Originally Posted By: Notes Norton

When on the gig, I pan everything center. Only a few people in the entire room will be in the stereo sweet spot, and some will be near one channel or the other. I remember eating lunch in a restaurant, and if seated either in the front or the back of the room, all you could hear was one stereo channel. At times that sounded weird, like not being able to hear the lead guitar, just the lead guitar's reverb.


This why I have never understood the value in having anything panned other than center. Especially since many performers will be using mono PA systems. Why do PG produce styles with instruments panned left or right? How can they decide how the user wants to set up their sound stage?

On the other hand I always play my keyboard piano sounds panned fully left and right, not for a stereo effect but because the piano sounds are terrible if you sum them to mono ahead of the speakers.

Tony