Panning Problem

[maiki]

Hello. Using GPO4 with Sonar 8.5. Win7sp1.

Inserted Softsynth GPO4 VST.

MIDI channel 1, one of the violin patches.

MIDI channel 2, clarinet patch

These corresponded to Track 1 and 2 in Sonar.

I panned Track 1 100% to the left in Sonar, Track View and Track 2 100% to the right.

(Side note--I don't want to get into a discussion here regarding why the hard panning? I know that is not what one usually does, but it was important to do for this particular situation. I don't have time to explain why now, and do not want to get into a discussion now regarding why, but simply, why I had the problem I will describe.)

Looking in the Console-Mixer page of the Aria player, it corresponded to what I had done in Sonar track view--channel 1-violin. hard left, channel 2-clarinet hard right.

Yet--in playing back the music, one does not hear the panning at all. It sounds like both tracks are coming from the center.

I suspected that Stereo Sound Stage was turned on. (A great feature, by the way, but of course one might want to turn it off sometimes, to pan the instruments manually, as in this case.) I looked there, and turned it off.

Played back, and still one hears no panning, both tracks coming from the center.

Why, with Stereo Sound Stage turned off, with Aria Player showing the same panning as in Sonar, does that panning not work, and all come from the center?

What is going wrong, and how can I fix that?

I know a work-around that most likely will work, but I would rather see how it could be done without the workaround. The workaround would involve starting a separate instance of the Aria Player for each instrument. Then in Sonar, I could pan the audio track for each instance hard right and hard left,. It seems to me that I should not have to do that, however, and that more instances probably means more CPU and memory used, as well as more hassle, more clutter of more tracks and more synths, etc. One would think that one instance of Aria Player should be able to pan different instruments to different places, if Soundstage is turned off. (In fact, it looks like they are panned correctly, but the sound is all center, unpanned.)

Anyone know what is going on?

Thanks in advance! :-)

[rbowser-]

...
Anyone know what is going on?...

Hi, Maiki - Yes, I know what's going on.

When you insert a soft synth in Sonar, you have a menu giving you choices about the audio tracks to be associated with the synth. You can choose to have one audio track, all available tracks in stereo, or all available tracks in Mono.

If you have those audio tracks in mono, then you won't have MIDI panning available, as you described.

You can set the audio tracks as stereo or mono by clicking the "Interleave" icon in the track header. Hover your cursor over the controls to find it if you don't know which one it is. It's a picture meant to show mirror images of sound waves when its stereo, and when it's in mono mode, the picture will be a sound wave just on the left side of the icon.

Change those tracks to stereo, and you'll be able to use MIDI panning the way you want.

Randy

[Haydn]

Make sure you have the latest version of the ARIA player. There was a panning bug that put everything in the center in one of the earlier versions. You'll need at least the 1.111 engine.

Jim

[maiki]

Thanks, Randy. I will try that.

Jim-- I am pretty sure I have the latest Aria, but will check to make sure. Thanks.

PS Randy--so is the default setting for the audio tracks mono? I would think that the default should be stereo, due to the kind of problem I had. (Not that many will be panning hard right and hard left, but for any panning at all to occur other than dead center, other than having only one instrument to a synth and panning the audio track itself, if mono is the default--I would guess that many have encountered the same problem.

PS 2 I checked now. The audio track is stereo. Listened again, and as before, one hears no panning, exactly the same from both sides. What might be going on.

Also, it occurs to me, that I do not have that problem with other synths in Sonar--TTS-1, for example. Instruments in that synth will pan where placed. So I think it is an Aria problem, not a Sonar one.

Jim-- I checked the version, and yes, it is 1.111

Hi, Maiki - Yes, I know what's going on.

When you insert a soft synth in Sonar, you have a menu giving you choices about the audio tracks to be associated with the synth. You can choose to have one audio track, all available tracks in stereo, or all available tracks in Mono.

If you have those audio tracks in mono, then you won't have MIDI panning available, as you described.

You can set the audio tracks as stereo or mono by clicking the "Interleave" icon in the track header. Hover your cursor over the controls to find it if you don't know which one it is. It's a picture meant to show mirror images of sound waves when its stereo, and when it's in mono mode, the picture will be a sound wave just on the left side of the icon.

Change those tracks to stereo, and you'll be able to use MIDI panning the way you want.

Randy