Effects & processing
Auto pan
Auto pan moves a sound between the left and right channels automatically, usually in time with the tempo. It creates motion without changing level, tone or pitch.
In practice
Dramatic in headphones, nearly inaudible on a floor. Judge it in the room, not on cans.
Use it on top-end material and keep it away from anything with low content, both because bass is summed and because a moving low end is disorienting rather than interesting. Slow rates — a bar or two per cycle — read as movement; fast ones read as a tremolo with extra steps. And if you have any doubt, walk out and listen: this is the effect whose booth impression is furthest from its floor impression.
Top end
What to pan
1–2 bars
The rate that reads as movement
The floor
Where to judge it
Where these come from: Effect behaviour and club system practice, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see why width behaves this way.
Why it matters
It is the effect that reads most differently in headphones and in a room, which is why it is over-used by people monitoring on cans. In headphones the movement is dramatic and precisely placed; on a club system, standing anywhere but dead centre, most of it is inaudible.
It is also the effect most likely to interact badly with a mono sum. If the venue’s system sums low frequencies to mono — most do — panning anything with bass content in it produces level changes rather than movement.
Frequently asked
Why can I barely hear auto pan on a club system?+
Because the effect depends on stereo placement and almost nobody on a dancefloor is standing dead centre. In headphones it is dramatic; in a room it mostly is not.
Should I auto pan the bass?+
No. Most systems sum low frequencies to mono, so panning bass produces level changes rather than movement — and a moving low end is disorienting anyway.
Is auto pan the same as tremolo?+
Related but not the same. Tremolo changes level; auto pan moves the sound between channels. A fast auto pan starts to sound like tremolo.
Related terms
Stereo image
Stereo image is where sounds appear to sit between the left and right speakers. In club production the low end is almost always mono and the width lives in the pads, effects and top end.
Tremolo
Tremolo modulates volume up and down at a set rate. It is one of the oldest effects there is, and on a DJ mixer it is usually offered tempo-synced so the pulse lands on a division of the beat.
Mono sum and phase
Summing to mono adds the left and right channels together. Anything out of phase between them cancels rather than adding, which is why a wide stereo bass can lose most of its weight on a mono system.
Beat FX
Beat FX are the effects section on a DJ mixer that locks its timing to the detected tempo. Every delay, echo, roll and gate is set in beat divisions rather than in milliseconds, so one setting stays musical across records.
Explore: Stereo to mono · Stereo image · Mono sum and phase · All DJ terms