Surround panner

The large surround panner has 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.

Angle slider. This slider both displays and controls the angle value.

Focus slider. This slider both displays and controls the focus value.

Width slider. 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.

Figure 575. Large Surround Panner

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

For more information about surround mixing, see Surround Mixing (Producer and Studio only).