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Balance-Fade Speaker Panning Illustrated

When Speaker Panning is set to Balance-Fade, the Speaker Panner can be used to adjust the volume of the channels in an object’s Output Bus. With this mode selected, the Edit button is available and opens the Speaker Panner. The Speaker Panner contains a two-dimensional graph view with X and Y coordinates and a control point in the center. You can drag the control point anywhere within the graph view to adjust the volume of the channels of the Output Bus. Channels close to the control point become louder; channels far from the control point become quieter.

If the object’s source audio has more channels than the Output Bus, the content is first downmixed according to the downmix behavior. If the source audio has fewer channels than the Output Bus, the content is first upmixed, that is, extended towards the rear.

The actual volume adjustments depend on the Output Bus configuration. For example, the Y coordinate has no effect when the Output Bus is stereo. Refer to the following sections for detailed examples.

Volume Modulation

The figures in the following table illustrate the case of a 5.x channel input panned on a 5.x channel bus. The channels of the input are represented by the colored squares, and they are placed in their respective position, meaning that the front left channel (FL) of the input plays in the FL channel of the bus exclusively, the C channel of the input plays in the C channel of the bus exclusively, and so on.

5.x channel input panned on a 5.x channel bus

Speaker Panner

Output Bus Meter

X = 0, Y = 0.

The FL channel of the input plays in the FL channel of the bus exclusively, the C channel of the input plays in the C channel of the bus exclusively, and so on.

X = -50, Y = 0.

The input channels C, FR, SR are faded out, proportional to their volume.

The channels on the right (FR and SR) play at 33% power, and the C channel plays at 50% power.

X = -100, Y = 0.

Only the channels on the left (FL and SL) are heard.

Upmixing

When the channel count of the input is less than that of the output, the input is upmixed prior to being panned. The figures in the following table illustrate the case of a stereo input panned on a 5.x channel bus.

2.0 channel input panned on a 5.x channel bus

Speaker Panner

Output Bus Meter

X = 0, Y = 0.

The stereo input is upmixed to 5.1 prior to panning.

The volume of the surround channels (SL and SR) is equal to the volume of the front channels (FL and FR).

X = 0, Y = 50.

The stereo input is upmixed to 5.1 prior to panning.

The volume of the front channels (FL and FR) is greater than the volume of surround channels (SL and SR).

X = -50, Y = 100.

The stereo input is upmixed to 5.1 prior to panning, however, with Y = 100, the volume of the surround channels is reduced to 0.

The FL channel is twice as loud as the FR channel and the surround channels (SL and SR) are silent.


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