Stereo Spread to mono (0%) causing volume boost, how to compensate?

G

guitarnerdswe

Fractal Fanatic
This is something I've been struggling with for many years. Namely, the panning law in the Axe. In "my perfect world", there wouldn't be any volume difference when using something like the stereo spread parameter to switch an effect from stereo to mono. Right now, when I turn my rotary (as an example), the signal gets louder. Not an issue when running 100% wet, just turn down the block level to compensate. BUT, if I want a 50/50 mix of dry and wet signal, this becomes a challenge. I've long wished for a panning law parameter for stereo effects, but that might be a wish list item to revisit.

Anyway, I seem to remember a formula to calculate an equal mix between 2 signals with different volume levels. I can't find it anymore, must have been on the old wiki or old forum. Does anybody remember it? In this exempel, if we know that the wet signal is 3 or 6 dB louder than the dry signal (actually don't know which in this case), how do I calculate which mix value yields equal volume level between dry and wet?

Cheers!
 
There are many reasons that you should do this by ear, including Fletcher Munson curves and various psychoacoustic phenomena.

Mix and levels are a bit more concrete. I did some Excel formulae at one of the Axe-Fest shows once. Here they are. These help when you are supporting someone who is obsessed with unity dry gain but can't run effects in parallel.

WETLEVEL=(LOG(MIX/100))*20
DRYLEVEL=(LOG((100-MIX)/100))*20
 
Admin M@ said:
There are many reasons that you should do this by ear, including Fletcher Munson curves and various psychoacoustic phenomena.

Mix and levels are a bit more concrete. I did some Excel formulae at one of the Axe-Fest shows once. Here they are. These help when you are supporting someone who is obsessed with unity dry gain but can't run effects in parallel.

WETLEVEL=(LOG(MIX/100))*20
DRYLEVEL=(LOG((100-MIX)/100))*20
Click to expand...
Thanks! How do I use this in my case? Say I notice that an effect is putting out 6dB more when 100% wet than when the block is set to 0% mix (completely dry)?
 
Those won't really help because you're not trying to put dry at unity gain with a known mix %.

In your wet signal 6 dB louder example it would be ~33% for most mix controls (not delay or reverb). If you know +6 dB is double the voltage maybe you can picture how these lines cross 1/3 of the way along the X axis (mix control).

LKQcCMX.png


If wet was 3.5 dB louder (1.5x the voltage), 40% mix. Determine the voltage ratio then use the mix that puts the signals in the opposite ratio. (60:40 dry:wet = 1.5:1) Since the wet-dry difference probably isn't constant I wouldn't worry about being too exact.
 
Bakerman said:
Those won't really help because you're not trying to put dry at unity gain with a known mix %.

In your wet signal 6 dB louder example it would be ~33% for most mix controls (not delay or reverb). If you know +6 dB is double the voltage maybe you can picture how these lines cross 1/3 of the way along the X axis (mix control).

LKQcCMX.png


If wet was 3.5 dB louder (1.5x the voltage), 40% mix. Determine the voltage ratio then use the mix that puts the signals in the opposite ratio. (60:40 dry:wet = 1.5:1) Since the wet-dry difference probably isn't constant I wouldn't worry about being too exact.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. I couldn't get Matts formulas to work they way I thought the calculations should work for my application. How did you calculate 33%? I'd like to be able to calculate for other dB offsets 😊
 
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