N-track panning laws

From N-Track Wiki

Regardless of whether a track is mono or stereo, n-Track keeps both sides at 0dB (no attenuation) when centered, and reduces the opposite side as you pan. This is the way mixers I've used have worked, and I like it best. However, the operator has to realize that panning affects overall volume, and adjust accordingly. Frankly, after panning, a volume adjustment is necessary regardless, because the mix has changed.

But mono/stereo does matter when discussing other kinds of pan laws. It's best to discuss both rather than just one or the other, to keep things in perspective.

There is a constant total volume pan law for uncorrelated stereo tracks, and one for mono tracks. Neither is a constant total volume pan for typical stereo tracks, which are "mostly correlated". ("Uncorrelated" means that the left and right have nothing significant in common. In typical stereo tracks, low frequencies are very correlated, and high frequencies are generally uncorrelated except for attacks.)

The difference between the two is that the law for mono has a 6dB cut in center position, because duplicating a mono track adds 6dB of volume, whereas for uncorrelated stereo, you only want a 3dB cut (because adding two uncorrelated tracks causes a 3dB volume boost).

I've heard of a compromise pan law that uses a 4.5 dB cut in center position, which would be ideal for neither mono nor typical stereo, but would require less volume adjustment for either case.

I suppose someone could create a crossover-pan, that treats the low frequencies like mono and high frequencies like uncorrelated stereo, that would keep the volume pretty constant for typical stereo signals. But I don't like the idea of inserting a crossover in the signal just for panning.

No doubt there are other pan laws I don't know about. And perhaps there are technical terms for the kinds I mentioned above, but I don't know them.

I like knowing that in center position, NO CHANGES are being applied to the signals, so I like how n-Track works. This sure simplifies things when doing lab experiments, like figuring out dithering settings and the investigations it took to produce the signal path diagram.

Another option for stereo is to have two mono pan pots. This is equivalent to splitting the stereo track into two mono tracks with two mono pan pots (though again, there would be at least two varieties: constant volume or zero-cut). This kind of thing is often quite handy. For example, the samples for the stereo piano sound I usually use were recorded from the player's perspective, so higher notes are louder on the right, lower louder on the left. But I usually like to put piano on the left side of the soundstage (that's where a grand is on a real stage, due to the way it opens -- if it's not in the center). Panning left, I lose the high end, which is the opposite of what I want. It's better to pan the left channel far left, and pan the right channel near center. To do this, I have to split the stereo track into two mono tracks.

But I don't think I'd want that on every track. I usually prefer the simple pan pot just as it is. It would be nice to be able to right-click and select dual-pot panning, but I won't hold my breath!

LEARJEFF:bubbagump