Panning send levels

[Andy]

Hi all!

I like to do weird things, like sending a signal to an effect panned hard left, and sending it to the right for another effect (like reverb and delay). I see that when I put the effect for one channel, say the left, I can put it on an aux track and pan the send hard left, and the aux track then has the signal panned hard left as well. But if I put the effect on a buss and do the same, it gets panned differently, definitely not hard panned. Should this be happening? I suppose the work around would be to use aux tracks for panning like this, but I like to understand how things should work.

 

I just noticed, it depends on the plugin. It appears that Breverb, with a signal input panned hard left, will have some of that signal come out of the right channel as well. It's looking like this is plugin-dependent...

Cheers!

Edited August 12, 2020 by Andy
found a new situation

[Gswitz]

There is a strange difference between panning of a mono signal from stereo.

It's not at first obvious but it is documented.

If you have channel tools plugin, you could do things that way.

[Base 57]

On 8/11/2020 at 8:29 PM, Andy said:

It appears that Breverb, with a signal input panned hard left, will have some of that signal come out of the right channel as well. It's looking like this is plugin-dependent...

That is correct. I don't remember if it is included with CbB or is left over from SPlat but I use BlueVerb for this.

[scook]

On 8/11/2020 at 1:29 AM, Andy said:

It appears that Breverb, with a signal input panned hard left, will have some of that signal come out of the right channel as well.

This is expected in true stereo reverbs but the regular version of BREVERB2 bundled with CbB has independent dry and wet pan controls the PC version lacks. The pan controls in the plug-in UI are just below the Dry and Wet faders.

[Garage Rodeo]

The only way Ive found to alleviate that, is bounce the panned mono track to stereo, then to a send.  If that is what you mean.

[bitflipper]

One of the main differences between reverbs is whether or not they offer independent left and right signal paths. The ones that do are often referred to as "true stereo" reverbs. Many (most?) do not, instead combining left and right and then spreading the generated reflections across the panorama. Both types, however, are innately stereo effects and as such neither will allow you to completely pan hard left or right without some additional post-processing.

This, of course, is meant to emulate how acoustical reverb works in the real world. A violin, for example, is a point source with a well-defined position in the panorama. Its reflections, however, scatter about the room and come at you from different angles. That's how artificial reverbs work, too.

That said, I too like to emphasize reverb on the opposite side of the panorama from the instrument's pan location. It doesn't sound natural, but can help widen the mix in a pleasant way. If that's your goal, let the reverb plugin do its thing but insert a stereo panner after it, such as the Channel Tools plugin. Or my favorite, Boz Digital Labs' Pan Knob, which makes pan automation easier. 

OT: Given your predilection for unnatural reverb panning, let me suggest another cool trick you might like: use an autopanner after the reverb, such as the freebie from Cable Guys. 

[Andy]

I just noticed I failed to turn on notifications for this thread, so I just now saw your comments thinking there were none! Thanks guys! Yes, I can see the logic for the way some reverbs behave with panned sends. Thanks for your suggestions, I too love Boz Lab's Pan Knob, as well as various other plugins he designed. I'll check out the autopanner.