I always thought a mono signal should sound the same if its panned either side. Left or right.

But for me its not.. Its not my ears as ive tried stiching the headphones around and also listening with other people.. But if you take a mono signal and pan it left and right you can hear a clear difference at least I can.

Ive tried on 2 different machines. One being a PC the other a mac.. I tried with Logic on the mac and pro tools on PC..

Is this normal ? I used 2 different audio interfaces and different cables and also just the on-board sound on the mac..

 

try swapping speakers.

 

Wht do you mean by 'sounding different'?

I can offer 2 tentative answers.

Imaging: Panning a mono signal to the sides with headphones on sounds unnatural because there is no naturally-occuring crosstalk

Volume: If there is volume difference, it's due to pan law/compensation (or lack of). Check your DAW settings.

Other: Due to many factors (room acoustics, placement, manufacturing, etc, panning to the sides may sound different).

 

Tried on 3 different headphones, 4 sets of monitors between 2 professionally treated rooms in a commercial studio space.. Referenced with multiple people for sake of their ears.

So strange.

 

Its psycho-acoustics, for example if I'm panning, I prefer electric guitars on the right, and hihats on the left, doing it the other way sounds a bit weird to me.

To take your personal bias out of the experiment:
-make two copies of the mono source
-pan one left, one right (you shouldn't hear any difference)
-flip the polarity of one of the sources (you'll hear the sound get super wide)
-load a stereo widener on the master channel and set it to mono. (If what you are saying is false, you should hear nothing)

One of the ways to check the imaging of your mix is to swap the left and right channels, you can sometimes notice things that you didnt before.

 

place a spectrum analyser onto each channel L/R, can you see any physical difference with the signal?

 

I can guarantee you that there is something happening in your routing or the project.. even though you tried multiple people, multiple speakers, multiple computers.... it should NOT be that way, it's that simple.
Either it's in your head or you still have something effecting it somewhere.

 

It is not the same, but as an example.

when I speak by phone I always use the left ear, if I use the right ear I hear different.

 

It is also possible that not hear exactly the same with both ears, and see with both eyes. We have a bigger hand than another and bigger foot than other.

we are not perfectly symmetrical.

 

Can you send us a link to the audio file, so we can hear this phenomenon?

 

its his big ears and not the monitors or headphones! Try Peroxycide and Q-tips work great

 

Im not doubting pschy acoustics at all... Im thinking that could be it.. I will post the audio file tomorrow. When panning a test tone left and right. It sounds like it is transposing even. But in a session when doing same with say a guitar it sounds fine.

 

Those threads...

 

I always recommend using a Phase Meter or Goniometer in any case you want to know if a dual channel signal is really MONO.
It's not a bad idea to have one of these phase meters installed in your DAW and use it as a master insert, just to make sure you know what's happening.

Negative values on the stereo phase meter indicate potential problems during MONO playback (signal loss due to phase cancellation) and should be avoided.

Here's a simple one as both Mac VST/AU and Win VST (it requires JAVA installed):
http://www.hotto.de/vstplugins/vstgoniocorrelationmeter.html

There is also the free Flux StereoTool, available on www.fluxhome.com and the free HOFA Goniometer, both available for Win and Mac too.
Or the freeware PhaseScope from the SoundHack bundle on www.soundhack.com/freeware/.

When phase is at Zero all the time in the PhaseMeter, or the Goniometer shows a straight and constant line during playback, the signal is mono.

Many better wave editors also have such tools integrated ...

 

Check your hearing at an audiologist.

 

Sounds to me like a phasing issue. All mono does is send the same signal to both channels and phase each other perfectly out of sync (so there's no phase clash whn playing back). If it is not phased properly, one side will seem louder/quieter than the other as the phasing will increase the amplitude on one side and lower on the other with dodgy phasing.

 

Q-tips are forbbiden by ENT doctors. Cloth towel tip is better, but for real cleansing the doctor's seringe method is still safer.

 

You'll not find better advices as these in case that your trouble could be more 'physical' than 'technical', of course ! *yes*

As well as frequent visits to a hearing specialist can be of great help, above all, if you're a 'Sound Professional'. You'll certainly be surprised of the number of Great (and renowned !) 'Sound Engineers' that consult regularly. After all, it's their livelihood !

Or you can do it yourself :







and finally, a more drastic method...



...but strongly not recommended !!!

____________________________________________________________________​

Absolutely true ! *yes*

That's the reason why one of the two ears or eyes (the one in better condition) is forced to 'work' a little more to compensate the weaker. *yes*

 

Lolwut?
A mono signal IS identical in both left and right (a mono signal can't have phase issues per se).
If you have a mono source and phase invert one side of a stereo group bus, the stereo master bus or one speaker, the sound will be "in your head" (due to the 180 phase shift between the two sides). If you have a stereo mix and sum the sides that are "counter-phased"(into a mono signal), everything in the center (kick, snare, dry vocals, bass, etc) will disappear due to phase cancellation.

It's also a party trick to do on unsuspected friend's speaker (wiring together the left negative and right negative cables on the back of their stereo output).

 

webshark, we are still waiting for your audio file.