Ableton Forum

Hey Folks,

I think I'm very confused. For a test to try and understand what's really going on I have a set with a simple snare hit on one channel and a utility effect in the device chain. What's the difference between the channel's pan knob and the stereo|left|right|swap drop down, the panorama slider and the width slider on the Utility? A couple things I've noticed:

- If I leave the Utility at the default settings and play with the channel's pan knob, even set hard left or right, the input to the Utility effect shows both left and right signals unaffected.

- The only thing in the Utility that will cause the output meter on it to show anything other than signal in both left and right is the 'panorama' slider.

I'm studying audio engineering and I'm just really starting to understand mono and how it applies to mixing, reverb and delay and I'm definitely confused about how the signal is behaving in Live and what these different things are actually doing.

Here's related question that implies what I'm trying to better understand and apply. I have a mono track that I'm sending to a stereo reverb as described by Robert Henke:

"To build a true stereo reverb with two independent inputs use a rack with two chains of the reverb, place a utility before each reverb and set one to "left" input and the other one to "right". Place a second utility after the reverb and pan one to the left and the other to the right. Finally add an EQ 8 sfter the reverb, set it to MS mode and EQ the mid and side bands differently and you'll get a complete new reverb experience."

If I set the send to pre, turn down the original track so all I hear is the reverb, the reverb is panned in the center. Changing the pan on the send will move the reverb left or right. Is there a way to leave the send's pan in the center, but have the reverb move left or right based on the pan of the mono track being sent to it?


Thanks in advance!

the channels pan knob is after the effects chain thats why utility input doesnt show the panning

the audio routing goes like this

sample > effects chain > mixer (mixer includes pan)

the problem with switching to pre so you only hear the reverb is that you are now jumping infront of the pan also

leave sends on post and you should get the effect you are looking for

and to isolate the reverb, change the original track's audio to from master to sends only

Utility's stereo/mono activities are based on the DIFFERENCES between the signals. at full stereo wide, the signals on the left channel are only the signals that are completely unique to the left channel. same for right. this is in the manual.

panning just routes the audio left or right.


regarding reverb, reverb is a stereo process that naturally splatters the sound left and right.

I just got home and played around some more with what you two explained and it all clicked! Thanks so much.