Mac audio question

[Heath McKnight]

About panning. Is center channel (0) stereo or mono? I can't tell because I'm not doing anything that's totally stereo, unless I drop music in. What about panning left to -1 or right to +1? Someone I know thinks -1 is stereo and 0 is mono.

I usually have my audio mixed and mastered by others, so I was never 100% sure.

Thanks,

Heath

[Martin Mayer]

For a linked stereo pair of tracks, the is only one pan control:
PAN +1 = normal stereo L>L, R>R
PAN 0 = mono i.e. L>centre, R>centre
PAN -1 = reversed stereo L>R, R>L

For a single mono track:
PAN +1 = panned hard right
PAN 0 = panned centre
PAN -1 = panned hard left

[ Sorry about the British spelling! :-) ]

[Heath McKnight]

You rock, thanks!

heath

[Heath McKnight]

ps-If I captured audio that was on two channels, I do +1 to get normal stereo, correct? What about music?

heath

[Martin Mayer]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

ps-If I captured audio that was on two channels, I do +1 to get normal stereo, correct? What about music?

I believe (but I'm not at FCP to confirm) you have the option when capturing two audio channels of either specifying them:

(a) as a stereo pair (where PAN will be set for you to +1), or
(b) as two mono channels (where the two PANs for both tracks will be set for you to 0).

When you bring in a (stereo) track from a stereo audio file/CD/whatever, you get a linked stereo pair of tracks with PAN set for you to +1.

You can of course toggle stereo linking on/off for a pair of highlighted tracks with alt-L. You can also PAN to centre (0) with ctrl-period. (And other keyboard shortcuts!)

If your pair of audio tracks have already been captured/placed on your timeline, if not already stereo, just highlight the pair, link with alt-L, and I think PAN will be set for you to +1: voila! a stereo pair.

[Heath McKnight]

Actually, for me with music off a CD, it's -1. Captured audio from a tape is 0. I'll have to check in the settings.

Thanks again,

heath