How It All Pans Out

Pan is a knob you’ll find on most mixing consoles, usually the first knob right above the main volume fader. It’s function is fairly simple, it assigns that channel to go out the left or right output. Yes, that sounds a lot like the “Balance” you find on your home and car stereos, but there is a subtle difference. In fact, most boards today will have a few channels where the knob is labeled Balance (or BAL) instead of Pan. Those are the channels with stereo inputs.
When you pan an input, you are taking a single input, for example a microphone or instrument, and pushing it to either the left or right output. When you turn the balance to one direction or another, you are choosing between two different inputs, left or right from stereo inputs such as MP3 players, computers, CD players, etc.
If your mixing console doesn’t have those stereo channels and you want to run your sound system in true stereo, then you can have the same effect by using two channels, and pan your left input to the left, and the second channel with the right input to the right.

Keep in mind, the pan has no effect if you are using only a mono output where your main speakers are only connected to one output on the amp or mixer. However, even in a mono system, the balance does allow you to adjust the volume between the left and right inputs. If you turn the balance to the far right, you are muting the left input. I don’t recommend it, but if you are in a bind and need to have more channels to work with, you can plug similar instruments into the two inputs of a stereo channel and use the pan as your volume. But this will only work with mono outputs and you lose the ability to EQ the two sources individually, and can’t have separate control to the monitors (auxiliary outputs).

Look for a future post that will have some tips and application ideas regarding split track CD’s. Also, the Pan plays an important role when dealing with subgroups, which will be discussed in detail also in a future post.