3.
Click the center speaker icon to include the center channel and drag the Center fader to apply a gain to the center channel.
Applying a gain to the center channel may make dialogue more present in the mix.
Note:
When automating panning using keyframes, you cannot automate the gain applied using the Center fader. For more
information, see Automating panning on page 242.
4.
Drag the Smoothness slider to adjust the smoothness of the interpolation path between panning keyframes. The smoothness
setting appears only when you are automating panning using keyframes. For more information, see Adjusting the Smoothness slider
on page 244.
Moving the pan point
You have a variety of methods to help you position the pan point in the Surround Panner window.
Method
Double-click
Ctrl+drag Makes fine adjustments.
Shift+drag Constrains motion to vertical, horizontal, or diagonal motion at 45
degree increments.
Alt+drag
Shift+Alt+drag
Arrow keys
Ctrl+Arrow keys
Page Up/Page Down
Shift+Page Up/Page Down
Numeric keypad 1-9
Ctrl+Numeric keypad 1,3,7, 9
Mouse wheel
Shift+mouse wheel
Ctrl+mouse wheel
Ctrl+Shift+mouse wheel
Description
Click to toggle through three options for constraining pan point motion
as you drag: Move Freely ( ), Move Left/Right Only ( ), and Move
Front/Back Only ( ).
Double-clicking the pan point resets it to the center front of the
surround panner.
Double-clicking in the Surround Panner window moves the pan point
to the double-click location.
Constrains motion to a constant radius from the center of the surround
panner.
Constrains motion to the maximally inscribed circle (a constant radius
at the greatest possible distance from the center of the surround
panner).
Moves front/back/left/right.
Makes fine adjustments.
Moves front/back.
Moves left/right.
Jumps to a corner, edge, or center of the surround panner.
Jumps to a location on the maximally inscribed circle (a constant radius
at the greatest possible distance from the center of the surround
panner).
Moves front/back.
Moves left/right.
Makes fine front/back adjustments.
Makes fine left/right adjustments.
Choosing pan types
When you pan a track or mixer control, you can choose among several pan types to determine how the audio is panned. The current
pan type appears at the bottom of the Surround Panner window.
Right-click the Surround Panner window and choose a pan type from the shortcut menu.
• The Add Channels pan type makes the audio appear to move as a unit among the surround channels. As you move the pan point
toward a channel (speaker icon), more and more of the signal from the other channels are folded into the channel you are panning
towards, until at the extreme, all channels are fed at full intensity into a single channel. This pan type uses a linear panning curve.
• The Balance pan type is most useful for adjusting the relative signal levels of the channels. In this pan type, as you move the pan
point from the center to a channel, the signal in the channel you are panning towards starts at the base dB level (either 0 dB, -3 dB,
or -6 dB) and increases to 0 dB. The signal in the channel you are panning away from starts at a base dB level (either 0 dB, -3 dB, or -
6 dB) and decays to no signal level. For example, when you pan fully to the right, only the right channel is audible. This pan type
uses a linear panning curve.
• The Constant Power pan type maintains a constant volume as you move the pan point from channel to channel. This pan type,
which uses the constant-power panning curve, is most useful for panning monaural source media.
WORKING WITH 5.1 SURROUND | 241
