Vertical stereo imaging/panning?

**ThUndertone** · 10-04-2010

Instead of panning a sound left or right, how does one pan a sound to the top or bottom? Is there a certain plug-in that can do that or at least give that effect even slightly.

**DaGSpotSoldier** · 10-04-2010

There are plugins, but they merely alter the frequency, much like just using an eq....
Others use that and HRTF...(Prosoniq Ambisone, Wave Arts Panorama 5)
and other reverb cues...

**ThUndertone** · 10-04-2010

hmm, thanks, I'm gonna look into it

**~X~** · 10-04-2010

I knew theres front, back, and the sides, but vertical? That means theres top and bottom of the stereo image? I never heard of this.

**moses** · 10-04-2010

You may find useful that these tools are just based on two simple and more or less related effects:

1. low frequencies are often perceived "below" higher frequencies if both are two different sounds (i.e. not "glued together" in any way). This is related to how sound is generated and propagated in nature/reality. usually, only sound sources placed near ground develop enough low end energy to "reach" far enough. Think of trampling elephants. Of course, there are "high energy" exceptions, like thunder. But in general, low frequencies propagate much further near ground. Most sounds coming from the "top" already lost most of their low freq energy when hitting our ears.

So in short, a simple 6dB high pass is in fact a simplified model of "coming from the top".

2. The nearer the sound is to the ground, the more reflections will be mixed to the original signal (this is in fact the reason for the bass boost near ground mentioned above).

Bonus! The doppler effect. This is not really a "location" related effect, but very important if you want to "move" sounds around in a realistic way. The doppler effect is a subtle kind of pitch effect, the faster a sound moves, the more it pitches up. You hear this all the time when walking or driving around, it's so "natural" that most don't even notice the effect.

Use these effects to create the virtual upward movement by yourself. Add a 6dB High pass and add some first reflections with a reverb (turn of the reverb "tail"). Now, to move your "object" up, automate the high-pass cutoff and move it from 0Hz to 200Hz. At the same time, automate the reverb "wet" to start around 40% (ground) and turn down to 0%.

Finally, automate the pitch of your sample (I mean the "real" pitch, not an "elastic" time-stretch thing) like I explained above. At zero speed, keep the original pitch, at max speed, move the pitch up by a half note of so.

Try around, it's fun, educative, something you can be proud of AND it will sound much better than every VST. It's up to you to tweak it properly...