Apple Final Cut Express HD - Manual (Page 608)

608 Part VIII Audio Mixing
Changing the Pan of Audio in the Viewer
To adjust the stereo placement of your sound, you can change the pan of your audio
clips. The Pan slider is actually one control with two modes. What the control does
depends on what kind of audio you’ve opened in the Viewer:
 If the audio clip in the Viewer is a stereo pair, this slider lets you swap the left and right
channels. The default setting of –1 sends the left audio channel of your clip to the left
output channel and the right audio channel to the right output channel. A setting of 0
outputs the left and right audio channels equally to both speakers, essentially creating
a mono mix. A setting of +1 swaps the channels, outputting the left audio channel to
the right speaker and the right audio channel to the left speaker.
 If the audio clip in the Viewer is not a stereo pair, this slider lets you pan the audio
channel in the currently selected audio tab between the left and right channels.
As with the Level slider, if there are no pan keyframes in the current clip, adjusting
the Pan slider affects the pan of the entire clip. If there are pan keyframes, using this
slider will do one of the following:
 Adjust the pan of a keyframe at the current position of the playhead
 Add a new keyframe to the pan overlay and adjust it between the left and right
output channels
Working with keyframes is explained in more detail in “ Adjusting Clip Levels and Pan
Using Keyframes ” on page 610.
Changing Pan for an Entire Clip
When you edit a new clip into a sequence, the default stereo value depends on what
kind of audio clip it is.
 If it’s a mono clip, its stereo pan is centered with a value of 0 by default. You can
change this level to whatever you like, from –1 to +1.
 If it’s a stereo pair, the pan value defaults to –1, putting the left audio track out of the
left channel, and the right audio track out of the right channel.
You can use three controls to adjust the pan of a clip. Each of these controls is mirrored
by the other controls as you make adjustments. If no keyframes are set in the clip in the
Viewer, using these controls adjusts the pan of the entire clip.
To adjust pan using the slider control:
m Drag the Pan slider to the left or right to adjust the stereo placement of your clip.
 For a mono item, dragging the Pan slider left moves the audio toward the left stereo
output channel; dragging right moves it toward the right stereo output channel.
 For a stereo pair, dragging the Pan slider left or right transposes the left and right
channels of a stereo pair clip.