<!doctype html><htmllang=en><head><metacharset=utf-8><metaname=viewportcontent="height=device-height,width=device-width,initial-scale=1,minimum-scale=1"><metaname=generatorcontent="Hugo 0.98.0"><metaname=generatorcontent="Relearn 3.4.1+tip"><metaname=descriptioncontent="How to pan signal in Ardour"><title>Panning :: Ardour tutorial</title><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/nucleus.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/fontawesome-all.min.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/featherlight.min.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/perfect-scrollbar.min.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/auto-complete.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/theme.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/theme-blue.css?1652723066rel=stylesheetid=variant-style><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/variant.css?1652723066rel=stylesheet><linkhref=/ardour-tutorial/css/print.css?1652723066rel=stylesheetmedia=print><style>:not(pre)>code.copy-to-clipboard-code+span.copy-to-clipboard-button{display:none}:not(pre)>code.copy-to-clipboard-code{border-bottom-right-radius:2px;border-top-right-radius:2px;border-right-width:1px}</style><scriptsrc=/ardour-tutorial/js/variant.js?1652723066></script>
<script>varindex_url="/ardour-tutorial/en/index.json",baseUriFull,root_url="/",baseUri=root_url.replace(/\/$/,'');window.T_Copy_to_clipboard="Copy to clipboard",window.T_Copied_to_clipboard="Copied to clipboard!",window.T_Copy_link_to_clipboard="Copy link to clipboard",window.T_Link_copied_to_clipboard="Copied link to clipboard!",baseUriFull="https://prokoudine.github.io/ardour-tutorial/",variants.init(["blue"])</script><scriptsrc=/ardour-tutorial/js/jquery.min.js?1652723066></script></head><bodyclass=mobile-supportdata-url=/ardour-tutorial/en/mixing-sessions/panning/><divid=bodyclass=default-animation><divid=sidebar-overlay></div><divid=toc-overlay></div><navid=topbarclass=highlightable><div><divclass=navigation><aclass="nav nav-next"href=/ardour-tutorial/en/mixing-sessions/using-plugins/title="Using plugins"><iclass="fas fa-chevron-right fa-fw"></i></a></div><divclass=navigation><aclass="nav nav-prev"href=/ardour-tutorial/en/mixing-sessions/mixing-levels/title="Mixing levels"><iclass="fas fa-chevron-left fa-fw"></i></a></div><divid=breadcrumbs><spanid=sidebar-toggle-span><ahref=#id=sidebar-toggletitle=Menu><iclass="fas fa-bars fa-fw"></i></a></span>
<spanid=toc-menutitle="Table of Contents"><iclass="fas fa-list-alt fa-fw"></i></span><olclass=linksitemscopeitemtype=http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList><metaitemprop=itemListOrdercontent="Descending"><liitemscopeitemtype=https://schema.org/ListItemitemprop=itemListElement><metaitemprop=positioncontent="3"><aitemprop=itemhref=/ardour-tutorial/en/><spanitemprop=name>Home</span></a> ></li><liitemscopeitemtype=https://schema.org/ListItemitemprop=itemListElement><metaitemprop=positioncontent="2"><aitemprop=itemhref=/ardour-tutorial/en/mixing-sessions/><spanitemprop=name>Mixing sessions</span></a> ></li><liitemscopeitemtype=https://schema.org/ListItemitemprop=itemListElement><metaitemprop=positioncontent="1"><aitemprop=itemhref=/ardour-tutorial/en/mixing-sessions/panning/aria-disabled=true><spanitemprop=name>Panning</span></a></li></ol></div><divclass="default-animation progress"><divclass=wrapper><navid=TableOfContents><ul><li><ahref=#the-panning-interface>The Panning Interface</a><ul><li><ahref=#mono-panner>Mono Panner</a></li><li><ahref=#stereo-panner>Stereo Panner</a></li></ul></li><li><ahref=#panning-tricks>Panning Tricks</a></li><li><ahref=#multichannel-panning>Multichannel Panning</a></li><li><ahref=#continuing>Continuing</a></li></ul></nav></div></div></div></nav><mainid=body-innerclass=highlightable><divclass=flex-block-wrapper><divid=head-tags></div><article><h1>Panning</h1><p>Once you have established a good balance of levels on all the tracks, you can
begin to think about panning.</p><p>Panning helps to establish a <em>stereo field</em>, a relative space between the
speakers in which to place your sounds and instruments.</p><h2id=the-panning-interface>The Panning Interface</h2><p>The panning control in Ardour is located in the middle of the mixer strip.</p><p>A mono track will have a mono panner. It looks like this:</p><figure><imgsrc=en/ardour7-mono-panner.pngalt="Mono panner"></figure><p>A stereo track will have a stereo panner, like this:</p><figure><imgsrc=en/ardour7-stereo-panner.pngalt="Stereo panner"></figure><h3id=mono-panner>Mono Panner</h3><p>The default mono panner distributes 1 input to 2 outputs. Its behavior is
controlled by a single parameter, the <em>position</em>. By default, the panner is
centered. You can change the position by clicking and dragging directly on the
mono panner. Right-click on the panner to access other options.</p><h3id=stereo-panner>Stereo Panner</h3><p>The default stereo panner distributes 2 inputs to 2 outputs. By default, the
panner is centered as well.</p><h2id=panning-tricks>Panning Tricks</h2><p>A more extensive discussion of panning philosophy and techniques is beyond the
scope of this tutorial, but here are some general rules of thumb:</p><ul><li>Guitars tend to be panned to the left and right.</li><li>Vocals and bass tend to placed in the center. You want to create
a balance so that one side is not louder then the other.</li><li>Headphones may be helpful in determining how instruments should be panned, and
whether the mix feels lopsided because one side is too loud.</li></ul><p>Two other tools that are useful in creating a “spatial” or stereo field are
