Basic audio question: if i plan with panning in the timeline, does that mean it'll pl

[oxband]

I'm editing clips in the timeline. Sometimes, in interviews, I want to use primarily one channel of audio, so I pan to favor that channel. When I'm listening in my headphones, it gets tilted to one side. That said, in the final product, I want that level of sound, but I dont want it unequally distributed between the left and the right. I worry this doesnt make sense.


Essentially, I'm panning in the timeline to compensate for my audio setup, but I want the final product to sound as if it was panned centered.


That being the case, am I doing this wrong in the timeline? Do I want to, instead, divide the two channels and, once they are not linked anymore, adjust the level of each clip but, since it's only one channel/track of audio, keep it panned to the center?

 

[BLUESPIDER]

Not sure if I understood your question. If you just one channel of audio and want a stereo pair. You can just duplicate the audio and pan one channel to the left and the other to the right. It should give you a balanced stereo sound. If the audio you're getting is only on the left channel then just duplicate it and pan the audio to the right.

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

Make sure your tracks are set to mono and not stereo pair under the "modify" menu. Then make sure both channels are centered.

 

[Alex H.]

To expand on what Jarek said...

Your audio clips are apparently stereo (two-channel). So you need to select that clip, then go to Modify>Stereo Pair and deselect. That splits the audio into two, independent (mono, or single-channel) clips. Use the one you want, and leave the other off the time line. You can then pan the clip to 0 (center), and use the volume adjustment as needed.

What you do not want to do is copy the clip, paste it to a second track, and pan it to the other side. Not only is this a wasted process, it can cause complications. You may not notice as you paste that one of the clips is not perfectly aligned with the other. This may occur on the sub-frame level. That can cause phase cancellation, which can then mess with both level and quality of the audio.