Brian Frame

Thanks for the guidance bdickens as further investigation of the windows 10 software gave a simple answer.

In relation to my post Nov 10 2021, it was a windows 10 setting playing my audio in mono and not stereo in case anyone else has a similar issue.

Turn off Mono Audio

Step 1: Right-click on the speaker icon on the bottom right corner of the Taskbar. Click on Open Sound

Step 2: In the Settings window, on the right-side of the pane, scroll down and under Related Settings, click on Ease of Access audio settings.

Step 3: In the next window, on the right side of the pane, scroll down a bit, and turn off the slider under the Turn on mono audio section.

In relation to my post Oct 26. I re-imported my project's exported mix into a new cakewalk project using only a stereo track. The track plays exactly as I expect with panned instruments giving the stereo effect I expected, the vocal has the right amount of reverb etc.

I am listening to the original project mix and then the new imported project mix and they are identical within cakewalk using my scarlett 18i20 (outputs via headset and speakers ADAM Audios.) I specifically listened to the intro which has strings and piano panned left in the song.

Once I play the exported file on various media players, groove clip, windows media player, VLC using the focusrite audio interface -  the panned imstruments are in the center and the stereo effect on the vocal gone.

I am using an ACER predator i9-8950HK CPU 2.90GHz - 24gig ram - on windows 10  

bdickens can you elaborate on your quote above in relation to the exported mix? Any help greatly appreciated.

I have a similar issue during mixdown.

Audio interface is a focusrite - use headphones to listen to the mix and Adam Audio speakers connected to the focusrite. 

Mix sounds great on headphones and the speakers - then I export to a wave file using 44100 - 24bit (same as project) - entire mix and listen during mixdown using the render in realtime and audible bounce.

The I playback the mixed wave file on windows media player and the sound appears to have lost some the the reverb and stereo ambience. (sounds flat).

Brian