Lessons

Lesson Info

Panning In-Depth in Ableton

Now we're going to get into some really heavy fun, weird stuff like, how does the pan pot and able to work? Have you ever sat and been like, How does that work? Probably not, but I will tell you it's weird critters weirdness with its weirdness. And I'm gonna show you the weirdness and show you why not to use it. And at some super advanced ways of using it and it's you're gonna realize Oh, wow, I can really place my sounds now. First of all, panning Onley changes value. It never changes the sound itself. Let me show with that What I mean about okay, I'm gonna have a sound that is different from left and right. Okay, let's just play this my right side. It's that zither left bell very different. They come together similarly now watch what happens when I pan and Onley hearing the left sound Onley hearing the right sound. It does not actually move it as if it was a cohesive whole to the left or right it on Lee turns up or down, left or right. That's really important to know it's special. If...

you have something like this, e have a left and right hand. I am now on Lee hearing the last hand. I'm only hearing the right hand. I'm hearing vote. You need to know that if you just using able tens pan pots, you you really only want to use that for a mono signal because otherwise you're going to lose someone that stereo information. There's also other things that are important to know in live the boost our extreme two plus three. So you might need to lower the volume after panting. Well, if I have a signal here, and I painted all the way left or right, lowers the one volume and turns this one up by plus three decibels. That's why if I come in here, no peeking now peaks, so you actually have to adjust. You can't just pan. You have to think a pan and volume together, right? The way that utility works is the same as a track painting. So even if you threw a utility in there, it's the same way, so it will act the same unless it's in combination with stereo with. Now, this is when we start getting interesting. If I come in here and I take an audio effect throwing a utility turn you off. Now, if I lower the wits between the left and right speaker there now, together as a cohesive sound, then I can pan and I hear both sound right. Whereas if I don't do that e here them separately. So a combination of lowering the width, bringing it more tamano and then moving it, you're gonna get way more of the effect you're looking for, right? So there's a common technique where you record vocals or guitar, and you record the exact same take, are the exact same vocal line twice in the pan them and separate them with that effect, sort of like, would that give it a well? The painting left and right thing, I think, comes more from again analog recording and the way they dealt with that and pro tools and things that generally only did mono for a long time. Or it's just easier and better to use mono. But because you're recording in stereo, just through live, always makes things stereo that I would just use it in stereo and then use routing like this. But if it's in mono and you can move it left to right in the same way. I mean, it's just the technique. If you're if you're adjusting the left and right separately, like through ik or something like there are some techniques with that, then you would want to separate it. Generally, I just keep it is one track this just live is already putting it in stereo. I've already twice doubled the size of my set because of it, because if it was a mono signal, it's half the size, so I might as well take advantage of it. Mrs Me. Um, but things can get even more interesting than this in panic. I'm super into panic, guys. Alright, Like stick with me. I think you're gonna learn some really awesome things, even if it's just that I'm obsessed. Uh, if I come into stereo, there's this free tool for Mac and PC, and it's called flux. And this thing is brilliant. First of all, it has an oscilloscope showing you the specialization of the sound. So if I bring it to mono, you can see it right mano it's wider mono just really great way. But the advantage to this is you not only moved left and right? I mean, you have your input of your left and right, And then you also have your panning of your left and right. You're getting really specific here, So I'm gonna turn down this volume. But then panicked mortar, the center, just my left channel. I'm gonna turn up this volume and pan it way Mawr to the center. It's even a step further. It's not just bringing it to mono and moving it. It's saying like, Okay, how would this one move compared to link to that one? And you get these very interesting movements from that left. And right now, you might not always want to use an external fiesty. So I went ahead and turned this into and a built in version of it where you can change your left and right gain here, right? And then you can also move the percentage of how far is left to find that closer in how far is right to find that. See how you can begin to really take control over the movement as compared to your pan pot, which really, honestly doesn't work much for me. And you can also invert the phase and do different things here and the Master pan Very useful Tool again comes