Panning and perceived volume

[Wonderland]

Pascals, yes.

Threads like this...indeed.

Pure feckin' Genius.

[LRRec]

There is a good discussion of panning and panpots in Handbook for Sound Engineers, The New Audio Cyclopedia, Chapter 23 written by Steve Dove.

In it he writes:

"Somewhere between these two extremes (if extremes is the right expression for a 6-dB difference) should lie a happy medium at which the signal keeps an even subjective level panning across the image plane and also "tracks" well (i.e., has good correlation between control position and image position). This has been the subject of raging controversy and opinion for decades. Should it be 2, 3, 3 1/2, 4, or 4 1/2 dB down at center?

As is often the case, those closely involved with the theorizing somewhat lost touch with how a panpot is ordinarily used. A pan control usually remains rusted at an initially set position for hours, days, weeks, months-however long the mix takes. If a panpot is used dynamically for effect during a mix its very drama drowns any question of whether it was "a wee bit quiet in the middle."

[Ivon]

Good topic. Keep the comments coming. I'm all ears and eager to learn.