PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Question About Panning

I am new to BIAB and want to use it (or RealBand) to drag and drop RealTracks audio files to my DAW of choice, Sonar X2 Producer. I can get the tracks to drag and drop just fine but for whatever reason I can't pan the tracks after dropping them into my DAW. I experience this issue whether I'm working with a stereo or mono track and have taken the extra step to convert stereo tracks to mono in Sonar, etc.


Reading through the forums here, I read about clicking on Combo and setting the song to "Set Mix to Flat, Dry, and Center". This didn't help either.

No matter what I attempt, the track is silent when panned 100% left and gets louder as I bring it up toward center. As I continue to pan toward full right, nothing changes at all.

I'd appreciate any insight into this. I love the product but have a few hiccups such as this I'll post questions about. Thanks in advance for your help.

Also what work flow do you prefer for dragging and dropping tracks into another DAW? I'm using BIAB to arrange things and RealBand to add additional tracks. Then I'm dragging into Sonar. Is this the preferred method or do you simply drag and drop from BIAB into another DAW other than RealBand?

In BIAB I always center pan all tracks and increase the volume as needed and then render with a mono or stereo file for each track. I then import them into sonar one at a time (I could do drag and drop, but I normally don't). That way when I pan in Sonar, 25% right is actually 25% right!

There are other ways to do, but that is my method.

XXYou don't say which DAW you are using,XX --Whoops, my bad, you do say Sonar sorry --

but the above seems to indicate that you are importing with a DAW setting somewhere that puts each track on the R channel only.

Look for a setting n the DAW that allows for import onto both channels.

NOTE: This also describes what can happen if the L channel output is inoperative, either due to software setting or something amiss in hardware at output, bad connection, bad cable, improper soundcard output setting, etc.


--Mac

BigWhirl2012, a few thoughts, not necessarily in order:

Like you, I use SONAR, but I can drag the Combo with success.

Normally I do set the BIAB tracks to flat, dry, and center first but it will work without doing so.

I have never seen your problem, where SONAR requires the track to be panned in the center or all the way to the right just to be heard. Thus, I would suspect something in SONAR or your audio setup to be the fix here, rather than BIAB.

Are you sure you have sound in both speakers using other sound sources? Bad cable, that sort of thing...

Are you sure your mixer is set correctly with sound to the left channel? Are there any plugins on the main bus that could be set to pan only right?

By the way, I like SONAR X3 so far.

As to the Realband versus other DAWs, others here can answer better than I, because I do not use Realband. The reason for that is that I learned Cakewalk Pro Audio, then SONAR, long before PG Music released RealBand. However, I do know there are some important advantages to be found by using Realband in between BIAB and your DAW, such as the ability to exceed 255 measures and the ability to regenerate parts of a track. I'm sure there are others.

EDIT: I see Mac also suspects something amiss in the setup.

I just tried panning in RB and got the same results. I have an acoustic bass track that shows in the tracks pane to be a mono track. But when I hit play and switch to the mixer screen, it shows the track to as a stereo track with a distinct left and right channel on it and a peak indicator assigned to each. When I attempt to pan hard left- nothing but I can still see the left channel peak indicator bouncing up and down . As I start inching the pan control toward center, I start hearing something. At center panning, both the left and ran indicator move. The farther I move to the right, the volume doesn't change but the left peak indicator decreases and finally stops working altogether at hard right.

And Mac, I'm using Sonar X2 Producer.

Does the same thing with a completely different program.

The VU meters in RB are trustworthy, that means there is a signal there.

The signal is not reaching the speaker for some reason.

Check connections, check speaker connections, check amplifier connections, check amplifier, check speaker.

Your L channel likely isn't working anywhere on anything from the descriptions given.


--Mac

I finally fixed it! The problem was neither a BB, RB, or Sonar issue. The issue was with Focusrite's infamous Scarlett Mix Control software (which I hate with a fiery passion)!

Thanks to everyone here who chimed in with encouragement and technical advice. I really appreciate it!

David

Glad you got it sorted, Have Fun!


--Mac

Hummm...

I use Sonar X1. I render the tracks from BB in Real Band as audio and then I export them one at a time from RB to a folder on my desktop. It's actually a subfolder of a folder on the desk top but you catch the idea....

They are not given any special settings in real band.... I simply choose the tracks and let RB create them. TO my knowledge, they are not panned.

If I recall correctly however, Band in a Box does use default pan settings for it's tracks. I don't change that and simply open the BB project with RB and let it render as it will. I have not really noticed if the BB tracks are panned in RB.... but they don't seem to be, and quite often I do NOT use the first tracks created in RB..... I render all new ones for what I want and need.

Once they are in the folder, I simply close BB & RB and open X1 with a new project. I add audio tracks and proceed to use the IMPORT AUDIO one track at a time to X!'s tracks. They all come in centered.

I can then pan them from center to 100% hard L or R as the need dictates.... or anywhere in between.

I also tend to NOT work in stereo with the tracks unless that track comes in as stereo. Mono up the center is preferred.

If the track is stereo, be sure it has 2 unique waves in that track and they should both be approximately equal in size and strength. A stereo track should pan just as easily as a mono track.

The type of Panning needed for a Stereo Track is called, "Equal Energy Panning".

Some early DAW programs (I seem to recall the old Cakewalk pro 9 being one) the setting was manual and set by the user. Many users did not know about the thing and likely hurt themselves when attempting to mix.

In Realband (and PT as well), the function is automatic.

If you have a Stereo Track, which is easy to tell because you will see two audio graphic waveform tracks one above the other on one track, RB/PT automatically knows to use the Equal Energy Panning algorithm.

So you can just use the PAN control on any track, stereo or mono, and achieve the proper result.

While most times for most instruments we can use a Mono track, there are indeed times when use of a Stereo track for the one instrument has its advantages.

For example, a good Stereo Grand Piano, whether from MIDI samples or from the real, it is the mic'ing that makes the huge difference in sound quality - and if you listen closely you will hear that the lower side of the piano's notes favor the mic that is over the bass bout of strings, while the treble or high side is favoring the other channel, where the mic is typically placed not over the strings but over the hammers or bridge of the piano. Panning that sound using Equal Energy Panning allows us to still be able to place that stereo grand piano somewhere in the L to R soundstage, but still preserving that desired full sound.

Another good example would be the mic'd Acoustic Guitar, where it is often the case that we can get a great sound by mic'ing the area near the soundhole in one channel while simultaneously mic'ing the area above the high end of the fretboard in the other channel, capturing both the low end to mids of the box while at the same time capturing the strings and the fingering sounds. Again, this type of stereo track responds very well to the Panning and can be placed anywhere in the soundstage's horizontal aspect without losing that full stereo sound of the instrument.

An important aspect of mixing stereo should be mentioned here.

I always-always take a listen to my work in Mono before releasing a mix.

To do that, I use the switch on my monitors' preamplifier to sum both channels to Mono easily, but this can also be done in software in a lot of DAWs, handy for those that perhaps use powered monitors without a Mono switch available.

Listen to your Stereo Mix in mono at low "conversational" levels, for any phase cancellation problems. If a certain instrument sounds "thin" or chorused in Mono mode, that indicates that there is a Phasing problem that should be solved in the mix.


--Mac