Ableton Forum

For example like this song
https://soundcloud.com/tak_music/drop-t ... d-original

It seemed the drum and some synth is dancing in the stereo field! Did they deliberately put panning automation so some component sounded spilling left and right?

When I made a music, in Mixer window I position each drum component with the pan dial. Surely the end result is so that they would not all stay in the center but they stayed in one place throughout the song. I cannot get them to "dance" around like commercial track. Spilling left and right.

Also in some track that featuring guitar, many times when sharp strumming sound happen it seemed that high frequency component temporarily spilled L50 and R50, or something. It surely got my attention when some sound is not staying in the same place.

So, is this the result of mixing, mastering? Or do you deliberately automate the panning to get the right effects? If that is so the panning dial in mixing panel should be use regularly for automation? Because I thought the purpose of that if to position "the instrument" in one place in space. Or did you duplicate the instrument so there are some instance that is in different panning, then never automate the pan?

I would be appreciate if there are some tutorial as well because I don't know the keyword. But simply turning the "Stereo Imager" on mastering plugins did not work so well.

One major thing to look into is the Haas Effect. And that in itself can be applied in multiple ways. For instance, on side can be louder/quieter than the other, processed differently, or you can switch between which channel has dominance by reversing the delay (preferably on a different instrument so that there will be an interplay between the two).

I have look it up, so I should try automating the "channel delay" to play with Haas Effect right? Next time I would definitely try that!

No. Don't automate channel delay.

You add a Simple delay and set it to 100% wet. Set the Left or Right to the minimum milliseconds, and the other channel to a few additional.

I didn't click on the track you linked to, so I have no idea.

There are tons and tons of ways to add 'automated' panning. The Haas effect is probably not meant as much for automated panning as it is more for adding width/space. You have to be careful of phasing though (test
Your result with the Utility effect set to Mono for a listen).

To get panning automation, you can do things such as in vst synths turning on random pan, using LFOs, using Autopan, chorus, synced delays, etc not really an easy question to answer.