Hi Tony,

"Pan" means whereabouts an instrument is placed in the stereo field of the music (anywhere between hard left speaker to hard right speaker). "Stereo" on the other hand, means a sound that is produced (and reproduced) by two sources acting independently. To some extent, the two words share a common area of meaning but there are also subtle differences between the pair of words.

In a live performance, panning wouldn't exist too much because all instruments are centrally located. That being said, however, if you want to re-create the "perfect listener position" of a live performance so that others can "feel" and "re-live" that position when listening to a recording, some panning would be required. In this situation, panning would be used so that individual instruments sound like they are in their respective positions on a stage, performing live.

In most modern music, and in most genres, panning is often used as a part of the arrangement process. Panning can be used to enhance the fullness of a sound, to give added definition and clarity to all elements of the sounds recorded, and to increase the general ambiance of the music.

Hope this helps,
Noel

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