Pan/Expand

Process Menu

The Pan/Expand dialog allows you to change the stereo image of an audio file by drawing an envelope that will be applied across the current data selection. You can create up to 16 envelope points. To display this dialog, choose Pan/Expand from the Process menu.

What do you want to do?

Pan audio and preserve stereo separation

The Pan (preserve stereo separation) processing mode allows you to perform right- and left-channel panning effects without mixing the channels together. This is used to simulate left/right positioning of stereo recordings.

  1. From the Process menu, choose Pan/Expand.

  2. Choose Pan (preserve stereo separation) from the Process mode drop-down list.

  3. Adjust the envelope to achieve the desired sound:

  1. Drag the Output gain fader if you want to apply a gain after processing.

  2. Click the OK button.

Pan mixed channels

The Pan (mix channels before panning) processing mode allows you to perform right and left channel panning effects by first mixing the two channels and then changing the volume between channels.

  1. From the Process menu, choose Pan/Expand.

  2. Choose Pan (mix channels before panning) from the Process mode drop-down list.

  3. Adjust the envelope to achieve the desired sound:

  1. Drag the Output Gain fader if you want to apply a gain after processing.

  2. Click the OK button.

Perform stereo expansion

The Stereo expand processing mode allows you to contract or expand the stereo image of a stereo recording, from dead center (mono), to completely panned wide (no center channel). For realistic effects, you should not venture too far from Normal, but do experiment.

This effect works best with true stereo recordings and will not work with mono material.

  1. From the Process menu, choose Pan/Expand.

  2. Choose Stereo expand from the drop-down list.

  3. Adjust the envelope to achieve the desired sound:

  1. Drag the Output Gain fader if you want to apply a gain after processing.

  2. Click the OK button.

Mix a mid-side mix to right and left channels

The Mix Mid-Side (MS) recording to left and right channels processing mode allows you to convert a mid-side recorded track to a left/right track and set the width of the stereo image.

Before mixing, you must first ensure that the mid track is in the left channel and the side track in the right.

  1. From the Process menu, choose Pan/Expand.

  2. Choose Mix Mid-Side (MS) recording to left and right channels from the Process mode drop-down list.

  3. Adjust the envelope to set the width of the stereo image:

  1. Drag the Output Gain fader if you want to apply a gain after processing.

  2. Click the OK button.

Display the waveform

When your selection is small, the waveform is automatically displayed in the envelope graph. Perform the following steps if the waveform is not displayed.

  1. Select the Show wave check box.

  2. If you're working with a stereo file, choose a setting from the drop-down list to specify which channels are displayed.

For more information about using processing dialog controls, click here.