change the pan law

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by Tank

Yes,surround mixer set the pan law at -3.

I asked if it could be changed becouse on cubase and logic you can chose the pan law.

Eric ... what math you talking about? if I mix with the pan law at -4,5 I take care of my center section, so in my final stereo file it will be ok. If you listen in mono it would be ok.

Change the pan law cange the way of mixing , not the way of listen the final mix on radio.

... what math? What happens when two identical/correlated sounds get summed together? What happens when two dissimilar/uncorrelated sounds get summed together? So how do you achieve "equal power" when panning from L -> C -> R?

Also, the greater the pan law, the quieter your center will be (or the louder the sides will be). Which means you will then push anything panned in the center UP to compensate for the additional -1.5dB dip in the pan law. The greater the pan law, the bigger the "hole" in the center you will have when mixing.

Unless you are mixing for AM radio, I would suggest that -3dB is a good choice.

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by pristineb

How do I switch between stereo (2.5db) and surround (3db?)

Any help?

If you put all your stereo mixers into the Unused plugins folder and only keep the surround mixer plugin in the plugins folder, PT will use the Surround Mixer for stereo mixes. It eats up a little more DSP, but it will give you a pan law of -3dB instead of -2.5dB.

[O.G. Killa]

Also once you print your mix to a stereo audio track the pan law no longer has any effect.

One stereo track played through a system with 0dB, -2.5dB, -3dB, -4.5dB or -6dB will sound the same.

The only time the pan law has any effect is when you are panning mono track to any position OTHER than hard left and right. It changes the slope of attenuation from hard L/R to center.

But once you print the mix it doesn't matter anymore since the stereo file will have the left channel panned hard left and the right channel panned hard right.

When summing to mono for things like AM radio broadcast or old mono TV sets, a 0dB pan law will give you a 6dB bump for anything in the center. A -3dB pan law will give you a 3dB bump for anything in the center. And a -6dB pan law will not have any bump/increase in volume for center channel information when summed to mono.

BUT!!! sitting in front of the speakers... a 0dB pan law gives you a 3dB bump/increase in volume for anything panned center. a -3dB pan law gives you no bump/increase in volume for anything panned center, and a -6dB pan law will give you a -3dB dip for anything panned in the center.

How does this effect your mixing. Anything that you automate to pan, will be effected by the pan law. Have a cool guitar slide you want to go from left to right... With 0dB pan law, it will get louder as it gets to the center. With -3dB pan law it will maintain a consistent volume (constant power) as you pan across center and with -6dB pan law it will get quieter as it gets to the center.

-4.5dB pan law will exhibit the same problems as -6dB pan law but to a lesser extent (-1.5dB instead of -3dB down in the center). You can compensate for this by riding the fader simultaneously as you pan. And this is why people initially started using a -3dB pan law... so they wouldn't have to ride the fader up, down and up again as they panned a mono drum track left->right for the tom fills or adjust the fader as they panned different vocal parts on the same track around to different positions throughout the song.

But!!! back in the day when stereo was coming out, most people were still listening to mono AM radio. So the stereo mixes would change when summed to mono for radio broadcast. So "broadcast" consoles started using -6dB pan law to ensure that live radio broadcasts would sound the same in mono and stereo.