"I have heard muscians who perform (I don't) say that stereo is a waste of time when performing because only a couple of people sitting in the perfect spot can hear the effect and the sound bounces around the room anyway"

That's comparing live sound to a mix of a recording. Those comments from the musicians are referring to live sound.

The discussion about stereo and mono in a record mix is vast- both from a tracking standpoint and a mixing standpoint. Read up on the web. Tons and tons of info about it out there. Panning absolutely IS part of mixing. You need to pan most mono sources around the stereo field a bit or else you'll have quite a crowded center and it will sound terrible! The thing that makes biab unique is real tracks, and the many different offerings of stereo recorded instruments and mono recorded instruments. Mixing stereo or mono real tracks is a consideration about how exactly you want to do that. And it always depends on the song and what you want to hear and where in the stereo field you want to hear it. All stereo real tracks could theoretically just be panned right up the middle and sound great. Even stereo recorded real tracks sometimes favor more of the right or left side, while still being stereo. As far as I've ever heard, stereo real tracks are true stereo recordings and that is a beautiful thing. Look at the meters and listen closely for it. Generally speaking, panning stereo real tracks to center will be fine- perhaps even better than panning or worse yet, panning against the natural pan characterisitcs of the stereo real track at hand. But there's no rules. Stereo real tracks can be panned hard right, left, anywhere in between , or center to preserve what the recording actually delivers. Some biab styles have default panning that you may or may not like and you are free to adjust that. And often times, it's appropriate to do so. Most mono tracks should be panned about the stereo field to varying degrees. Bass, which most consider should be dead center, can also serve well panned left or right by 5 ticks, to get it off the kick drum a bit. Panning also helps reduce eq'ing a bit too. It's a form of moving things out of each others way. Short of that, you'll need to eq like a madman to separate things. And then things get more interesting with stereo reverbs and such. But panning is a tool and although there are no rules persay, you'll need to use that tool, learn how to best do it, and be happy you have the tool.

And when you REALLY want to have some fun- throw on old mowtown records and see how THAT stuff was handled. RADICAL can descibe it, compared to what we consider the norm now. And yet, you bring the balance control back to center and it wouldn't, couldn't sound any better than what they did on those records!

And then there's delay panning...DOH! Let's leave it at that! LOL!

Dan

My YT Channel- http://www.youtube.com/user/dfizzbom