Panning audio allows you to adjust which track (when you're outputting to your final format) or which speaker the audio plays back from during preview and output. Panning works regardless of whether you digitized your audio as a mono signal or a stereo signal. If you want a particular sound clip or portion of a sound clip to play back starting from the left speaker and gradually change over to the right speaker, panning is the technique you would use. Being creative with audio pans really adds depth to your mix and brings it to life. If you have a motorcycle enter the frame from the right, go driving across the screen, and end by going out of frame on the left, you would want to pan your audio to follow the motion of your visual. This would give the viewer of your movie a realistic sensation that the motorcycle came whizzing by him (onscreen) from right to left. In the timeline, you can use the same technique for panning as you do for adjusting volume. You can add as many keyframe handles as necessary to customize the direction of your sound clips. To add keyframe handles for audio panning, do the following:
Panning a clip 100% in either direction plays that clip out of that speaker only. You can also set pans at any percentage between centered (50% balance, or equal amounts played out of each speaker) and 100% to either direction. tip Open the Info Palette before adjusting the gain or pan to see the exact amount by which you are changing the values for that clip, as shown in Figure 8.20. Figure 8.20. Keep the Info Palette open to monitor vital statistics and changes as you make changes to your clips. |