Need help with multitrack and panning

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Nekoninda
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:55 pm

Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by Nekoninda »

I've searched the Forums, the manual, Google, and Help without success, to understand how to control panning in multitrack files. Can anyone point me to an explanation? It is claimed that "Amadeus Pro is a fully featured multitrack editor. Each track can have its volume and panning adjusted independently from the others." How do I do that? I haven't found any way to adjust the panning of anything other than the relative volume/balance of the left and right channels on a stereo track. What I want is fairly simple. I want to build up a sound document with four or five mono tracks. Some will be centered, that is equal left-right volume in the eventual stereo output. Some tracks will be mostly right, some mostly left, and in rare cases, a track may be 100% left or 100% right.

So far, I haven't found any way to adjust the panning control for any mono track. The 'Apply Envelopes to Track' menu item is grayed out. When I use the Bounce menu item, all mono tracks seem to end up centered, that is, equally loud on the right and left channels. How can I adjust the panning setting on each mono track of my multitrack sound file, and then Bounce or output it to stereo in a way that will conserve my panning choices?

philxm
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:55 pm

Re: Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by philxm »

I suggest converting your mono tracks to stereo. Once in stereo you'll have full control of the panning function.

Nekoninda
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:55 pm

Re: Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by Nekoninda »

I appreciate your response, Philxm. I am willing to convert mono tracks to stereo, if necessary. This seems like a crazy way for a multi-track editor to function. If I'm starting with six mono instrument tracks and two mono voice tracks, it is odd to have to convert all them into eight stereo tracks in order to get the ability to apply panning to individual tracks. Among other things, it makes the interface vastly more cluttered.

philxm
Posts: 128
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:55 pm

Re: Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by philxm »

Mono and stereo are different "spaces" entirely. In pre-stereo days, your Gramophone would have a single speaker (horn) -- no panning available. We're fortunate to be able to work with mono and stereo tracks integrated into a single file, but the mono ones are inherently centered in the audio landscape.

To generate a pan effect for mono tracks we need to allocate them to a stereo space -- a simulation of stereo, actually, as L and R are identical, but it's a simple measure that will get you where you want to go. As for cluttering, next to the naming box for each track is a triangle which, when pointed rightward, collapses the view of that track to just its title bar.

Nekoninda
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:55 pm

Re: Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by Nekoninda »

Again, I appreciate your taking the time to comment. I agree with you on the gramophone. But for modern technology, things are significantly different. Beginning in the 1960s, and possibly before, multiple inputs were routed to multiple speakers, with each input having independent control. Analog mixers with stereo output have a panning knob for each mono instrument and microphone, to adjust what percentage of each mono input signal will be sent and heard in the output to the left speakers, and what percentage of the output is sent to the right speakers.

Digital mixers have the same controls. Multitrack audio editors as simple as Garage Band, up to higher-end software like ProTools and Logic Pro, have a similar set of options to pan mono tracks, to adjust the balance of their stereo output. I don't see why Amadeus Pro doesn't have the same ability. It seems like a basic feature for a multitrack editor. Amadeus Pro is a competent multitrack editor, about which it is justly proud. But it is missing the basic feature of panning control on mono tracks.

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Martin Hairer
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Re: Need help with multitrack and panning

Post by Martin Hairer »

Hi, could you give the version at http://www.hairersoft.com/Downloads/AmadeusPro.zip a try? This should now display the panning envelope also for mono sounds.

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