Question about vol/pan block

edo

edo

Power User
Vendor
I just happened to find out by accident that when you have 2 amps / cabs in parallel, usually when you switch from A/B to A+B the volume gets louder, but if I use the vol/pan block after the amps and pan one cab left (setting channel A of the vol/pan to left only) one cab right (setting channel B to right only), if I engage both amps and set channel 3 to stereo and center pan both sides within the vol/pan block, the overall volume is equal to (if not almost lower than) the single amps on channel A and B. What’s the principle behind this? It’s very cool, but I’d just like to understand the principle behind this!
 
When you hard pan the cab blocks, you're only sending output to one channel instead of both. On the Vol/Pan block, using left only or right only for the input mode duplicates that channel into the opposite channel. So in channel A, you're getting L and L for the two outputs, in channel B you're getting R and R, and in channel C you're getting L and R.

Before with cabs not panned you were getting left and right from both cab blocks mixed together, so you were getting twice as much signal total (L+L and R+R).
 
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Keep in mind also that the pan law for a stereo balance control is different from that of a mono pan control. With a mono pan control, hard left would be 100% of the mono source signal in the left channel and 0% in the right. Hard right would be the opposite. Center pan would be split 50% of the signal in both channels. A stereo balance control on the other hand is actually controlling two separate volumes, one for each channel. Hard left on a balance control would be 100% left signal and 0% right signal. Hard right would be the opposite. Center balance would be 100% left signal and 100% right, not 50/50 like a mono pan.

In other words, the mono pan control is splitting the mono signal between the two outputs so the sum of the two channels will always equal the original mono signal level. The stereo balance control is turning down the channel opposite the direction of panning while the other channel is left alone.
 
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