Originally Posted by Guitarhacker
Originally Posted by Jim Fogle
Quote
I've always thought stereo tracks are problematic when trying to pan them in the mix in the DAW.
Are the problematic stereo tracks Band-in-a-Box renders, obtained elsewhere or both? I won't pretend to have an answer for stereo tracks obtained elsewhere but I've not experienced an issue with Band-in-a-Box stereo renders when the "flat, dry and center" setting is enabled.

If you are not familiar with that setting, one way to enable it is to right click on the Master button located at the top, left of the normal (classic) screen.


Stereo tracks are already panned. If you look at some of the stereo instruments.... the B3 organ for example. If you start panning it right or left you are going to start losing a significant portion of it's sound. If you want to pan it without losing much... simply convert it to mono and pan it as hard as you want. I'd say do the same for anything else that is stereo and you want it panned.

With stereo tracks about all I do is set the volume level and let it roll in stereo.

As has been mentioned, stereo gives your mix a width that's hard to replicate with mono. If the width doesn't matter, convert it to mono and put it where you want.
So, let's say I create a song in BIAB with two guitars, bass and drums and I want one guitar panned hard left with the other panned hard right and bass and drums in the center. Would you export the guitars as mono and the bass and drums as stereo? I have been exporting everything as mono and placing them where I want them in the DAW.