Stereo panning

What it is#

Placing channels left, right or centre to separate parts and make a mix wider. On the game-boy it is a hard switch per channel (left / right / both / none), audible only through the headphone output; on PC trackers it is continuous per channel or per note.

How to do it#

LSDj#

Instrument OUTPUT parameter (L/R/both/none); Oxx command to pan a channel from a phrase or table; B+LEFT/RIGHT in the song screen pans a channel live; Mxy sets or nudges the master volume per side (source: s-lsdj-manual). Classic use: the same chain on PU1 and PU2, one left, one right, slightly detuned (detune).

The hardware: NR51 ($FF25) has one left bit and one right bit per channel — a channel is hard left, hard right, centre (both) or absent, nothing in between — and NR50 scales each side in eight steps (0 = 1/8, 7 = full) without ever muting, which is what Mxy writes. Changing NR51 for a channel whose DAC is on causes a pop, so make panning moves on silent rows; the built-in speaker merges both sides to mono (sources: s-pandocs-audio-registers, s-pandocs-audio-details, s-pandocs-audio-overview).

One table for both pulses: when PU1 and PU2 play the same instrument with its table set to Automate at the same time, channel 1 receives the even-numbered table rows and channel 2 the odd-numbered ones, so alternating O values pan the two channels apart from a single table, instrument and phrase (source: s-intense-tech-09-lets-table-this-discussion).

Clicks and tricks from the forum: on pre-8.8.0 versions an O change clicks, so "fade the instrument off before doing the panning" (herr_prof; source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-faq); the stereo snare trick is the opposite use — a very quick left-to-right flick at the top of the snare table, then centre (Victory Road; source: s-chipmusic-noise-drum-threads); Infu's snare table opens with alternating O rows to make the snare "wide on the speakers" (source: s-infu-getting-started-with-lsdj); "Use O command to create stereo space" (SketchMan3; source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-advanced-tricks).

Random and alternating panning (intense-tech): the O values count OLR = 00, O__ = 01, OL_ = 02, O_R = 03, so OL_ followed by Z02 on later steps chooses among left, right and both — starting from OLR would include the mute — and a value added past the range wraps to the remainder after dividing by 4; since version 6 Z works in tables too, and alternating OLR/O__ in an Automate table gives a random gate (randomization-and-probability; source: s-intense-tech-03-dont-sleep-on-z). defense-mechanism counts stereo placement as one of three mixing levers beside volume and register: alternating left/right on pulse notes or noise hi-hats creates "a sense of space and ambience" even with only left, right or both available (source: s-intense-tech-15-lets-mix-it-up-and-down). sabrepulse's beginner pattern puts the O commands on the empty rows between the lead's notes — OL_ on rows 1, 5, 9 and D, O_R on rows 3, 7, B and F, notes on the even rows — which "gives a better stereo effect" than panning on the note rows and leaves those rows free for other commands such as C (source: s-sabrepulse-getting-started-with-lsdj).

