Panning and balancing in the Audio Mixer

The Audio Mixer provides controls for panning and balancing. A round knob appears when a mono or stereo track outputs to a stereo track. You rotate the knob to pan or balance audio between the left and right output track channels. A square tray appears when a mono or stereo track outputs to a 5.1 surround track. The tray depicts the two‑dimensional audio field created by 5.1 surround audio. You slide a puck within the tray to pan or balance audio among the five speakers, which are represented by pockets around the edge of the tray. The tray also includes controls for adjusting a 5.1 surround audio track’s center channel percentage and subwoofer volume. No pan control appears if a track outputs to a submix or master track that contains the same number of channels or fewer; therefore, a pan or balance control is never available for a 5.1 surround track. A master track doesn’t contain a pan or balance control because it’s never routed to another track. However, panning or balancing an entire sequence is possible when you use the sequence as a track in another sequence.

You can vary the pan setting over time in the Audio Mixer, or in a Timeline panel by applying keyframes to a track’s Pan options.

Panning and balancing controls

A.: Stereo pan/balance knob
B.: 5.1 surround pan/balance tray
C.: Center percentage

For best results monitoring pan or balance settings, make sure that each of the computer or audio card’s outputs is connected to the correct speaker, and make sure that positive and negative wires are connected consistently across all speakers.