Mono Tracks Turned into Stereo Output by Plugins

[ts1234]

While the recorded information on a track shows mono still...two panning knobs appear when adding a stereo plugin.

I assume the left and right pans control the left and right channel "volume" and don't really move the audio from one side to the other?

If I want the both sides of stereo field to be more to the left of center what is the right way to set these?

I'm sure playing with them will yield answers, I just want to make sure I understand what's really going on.

THANKS!

[JFreak]

Yes after mono-to-stereo plugin the output is stereo and by default panning is fully open (hard left, hard right).

You can restrict this stereo field in numerous ways, but let's say you want same thing as -50 from mono channel, I would first try setting left to hard left and right to center. That is half way to left in stereo panning. If the image is still too wide you can bring the pan pots closer together with both pots at -50 being mono image (wondering why you would want to do that as you used mono-to-stereo to begin with).

[EdgarRothermich]

Originally Posted by ts1234

While the recorded information on a track shows mono still...two panning knobs appear when adding a stereo plugin.

Your answer is right there in your question. You change the signal path of the mono Track to stereo when inserting a "Mono>Stereo" Plugin.
That's the reason you will see the two Pan Knobs, although the source of the Track (input) is a mono signal.

Regarding panning, it works the same as with any Stereo Track. The left Pan knob pans that left channel between the left-right output bus, and the right Pan knob pans the right channel of that Track between left-right of the Output Bus.