<em>Reverb</em> and <em>Delay</em>. These effects can be used together with sends to
create a drum send which would be further back in the mix with more Reverb, and
a vocal send which might have a little more Delay but sound closer than the
drums. Please see the sections on using plugins and sends later in this part of
the tutorial for more information.</p><divclass="box notices tip"><divclass=box-label><iclass="fas fa-lightbulb fa-fw"></i> Tip</div><divclass=box-content><p>Always keep an eye on your levels while panning tracks! Panning a track to one
again how it sits in the mix.</p></div></div><h2id=multichannel-panning>Multichannel Panning</h2><p>As Ardour supports multichannel tracks, it will also provide a
multichannel-specific panning user interface for those tracks as well. Here is
an example of a 4-channel audio track. You can see that there is a small user
interface right in the mixer and a larger editor window that you can access by
clicking anywhere in the empty space inside the panning area:</p><figure><imgsrc=en/ardour7-multichannel-panning.pngalt="Multichannel panning"></figure><p>Unless you work on projects where e.g.
<ahref=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics>Ambisonics</a> is involved, you will
probably mostly deal with multichannel tracks when you use samplers,
especially drums/percussion samplers. As different instruments in a drum kit
tend to get a different treatment in post-production (e.g. how they are
processed with a compressor), samplers tend to create a channel per
instrument: one per kick drum, one per each snare etc. The idea is that you
would route a channel into a separate bus and process it differently. Using a
panner control in that case is unlikely to happen.</p><h2id=continuing>Continuing</h2><p>By now, you should have a collection of tracks which are both mixed well and
have an exciting stereo image. In the following chapters, we will learn about
<scriptsrc=/ardour-tutorial/js/search.js?1652723066></script></div><divid=homelinksclass=default-animation><ul><li><aclass=paddinghref=/ardour-tutorial/en/><iclass="fas fa-home"></i> Home</a></li></ul></div><divid=content-wrapperclass=highlightable><ulclass=topics><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/title=Introductionclass=dd-item><inputtype=checkboxid=section-9278c07c1c4f7473c66529d5a0c6e688class=toggle><labelfor=section-9278c07c1c4f7473c66529d5a0c6e688></label><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/><b>1. </b>Introduction</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/conventions/title=Conventionsclass=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/conventions/>Conventions</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/what-is-digital-audio/title="What is digital audio?"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/what-is-digital-audio/>What is digital audio?</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/title="Getting started"class=dd-item><inputtype=checkboxid=section-6ba418844f4e8ce868bfa62d1bf5b9b1class=toggle><labelfor=section-6ba418844f4e8ce868bfa62d1bf5b9b1></label><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/><b>2. </b>Getting started</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/starting-ardour/title="Starting Ardour"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/starting-ardour/>Starting Ardour</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/title="Overview of the Interface"class="dd-item alwaysopen"><inputtype=checkboxid=section-65fa48091b8ede8e5c409cc42ad6af14class=togglechecked><labelfor=section-65fa48091b8ede8e5c409cc42ad6af14></label><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/>Overview of the Interface</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/editor-window/title="Editor window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/editor-window/>Editor window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/mixer-window/title="Mixer window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/mixer-window/>Mixer window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/recorder-window/title="Recorder window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/recorder-window/>Recorder window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/cue-window/title="Cue window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/cue-window/>Cue window</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/creating-tracks-and-busses/title="Creating tracks and busses"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/creating-tracks-and-busses/>Creating tracks and busses</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/importing-audio/title="Importing audio"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/importing-audio/>Importing audio</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/setting-up-the-timeline/title="Setting up the timeline"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/setting-up-the-timeline/>Setting up the timeline</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/title=Recordingclass=dd-item><inputtype=checkboxid=section-f34c0a5099ecaf52ba2ddf859ecf8564class=toggle><labelfor=section-f34c0a5099ecaf52ba2ddf859ecf8564></label><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/><b>3. </b>Recording</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/recording-audio/title="Recording audio"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/recording-audio/>Recording audio</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/understanding-routing/title="Understanding routing"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording