Bus/pan behaviour different daws (pt/s1)

[rec71]

Hi everyone,

I’ve just spent the last two days trying to work this out. But I’m still a little unsure.

I’ve been trying to experiment with studio one to see how it works.

I placed the same single recording on a track with a send to both a reverb and a delay (and sent some of the delay back to the same reverb) on both Studio One and Pro Tools and noticed they didn’t sound the same.

I eventually noticed that in Pro Tools, the default pan for aux tracks is 100 L and 100 R. To my mind (mistakenly?) that is the same as centred and hence there should be no difference. (The pan depth on both was -3db - I assume it’s -3db in Studio One)

I couldn’t figure out why the two sessions/projects sounded different - in pro tools the vocal had more space, the reverb seemed smoother and not crowding the vocal (to add studio one’s master output meter was a little louder…?).

So I went through all the parameters and double checked. The only difference I could find was that the pan on Studio One’s buses were centred. After moving the pan faders to 100 L and R things were sounding more comparable. Although I still want to double check with fresh ears.

Why would this make such a difference? Isn’t fully panned both ways the same as centred? Surely I’m not imagining this. I’ve spent a few days thinking that the people who say Pro Tools sounds better than other daws are right. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Hugh Robjohns]

Isn’t fully panned both ways the same as centred?

It depends on context and terminology... but NO, if you are genuinely talking about PAN controls on TWO channels carrying STEREO audio, then both pans centred gives a summed MONO signal, while pans full L/R maintains stereo.

[sonics]

So I went through all the parameters and double checked. The only difference I could find was that the pan on Studio One’s buses were centred.

Unless you wish to change the stereo balance those would normally be stereo channels with the pan at the centre position. I don't understand your routing.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Steteo channels don't have PAN controls. They have BALANCE controls.

Balance in the centre is functionally equivalent to pans hard left/right in paired mono channels.

This comes back to my earlier comment about the importance of context and terminology!

[sonics]

I was using the OP's (incorrect) terminology. Sorry!

[rec71]

Thanks for replying gents.

I've posted some screenshots because clearly I'm not getting this right yet.

So a lead vocal track has got two sends, one going to a reverb and one going to a delay (the delay is also going back into the same reverb).

I set it up the same way in the two DAWs but one sounded different.

I can see in pro tools that the bus/aux channel is panned fully to both Left and Right (as is default behaviour for Pro Tools). Where as Studio One has no panning (I assume the c stands for centred).

My first question was going to be, why do these two tracks in different DAWs sound so different when everything is the same (that was until I found the Pan Mode toggle in S1). So I'm assuming that the difference is no down to the bus being panned in PT (they sound the same now... I think).

But this has opened up a new question, why doesn't the fully panned send in PT = the centred send in S1. My (incorrect understanding) is that if the signals/pan are the same on both sides then that equates to everything in the middle which equates to nothing panned (this is obviously incorrect as it sounds completely different but I don't know why).

https://imgur.com/a/DwyYjRE

[rec71]

Still trying to work this out. Would I be correct in saying that as it’s a stereo reverb both sides carry different information and therefore allows the hard pans to both sides to be noticeable?

Thanks

[Hugh Robjohns]

I suspect the differences you're hearing are balance issues due to the different ways pan and balance controls work, and the level changes they invoke when set to different positions.

You could figure it all out with some calibrated test tones....

[Sam Inglis]

Is your source recording mono, or stereo?

[rec71]

It’s a mono vocal recording.