Different Pan Law behavior

[heavymetalmixer]

We all know that Reaper is a DAW that offers a ton of options and tools, including different Pan Laws. But, Reaper has a weird behavior when it comes to the project using any Pan Law different than 0dB:

A signal that goes through one or more busses gets quieter and quiter the more busses are in that path. If we use the Gain Compensation the opposite behavior happens, making the signal louder and louder with more busses in its path.

This can be fixed if the project's Pan Law is set to 0dB, and the engineer sets the Pan Law on each individual source track (not busses of any kind) to his taste, but this uses a lot of time.

Why does this behavior happen? Is it intented? Could this be changed so the project Pan Law doesn't cause this behavior? That would save a lot of time.

In my case, I want all the source tracks to use the -3dB Pan Law.

[Heart Doctor]

Originally Posted by heavymetalmixer

Reaper has a weird behavior when it comes to the project using any Pan Law different than 0dB.

This is not a bug; it is just the expected behavior.

REAPER has just one type of track that can be used for everything. This gives you a fast work flow. On the other hand, you must know exactly how to use these tracks. In particular, how to set the pan laws for the tracks.

Cubase, for example, has separate track types for mono sources, stereo sources, groups (folders), or effects. When you insert one of these track types, the pan law is already set properly.

In the following I describe my favorite pan settings. These are based on the behavior of different track types used in Cubase, and I have found them quite useful when working in REAPER.


Default pan law settings

[File] > [Project Settings] > [Advanced]

- Pan law: +0.0 dB (default)
- Gain compensation disabled
- Pan mode: Stereo balance / mono pan (default)

These settings will be applied to every track unless we override the pan law setting of the related track.
In some cases we want to override the pan law of a track as described below.


Mono source

Example: Vocal mics, drum mics, electric guitars, bass guitar

Setting: -3.0 dB Stereo balance / mono pan (default)

This setting allows you to pan the mono source within the stereo field without notable changes in perceived loudness. Note that -6 dB (or more precisely -6.02 dB) would be mathematically correct, but this number does not take psychoacoustics into account.


Stereo source

Example: Two mics pointed to an acoustic guitar

Setting: 0.0 dB Stereo pan

This setting allows you to first reduce the width of the stereo source, and then to position the narrow stereo source within the full stereo image.


Folder

Example: Several drum mics that are sent to a drum folder

Note that a folder must always be treated as "stereo" even if all of its sources are mono. This is because one or more mono sources may have been panned off center within the stereo image.

Setting: Use the default pan law settings. No override necessary.

Normally you will just use the default pan settings in case of a folder. The pan positions of each source have already been adjusted in the related source channels. However, if later on you decide that the drum set should be positioned off center in the stereo image, you can still override the pan settings to "0.0 dB Stereo Pan". Now you can reduce the width of the drum set and position the drums as required on the virtual stage.


Effects

Example: Track for a send effect, e.g. reverb or delay.
The dry output of these effects is set to zero, wet output is 100%.

Setting: Use the default pan law settings. No override necessary.

[mlprod]

Originally Posted by heavymetalmixer

We all know that Reaper is a DAW that offers a ton of options and tools, including different Pan Laws. But, Reaper has a weird behavior when it comes to the project using any Pan Law different than 0dB:

A signal that goes through one or more busses gets quieter and quiter the more busses are in that path. If we use the Gain Compensation the opposite behavior happens, making the signal louder and louder with more busses in its path.

This can be fixed if the project's Pan Law is set to 0dB, and the engineer sets the Pan Law on each individual source track (not busses of any kind) to his taste, but this uses a lot of time.

Why does this behavior happen? Is it intented? Could this be changed so the project Pan Law doesn't cause this behavior? That would save a lot of time.

In my case, I want all the source tracks to use the -3dB Pan Law.

Totally like it should be. If you have gain compensation on, there wont be any gain changes as long as the pan is in the center.

[Dstruct]

I do it exactly as Heart Doctor.