Understanding Pan Mode Options

Adobe Audition and Logic Pro X include Pan Mode preference options that determine track output gain for center panned mono clips included in stereo sessions. These options are often the source of confusion when working with a combination of mono and stereo clips, especially when clips are pre-Loudness Normalized prior to importing.

In Audition, the Left/Right Cut (Logarithmic) option retains center panned mono clip gain. The -3.0 dB Center option, which by the way is customizable – will attenuate center panned mono clip gain by the specified dB value.

For example if you were targeting -16.0 LUFS in a stereo session using a combination of pre-Loudness Normalized clips, and all channel faders were set to unity – the imported mono clips need to be -19.0 LUFS (Integrated). The stereo clips need to be -16.0 LUFS (Integrated). The Left/Right Cut Pan Mode option will not alter the gain of the center panned mono clips. This would result in a -16.0 LUFS stereo mixdown.

Conversely the -3.0 dB Center Pan Mode option will apply a -3 dB gain offset (it will subtract 3 dB of gain) to center panned mono clips resulting in a -19.0 LUFS stereo mixdown. In most cases this -3 LU discrepancy is not the desired target for a stereo mixdown. Note 1 LU == 1 dB.

As stated Logic Pro X provides a similar level of Pan Mode flexibility. I’ve also tested Reaper, and it’s options are equally flexible.

Pro Tools

Pro Tools Pan Mode support (they call it Pan Depth) is somewhat restricted. The preference is limited to Center Pan Mode, with selectable dB compensation options (-2.5 dB, -3.0 dB, -4.5 dB, and -6.0 dB).

There are several ways to reconstitute the loss of gain that occurs in Pro Tools when working with center panned mono clips in stereo sessions. One option would be to duplicate a mono clip and place each instance of it on hard-panned discrete mono tracks (L+R respectively). Routing the mono tracks to a stereo output will reconstitute the loss of gain.

A second and much more efficient method is to route all individual instances of mono session clips to a stereo Auxiliary Input, and use it to apply the necessary compensating gain offset before the signal reaches the stereo Master Output. The gain offset can be applied using the Aux Input channel fader or by using an inserted gain trim plugin. Stereo clips included in the session can bypass this Aux and should be directly routed to the stereo Master Output. In essence stereo clips do not require compensation.

Example Session

Have a look at the attached Pro Tools session snapshot. In order to clearly display the signal path relative to it’s gain, I purposely implemented Pre-Fader Metering.

pt-pan_small

Notice how the mono spoken word clip included on track 1 is routed (by way of stereo Bus 1-2) to a stereo Auxiliary Input track (named to Stereo). Also notice how the stereo signal level displayed by the meters on the Stereo Auxiliary Input track is lower than the mono source that is feeding it. The level variation is clear due to Pre-Fader Metering. It is the direct result of the session’s Pan Depth setting that is subtracting -3dB of gain on this center panned mono track.

Next, notice how the signal level on the Master Output has been reconstituted and is in fact equal to the original mono source. We’ve effectively added +3dB of gain to compensate for the attenuation of the original center panned mono clip. The +3dB gain compensation was applied to the signal on the Auxiliary Input track (via fader) before routing it’s output to the stereo Master Output.

So it’s: Center Panned mono resulting in a -3dB gain attenuation —>> to a stereo Aux Input with +3dB of gain compensation —>> to stereo Master Output at unity.

In case you are wondering – why not add +3dB of gain to the mono clip and bypass all the fluff? By doing so you would be altering the native inherent gain structure of the mono source clip, possibly resulting in clipping. My described workflow simply reconstitutes the attenuated gain after it occurs on center panned mono clips. It is all necessary due to Pro Tool’s Pan Depth methods and implementation.

-paul.