How to pan stereo track left and right?

[billw91810620]

Audition CC Newbie here with a question. On a stereo track in Multitrack ... how does one pan both left and right on a single track?

I'm used to Pro Tools where stereo tracks have both left and right panning knobs. I realize I could either use the Stereo Expander preset on a stereo track or set up two separately-panned mono tracks, but each presents challenges. Thanks for your help.

[Warren Heaton]

Pan tracks in stereo

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Probably not that...

Thing is, you can only pan a mono track across a stereo field, and if you have a mono track, that's what you end up with in the track controls. If, on the other hand, it's a stereo track then the label changes:

... and it becomes a balance control. If you turn it completely left or right, then it will alter the relative levels of the stereo track - so you'll lose half of the content if you do this.

So to answer your question properly, we need to know exactly what your source is, and exactly what you want to do with it; there are several options here.

And just in case you were wondering, yes the manual is wrong!

[billw91810620]

I'm working with two tracks:

1 MONO - VOX narration

2 STEREO - imported stereo piano file as background

I want to achieve a L/R spread of the stereo track sufficient to sit the VOX in the middle without it fighting for space. I've found I can achieve this to a degree with the Delay and Stereo Expander effects working in combination on the music track. The Phase Analysis tool shows it shifts the music down (Inverse) compared to the VOX and spreads it as much as I desire. Either effect by itself increases perceived spread, however in combo it's magnified.

Other than splitting the stereo track into two separately-panned mono tracks, is there a better / easier way to do this?

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

billw91810620  wrote

I'm working with two tracks:

1 MONO - VOX narration

2 STEREO - imported stereo piano file as background

I want to achieve a L/R spread of the stereo track sufficient to sit the VOX in the middle without it fighting for space. I've found I can achieve this to a degree with the Delay and Stereo Expander effects working in combination on the music track. The Phase Analysis tool shows it shifts the music down (Inverse) compared to the VOX and spreads it as much as I desire. Either effect by itself increases perceived spread, however in combo it's magnified.

Other than splitting the stereo track into two separately-panned mono tracks, is there a better / easier way to do this?

Ah. Just splitting the tracks into mono won't make a scrap of difference. To all intents and purposes, if it's stereo then they are already spread as far apart as they can get (unaided), with the balance control set to the center position. Better than using the center expander would be to use the Center Channel Extractor - only without taking too much out of the center - this is the 'aid'. Something like this:

So the side channel level remains as it should, but the level of the center of the sound stage is dropped. Then, if the mono track is panned dead center, there won't be so much to interfere with it. You may have to adjust the center level a bit to get it right though.

Making the stereo 'wider' by decreasing the mid level compared to the sides may well cause phasing issues on playback, but the center channel extractor works on a different basis, so you should be okay doing it that way.