with the class. I find that invaluable. I use it all the time. Now, I know we're going over a lot of theory, and I'm going to bring up one more theory, which this one totally blows me away in terms of mixing. And I hope you guys like it and it is by neural panning. Now we're talking about moving a sound from left and right, right? Okay, we're turning this volume up in this falling down. How do we affect it? How do we make it sound from that corner or so on? Well, one of the things is we listen, we hear music not in the sense of volume left it right. It's not that simple. If there's a sound over in that corner and it's coming at me, first of all, it's gonna hit this year. First, it's gonna be a few millisecond delays and hit this year. There's also going to be a natural muffling because of the way it hits my face. There'll be a phasing right well through by neural panning. We can create more realistic painting by simulating how the human ear perceives sound as compared to just volume changes. Let me show you what I did for that. This took me some time to create and to figure out actually had to do some super geeky research. But I figured out how to use a mixture in these chains of e queuing and delay to create by normal panning to emulate the way that a human here's so I separate the channel in the left and right. So in my right channel, openness up. Okay, thanks, I It's a little harder toe show all of it. Okay. Now, if I Okay, I'm just trying to make us that you can see all of it. All right? So now if I move, the Panter barely see it. Um, if I pan right, if I pain left, I'm slightly e queuing out the right side to make it. Give it that natural quality, right? As well as there is a delay in here to second millisecond delay. That's slightly changing to give it that realistic sound or isn't if I go left, it doesn't to the right side by Syverson. Right. Um, if you're at home and this is in stereo and you can hear this. It's gonna be a very interesting change in the sound. But here, you guys are gonna here because they're facing me. But better if I did something like on this Kongra. Now, if I compared that to my left and right e, you guys probably over there can even tell the difference. Yeah, you can hear something. It is mawr obvious that something is happening because you're getting those e queuing, which is a different way of dealing with the volume. And that's much more realism. If you add this to a few of your tracks, you're gonna really hear it Coming from that particular part of the room becomes very realistic and obvious. That being said, I'll just add a little word of advice. It does create phasing that is the entire point of what it does. So you know, if you have concerns with phasing, especially playing over a large system, it does create a little weirdness. This is similar to the Haas effect. You know what that is? Um so I would not use it on many elements because if you have a lot of elements doing this, you get a lot of phasing issues. But if use this on in the few like two or three per track, those elements will seem very realistic in their placement and in juxtaposition to the other placements. Me personally, this has made a gigantic effect on creating really viscerally, especially if you're moving an instrument. It creates a natural feel. Right now we can look into river herbs. We have any questions on panting. I know it's a lot of information. That's just you got to play with and just recognize that able to hand pots not quite what you expect. Play with utility play with the By Nora one. And it's spacial, which will come with the, uh, with the class. Yeah. Um, would you recommend finding a V S T that does proper pan A ER is value. Well, that's the flux. I mean, there is Well, that's the funny thing. It's not that able 10 is wrong, right? There's three or four major ways of panning, and each are different algorithms based on different peoples research, and the one they chose is the most widely used. Logic gives you the ability to change how your pan pots are used. I bet you Q base does, too, because it's there's like 20 pages of preferences, but there are There are effects, but I personally just use flux because it's more than just a pan pot. Um, I also say that I used the pan pot all the time to, Let's say, 30% of my track is just able to span pot because it's like a synthesizer that's pretty mono or whatever. And it's a little left or right. It doesn't matter. But then I have Congo's or something that he needed to control of. I will then use flux, and if it's my lead or a cool sound effect, I will then use by neural panting to move it. So with the combination of the three, you'll get the best sound. Do you have a rule of thumb as to what you leave in the center? What you pan? Whatever you want. People to pay attention to leave in the center like vocals. If it's a vocal track drums, if it's more percussive bass, it's very up to you. I mean, the best way to think about it is what would this naturally look like on a stage like, Would your singer be off on the corner, Or will they be in the center that tells you right there? Your replacement? Just visualize it. It's gonna help. But yeah, usually vocals, at least for, like, your type of stuff in the middle and whatever your lead is.