30 | THE FINER DETAILS: EVERY FUNCTION CAREFULLY DESCRIBED
Pan/Select
This knob serves several
purposes. In track mode,
you control the pan (or bal-
ance, for stereo tracks)
of the selected channel.
Whenever a menu is active,
Pan/Select is used to scroll
through the menu options.
You confirm or abort with
the OK or Cancel buttons.
Width
When you hold down Shift, the Pan/Select knob con-
trols the Width of the stereo image. This function only
works on an audio track with stereo information.
Width can be used to gradually narrow a stereo im-
age down to mono. When turning the knob from its
mid position towards the left, all frequencies below the
frequency shown in the OSD are moved towards the
center.
An example: With Width set to 150 Hertz, all audio
below 150 Hz is in mono, the rest remains in stereo.
With the knob fully to the left, the entire signal is in
mono.
When used on a bass sound with a wide stereo image,
narrowing everything below, say, 200 Hertz, down to
mono, may give a more focused bass. Or you may want
to narrow down a wide grand piano or a Leslie cabinet,
to make the instrument sit better in the mix.
Width can also be used to widen a stereo sound. Turn-
ing the knob from its mid position towards the right,
emphasizes the audio information on the left and right
sides. This makes the stereo image wider.
Increasing Width can be useful with an instrument, say
a piano or an acoustic guitar, recorded in stereo. You can
use Width to clear up the center of a mix, making room
for a vocalist or a solo instrument.
The technology used for widening the stereo image is
based upon the Mid/side technique. More about M/S in
the next section.
Technically, increasing the Width value is like increas-
ing the gain of the side channels in an M/S setup. Only,
here you can use any stereo audio file.
When Console 1 Fader is used on a mono track, or
playing audio with a mono content, the Width control
does nothing from 7 o’clock to 12 and gradually reduces
volume between 12 and 5.