you've panned will be driven harder. One reason why kick/bass always centre panned, so transient energy evenly spread and you don't blow your drivers.

*Depending on your mixer/monitor set up.

[JFreak]

This only happens when i listen through my monitors, when i listen to the track with headphones, it sounds fine center panned. What could be causing this.

it's a phasing issue.

first thing to do is to double-check that you have wired your monitor speakers correctly. if one of them is in wrong phase, that is very easy to locate and fix...

on the other hand, if wiring is correct, then you have a serious issue with speaker placement in your room, or the room itself. that is something you don't fix with eq. if that's the case, you need to first move your speakers into better placement, maybe different angling will help, and probably will also have to treat your listening room acoustically. there are no shortcuts and if you don't know how to do it, there are professionals who do just that very well.