PC trackers#

• A pan position is a balance, not a switch. In FastTracker 2's P0–PF scale P3 is about 80 % left and 20 % right; only P0/PF are one-sided, and P0 + PF on two channels is mono (trixter, source: s-tw055-panning-debate). GBlues's proposal of a second "reflection" channel at 25 % volume on the opposite side is therefore redundant as physics — but it survives as a stereo fake-echo flavour, and his pseudo-stereo drum trick (one loop on two opposite channels at 50 %, accent a side with a volume slide) still works.
• Impulse Tracker: pan in the volume column (0–64) or with Xxx (00–FF; volume-column value = Xxx ÷ 4, X80 = centre — Airon's chart, source: s-tw106-a-little-panning); the ` volume-column entry changes pan while keeping vibrato; panning default per instrument, panning swing for subtle per-note variation, panning envelopes for beat loops (instrument-envelopes). Zinc's rules: kick in the middle; make things wide by doubling channels equidistant from the target with slightly different samples, a small offset/delay, or two consecutive notes; extremes at 00/64; "track as if your speakers are side by side" and let listeners lower the separation (default 128) (source: s-tw075-it-percussion-tips).
• Panbrello Yxy filled down a bass channel with a fast rate and shallow depth (YF7) reads as width rather than movement (Pinion, source: s-tw081-it-tip-of-the-week); Pulse's single-row template C-4 01 X30 | C-5 01 XC0 is the cheapest stereo doubling (same source).
• Vivid: place the echoes of a reverb-treated sample at different pan positions so it sounds "a bit more realistic" (source: s-tw059-tracking-hints).
• Necros's ST3-era placement (source: s-tw012-advanced-tracking-tips): prefer channel panning to instrument panning (instrument pans suit drums only; a melodic sample plays lead, echo and chord roles in different places); never double a part on both sides "for stereo" — it wastes channels and muddies non-GUS mixes. Drums near the centre and slightly apart — kick and snare S87, hi-hats and tambourines S8A, crashes middle; the lead at S86–S8A with its echo mirrored at the same distance (S86 → S8A/S8B) or hard on the lead's side (S81); layered chords spread out, a single chord pad centred, one pan per note of a multi-channel chord; S8x on every row makes a hi-hat travel round the head. Stereo width from one sample: the same chord at the same note on a left and a right channel with O01 on one of them, panned well apart (S82/S8D or the extremes) — sample-offset as a delay line.
• Two 128-step scales: in ST3 S8x is the 16-step GUS hardware pan (S80 left, S88 middle, S8F right; played correctly only by ST3 3.2+ on a GUS), and Xxx a 128-step software pan for DMP/IPlay — X00 left, X40 middle, X80 right, XA4 DMP's SBPro surround — which ST3 saves but does not play (source: s-tw012-advanced-tracking-tips). IT's Xxx runs 00–FF with X80 = centre (source: s-tw106-a-little-panning): the same letter, two ranges — an X40 from a 1995 S3M is centre, in an IT file it is quarter-left. The hardware side of the same story: on a cheap Sound Blaster Pro clone ST3 gave claim "either mono or stereo with swapping (which drove me crazy)", which is why some 1995 users moved to FT2 (source: s-tw015-interview-claim).
• Stereo samples instead of panning (Zinc, source: s-tw094-stereo-samples-in-impulse-tracker): a panned mono sample stays mono — "shallow and fake" at pan 32 — while a stereo sample gives each ear a different signal. In IT load the stereo file twice, once as LEFT and once as RIGHT (IT asks), set the two samples' default pans hard left and right, and play identical note columns on two adjacent channels; twice the size and channels, so reserve it for kicks, bass and short hits and keep strings mono-panned.
• Zinc's magazine-derived mix rule: bass in the centre, drums near but "not always dead center", lighter parts such as strings and guitars wider; check the mix in mono (source: s-tw096-studio-tracking-tips). Over MIDI the equivalent is controller 0A — 00 left, 40 centre, 7F right (midi-in-trackers; source: s-tw098-impulse-tracker-midi).

• Per format (sources: s-openmpt-manual-effect-reference, s-ft2-manual, s-st3-manual, s-protracker-23d-help): the Amiga has a fixed L-R-R-L layout and ProTracker's 8xx/E8x are "NOT USED" (MOD players ignore panning); FT2 pans per instrument — 8xx 00–FF or Px in the volume column, reset by the next instrument number, with Pxy/Rx/Lx slides, and the GUS knows only 16 positions; ST3's S8x (0–F) is new in 3.2 and "only works on a GUS", with default pans per channel on F1; IT/OpenMPT pan per channel with Xxx 00–FF (pxx 0–64 in the volume column), Pxy slides, Yxy panbrello and S91 surround. FT2 used a square-root pan law that emphasises the centre — OpenMPT's "Compatible (FT2 Pan Law)" (source: s-openmpt-manual-song-properties). Changing NR51-style hard pans on a chip and instrument-based pans in XM are the two places a pan command silently resets.

