Controlling surround panning

Here are pictures of the large surround panner and medium surround panner:

Figure 431. Large Surround Panner.

A. Angle and focus marker B. Width markers C. Right speaker icon

Figure 432. Medium Surround Panner

The large surround panner has some sliders at the bottom that the medium surround panner doesn’t have, except for the LFE Send slider, which the medium panner has. Except for the sliders, the large and medium surround panners have the following controls:

Angle and Focus marker. A small sphere that you can drag in any direction to both control and display the following two parameters:

Angle. This is the perceived angle of the sound source as it differs from the position directly in front of the listener. The scale is 0 to 180 degrees on the listener’s right, and 0 to -180 degrees on the listener’s left. 0 means the sound is coming from directly in front of the listener, and plus or minus 180 degrees means that the sound is coming from directly behind the listener.

Focus. This is the perceived distance of the sound source from the center of the circle on a scale of 0 to 100, 0 meaning the center of the circle, and 100 meaning the perimeter.

Width markers. These are two smaller spheres equidistant from the Angle and Focus marker. Their distance from each other and from the front of the circle shows the Width value (see definition below). You can also drag the Width markers to control Angle and Focus.

Speaker icons/squares. Each surround channel is represented by a speaker icon in the large panner, and a white square in the small panner. The large panner also has a corresponding volume level in dB directly in front of each icon. The position of each speaker icon shows you each speaker’s position in the surround mix. Clicking a speaker icon or square mutes the corresponding channel, causing the icon or square to become gray. Double-clicking the icon solos its channel, turning the icon green.

Angle slider (large panner only). This slider both displays and controls the angle value.

Focus slider (large panner only). This slider both displays and controls the focus value.

Width slider (large panner only). This slider both displays and controls the width value. Width is a measure of how wide an area the sound seems to be coming from on a scale of 0 to 360 degrees. At 0 and 360 degrees, the sound seems to all come from a single speaker. At 180 degrees the sound seems to come from directly opposite sides. The default angle matches the project’s left and right channel angle. For example, in 5.1 SMPTE/ITU surround, the default width is 60 degrees.

Front/Rear Balance slider (large panner only). Abbreviated as FrntRrBl, this slider adjusts the front and rear balance. Drag it to the left to reduce the level from the front speakers, or drag it to the right to reduce rear level.

LFE slider. This slider both displays and controls the level of sound sent to the LFE channel.

LFE Only button (large panner only). This button mutes all channels except the LFE channel.

To open the large surround panner

Right-click the small surround panner or the pan control in a track, and choose Open Surround Panner from the pop-up menu.

Or

Select a track and choose Views > Surround Panner, or press ALT+SHIFT+9.

Or

Double-click outside the Surround Panner circle.

Or

Press ENTER when the panner has focus.

To change the angle

In either the large or small surround panner, drag the Angle and Focus marker to the left or right.

Or

In the large surround panner, drag the Angle slider.

To change the focus

In either the large or small surround panner, drag the Angle and Focus marker toward or away from the center.

Or

In the large surround panner, drag the Focus slider.

To mute a surround speaker

In the large surround panner, click a speaker icon to mute its output. The speaker icon turns gray when the speaker is muted.

Or

In the small surround panner, click a white square to mute a speaker’s output. The square turns gray when the speaker is muted.

To solo a surround speaker

In the large surround panner, double-click a speaker icon to solo its output. The speaker icon turns green when the speaker is soloed.

Or

In the small surround panner, double-click a white square to solo a speaker’s output. The square turns green when the speaker is soloed.

To change the width

In the large surround panner, drag the Width slider.

To change the front/rear balance

In the large surround panner, drag the FrntRrBl slider left to reduce front level, or right to reduce rear level.

To change the LFE send level

In either the large or small surround panner, drag the LFE slider.

Note: Double-clicking any surround panner control will reset the control to its default value, which for the LFE control is -INF.

To solo or unsolo the LFE channel

In the large surround panner, click the LFE Solo button.

To isolate a signal in one speaker

In the large surround panner, drag the Width slider to 0, the Focus slider to 100, and then drag the Angle slider until the sphere icon is directly in front of the correct speaker.

Or

Press the desired Numeric Keypad key that represents the speaker position (7=L, 8=C, 9=R, see Keyboard shortcuts).

To group panner controls

In the large surround panner, right-click each slider that you want to add to the group, and choose Group-”n” from the pop-up menu.

Now you can move a single slider, and all sliders in that same group move synchronously.

Note: If you group sliders that are in the same surround panner, you can no longer move the markers that represent those sliders’ values. You can only move a grouped marker by moving its associated slider.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following shortcuts allow you to control a surround panner from the keyboard:

Shortcut	Function
ALT+drag	Constrains to angle
ALT+SHIFT+drag	Constrains to angle at 100% focus
CTRL+SHIFT+drag	Constrains to focus only
SHIFT+click	Sets panner point to the point that you click (large and medium panners only)
SHIFT+drag controls (Angle, Width, etc.)	Fine resolution
Up/Down cursor keys	Move to next/previous widget in surround panner
Left/Right cursor keys	Move to next/previous panner in same track
CTRL+up/down	Move to surround panner in another track
CTRL+NumPad 0-9	Speaker mutes
NumPad 0-9	Jump to speaker angle at 100% focus

NumPad assignments:

0 = n/a

1 = Ls

2 = Cs

3 = Rs

4 = Sl

5 = centers the panner

6 = Sr

7 = L

8 = C

9 = R

/ = Lc

* = Rc

 

See also:

Automating surround panning