About panning and balancing

By default, all audio tracks output to the sequence’s master audio track. Because tracks may contain different numbers of channels than the master (depending on whether they are mono, stereo, or 5.1 surround tracks), it’s necessary to control what happens when a track outputs to another track containing a different number of channels.

Panning is the moving of audio from one channel to another. You can use panning to position an audio channel within a multichannel track. For example, if a car drives by on the right side of a video frame, you can pan the channel with the car’s audio so that you hear it on the right side of the multichannel audio field.

Balancing redistributes multichannel audio track channels among the channels of another multichannel track. Balancing is distinct from panning in that spatial information is already encoded in multiple channels. Balancing simply alters their relative proportions.

Note: If necessary, you can balance a clip by applying the Balance audio effect. Do so only after you determine that track balancing isn’t sufficient.

The relation between the number of channels in an audio track and the number of channels in the output track (often the master track) determines whether the pan and balance options are available for an audio track. In the Audio Mixer, the number of level meters in a track indicates the number of channels for that track with the output track displayed in the Track Output Assignment pop‑up menu at the bottom of each track. The following rules determine whether a track’s audio can be panned or balanced in its output track:

When you output a mono track to a stereo or 5.1 surround track, you can pan it.
When you output a stereo track to a stereo or 5.1 surround track, you can balance it.
When the output track contains fewer channels than in the other audio tracks, Adobe Premiere Pro downmixes the audio to the number of channels in the output track.
When an audio track and the output track are mono or when both tracks are 5.1 surround, panning and balancing aren’t available. The channels of both tracks correspond directly.

While the master audio track is the default output track, a sequence can also include submix tracks. Submix tracks can be both an output destination of other audio tracks and an audio source to the master track (or other submix tracks). Therefore, the number of channels in a submix track affects the pan or balance controls available in tracks that output to it, and the number of channels in the submix’s output track affect whether panning or balancing is available for that submix track.