Impulse Tracker internals and hints#

• Separation (F12): 128 for speakers close together, 80 far apart, about 40 for headphones — the listener's control, so compose at full width (s-tw075-it-percussion-tips agrees). Pan chain: channel pan, overridden by the instrument's default pan, offset by pitch-pan separation (higher notes drift right, lower left, around a centre note) — Pulse: "a very convenient way to achieve a nice pan", and avoid having too many samples at centre. S91 = surround (centre on hardware mixers), Pxy slides the pan, Yxy panbrello with S53 random waveform jumps to a new random position every x frames; the GUS only has 16 pan positions (sources: s-it-manual, s-ittech, s-it-hints).
• Two-channel width (Onix4MAN): the same note on two channels panned 00/64 — either offset the second by a row, or delay it with SDx (finer, x < speed), or duplicate the instrument and give one copy a pitch envelope that dips for a tick (leaves volume and effect columns free; bad for pianos). StereoMan's flanging pair at X00/XFF ("a smooth three dimensional sound") and echo pairs at X22/XDD (source: s-it-hints).

Tips & pitfalls#

• Hard-panned chip channels sound extreme on headphones: keep bass and drums centred (both), spread leads and echoes. The sourced version of the rule is vegas's tip of 1996: "Keep your bass and drums panned near the center. the ones that are supposed to draw attention should be closer to the extremes" (source: s-tw062-interview-vegas).
• A fake echo panned opposite to its source is a cheap stereo delay (fake-echo).
• Panning sounds less extreme on speakers than on headphones, and bass fuller: mix on headphones, then check on speakers before releasing (Rimbo; source: s-tw119-reverb-and-audio-gear; see reverb-and-compression).
• The listener's side of hard panning, from a 1997 beginner: "hates it when people put instruments (especially drums) on only one speaker. It hurts my ears" (source: s-tw105-newbie-interviews).

Panning to make speech intelligible (source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-speech-synthesis): "mixing is the only thing that is going to make your speech stand out — panning certain tracks left and right, while keeping the wav (speech) centre will help it come through the mix. Give the listeners a soundscape."

Panning as an echo effect (sources: s-lsdj-and-you-echo-chamber, s-painperdu-01-instrument-retriggering): pan the echo instrument opposite the dry one, or run an automated table that alternates L and R so echoes bounce side to side — "stereo space is often an area LSDJ composers neglect" (fake-echo). With TABLE set to AUTOMATE the table steps once per instrument value instead of once per tick, so the same L R table gives L R L R when every note carries the instrument number and L L R R when only every second note does (retrigger).

Panning as a volume workaround (source: s-chipmusic-lsdj-wav-channel-release): because LSDj's M command sets master volume per stereo side, panning the wave channel hard to one side and everything else to the other makes M an 8-step volume control for that one channel — the wave channel's own E has four steps. Tested and confirmed in the thread, and dismissed in the same breath as "not the most practical thing to do".

Related#

fake-echo · detune · arrangement · reverb-and-compression

Sources#

s-lsdj-manual · s-pandocs-audio-registers · s-pandocs-audio-details · s-pandocs-audio-overview · s-intense-tech-09-lets-table-this-discussion · s-chipmusic-lsdj-faq · s-chipmusic-noise-drum-threads · s-infu-getting-started-with-lsdj · s-chipmusic-lsdj-advanced-tricks · s-openmpt-manual-effect-reference · s-ft2-manual · s-st3-manual · s-protracker-23d-help · s-openmpt-manual-song-properties · s-tw012-advanced-tracking-tips · s-tw094-stereo-samples-in-impulse-tracker · s-tw096-studio-tracking-tips · s-tw098-impulse-tracker-midi · s-tw055-panning-debate · s-tw106-a-little-panning · s-tw075-it-percussion-tips · s-tw081-it-tip-of-the-week · s-tw059-tracking-hints · s-it-manual · s-ittech · s-it-hints · s-tw119-reverb-and-audio-gear · s-tw105-newbie-interviews · s-intense-tech-03-dont-sleep-on-z · s-intense-tech-15-lets-mix-it-up-and-down · s-sabrepulse-getting-started-with-lsdj · s-tw062-interview-vegas · s-tw015-interview-claim · s-chipmusic-lsdj-wav-channel-release · s-lsdj-and-you-echo-chamber · s-painperdu-01-instrument-retriggering · s-chipmusic-lsdj-speech-synthesis