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I was just playing around with a stereo imaging tool when I came upon something I don't really understand. When an instrument is dead center, presumably (Correct me if I'm wrong at any point), it sounds dead center because it is playing equal volumes out of each speaker, making the brain perceive it as center. However, when I took the imaging tool, and panned one track hard left, and the other hard right (The same track just copied), they sounded like they were very far apart, and not being heard in the center at all, even though they were presumably the same volumes on each side.

Why does this effect happen? What causes this?

Comments

Boswell Mon, 02/15/2010 - 07:57

I have a deep suspicion of anything that calls itself a "stereo imaging tool". It may possibly have left the L and R channels out of phase. What happens if you now leave your channels panned L and R but switch your monitoring to mono?

Give us a clue as to which tool you used, and we may be able to say more.