Panned Voices and Styles

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Panned Voices and Styles

Postby Hugh-AR » 16 Mar 2019 10:28

Panning and Styles

'Panning' between left and right channels creates 'space' in our music. This gives a 'three dimensional' perception on what we are listening to. Any STYLE that you choose will already have had the PARTS 'panned' by 'default' .. but you can change the 'defaults' if you so wish. Registrations that you can choose directly from the keyboard will also have had the selected Voices 'panned'. But Voices that you choose from the many you have available will probably be panned to 'centre'. I would be quite happy with that .. unless I am choosing two voices eg. Piano and Strings, and then I would pan one of those to the right and one to the left. Then when I play single notes you will get the separation between the two instruments. It's much easier to distinguish between the two sounds when they are not one on top of the other. So most times when I play a piece, I just have my Voice 'panned to centre'. You could argue that this is the same as listening in mono. Well, yes it is, but the Style and Backing Parts form a significant chunk of the whole recording .. and they are in stereo.

Looking at Styles and the 'Style PARTS', here is one where you can hear quite clearly how the backing is programmed to use both left and right channels. Wear stereo headphones to get the full effect of how this sounds.

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Style backing DEMO

The Waveform for the above is as shown below. You can see from the green bars that they are not moving across together; and just by looking at the wave patterns you can see immediately that left and right channels are nowhere near the same. ie. the backing is in STEREO.

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Which brings me back to having a recording that is in two-track mono. All the above technical considerations would be completely negated in a two-track mono recording. You need a stereo recording to show off your keyboard to it's full potential, and to enable others to hear your keyboard being played as you hear it.
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Re: Panned Voices and Styles

Postby Hugh-AR » 16 Mar 2019 10:30

Panned Voices

Now, here is an even more sophisticated use of pan, this time on a single instrument where sound comes from more than one place. When you are sitting at a real Piano or a Vibraphone and playing it, the sound comes from between one side of the instrument and the other, depending on where in front of you the note is struck. Unlike eg. a Trumpet, a Trombone or a Clarinet, (and even a Guitar), where all the sound comes from one place.

On my AR, I can 'Pan' a Piano or Vibraphone so it appears to come from 'centre stage, left of stage or right of stage', but when I play individual notes they all originate from the same place (like the Trumpet or Trombone would).

But listen to this Vibraphone being played. The notes appear to come from somewhere between right and left depending on whether it is a higher note (to the right) or a lower note (to the left). I think you would have to wear headphones to notice this. I have repeated the extract so you get a second listen to it.

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Stereo separation when playing a Vibraphone

This has been played on a Tyros 5-76. I presume that a Genos would also do this. I am also aware that the FA08 Roland keyboard and Technics keyboards play the piano authentically with bass notes on the left, treble notes on the right and middle keyboard notes emanating from the centre or even apparently directly under the note played. I also know that a Bohm does this when playing Church Organ music, with pipes sounding from the left and right of centre when notes are played, making a very authentic and 'full' sound.
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Re: Panned Voices and Styles

Postby Hugh-AR » 16 Mar 2019 10:31

Now then ...

I have had one or two Members contact me to say they can't hear that stereo separation with the vibraphone. To me, it was the higher notes that were more pronounced as coming from the right. The first note played was the lowest, and to me that came from the left (but only just!). The other notes came from 'centre'. Surely I am not the only one to hear this effect?

I had said above, that when playing Church Organ music the Bohm's organ pipes sound from the left and right of centre when notes are played, making a very authentic and 'full' sound. Here is an extract of the pipes being played on the Bohm:

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Pipes being played on the Bohm

Can you hear notes from the left and notes from the right .. from the same instrument being played? Or is it just me! On my AR I cannot 'pan' the drawbars at all so all the sound comes from the front.

What I can do on the AR though is to 'pan' a chosen voice (or drums) so the sound of that comes from the left or the right. Which is not the same as notes of a particular instrument coming from the left and the right.

I have recorded a DEMO so you can hear what this sort of pan sounds like. In this piece, I have deliberately put sounds 'to the left' and 'to the right' to make it easier to hear what is going on.

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DEMO of 'panning' to the left and to the right
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Re: Panned Voices and Styles

Postby Hugh-AR » 16 Mar 2019 10:31

I have another example of 'panning' a single instrument .. from Eileen. And this is on a saxophone! You wouldn't normally expect notes from a saxophone to come from left/right as the sound of a saxophone all comes from one place! But Eileen says:
I used Auto Pan 1 DSP effect on the first voice just to give a different sound to it.

So in other words, as Eileen played the saxophone it randomly (Automatically) sounded from the left or from the right. Which certainly give a 'different' sound to a saxophone!

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Eileen's saxophone played with a 'random' PAN
It's all about the music ♫ ♪ ♫ Organ: Yamaha AR80 & Keyboard: Tyros 4
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