looking for simpler ramp panning solution

[sagetyrtle]

I've developed a fairly complicated method of ramp panning, and I'm beginning to suspect that I've made things more difficult for myself than I need to. So I thought I'd talk about my method here and find out if others have a simpler solution, because mine ends in far too many tracks.

So. Here's the situation. The file I'm working on is an audiodrama. Felix needs to walk from -3 to 7 (30% to the left through to 7% to the right), and he's not only walking, he's talking as well.

So I have two tracks. Talking and walking.

Talking is *already* panned to -3. He's been talking for awhile, he's still talking once he's made it across the room.

Walking is panned to 0. This is because when I use the Ramp Panning plug-in, I'm telling the ramp to begin at -3 and end at 7. The ramp deals with the panning, not the track pan.

The problem comes in with the talking track. Here's my method:

Begin at the point where he begins walking. Move to a new track. Pan to 0. Ramp pan the part where he's walking, -3 to 7.

Begin at the point when he's done walking, move to a new track. Pan to 7.

I feel like there must be an easier solution, but I'm just not sure what it is. This one multiplies the talking track from 1 to 3, and when I have a six minute scene and 3 characters moving around, that multiplication gets *very* complicated, very fast.

Any ideas?

[steve]

I would have a look at this, but I've not come across this "ramp panning plug-in". Where do I get that from?

Felix needs to walk from -3 to 7 (30% to the left through to 7% to the right),

Should that be 30% to 70% ?

[sagetyrtle]

Well, I think the ramp panning plug-in makes everything on the left in negative numbers to make it easier to use a keyboard.

You can find the ramp panning plug in here:

http://www.shellworld.net/~davidsky/plug-ins.htm

It's called:

* Panning (ramp) 2 - zip file
Pan stereo audio in a straight line from one stereo position to another.

Thanks very much,
-Sage

[steve]

Thanks, I'll have a look at that over the weekend,

[steve]

This is how I would do it:

1) Select the talking track, adjust the Pan slider so that it sounds dead centre then "Mix and Render" the track.
(There are other ways to make it central if you prefer, such as using "Stereo to Mono" from the Tracks menu, then Ctrl+D to duplicate the track, then click on the track name for the upper track of the pair and "Make a Stereo Track" - this second method is more mouse clicks, but more accurate).

2) We now have both the talking and the walking panned centre stage. You can mix the tracks at this stage if you wish. If you want to keep them on different tracks for now, just select make the selections below across both tracks by dragging the mouse from one track to the other while you make the selection.

3) Select the first part of the track(s) and pan from -3 to -3

4) Select the next part and pan from -3 to +7

5) Select the final part and pan from +7 to +7

When you select the exact points where each section starts and ends, try to pick a "silent" moment between footsteps and between words so as to avoid getting a click at the transition.

[sagetyrtle]

Steve,

That looks like an excellent solution. Thanks so much.

-Sage