E4L Stereo Panner
The E4L Stereo Panner is a useful spatialization utility. It takes a stereo input signal from a regular Ableton audio bus and spatializes the sound into a 16-channel Ambisonics signal that will be routed to the E4L Master Bus.
The Heads-Up Display indicates the positioning of the sound sources. The mouse may be used to click and drag the position of the virtual center sound source. The exact positions of the left and right channels are also indicated.
Azim moves about the horizontal plane, with 0 corresponding to the listener facing directly ahead, positive values indicating clockwise rotation and negative values indicating anti-clockwise rotation, using degrees from -180 to +180. The Elev control indicates the angle of elevation from the horizontal plane, in a range from -90 to +90 degrees. Negative values place the sound beneath the listener, positive values overhead. The Radius control indicates the distance of the sound source from the central listening position.
The Range control sets the maximum amount of distance attenuation that will be applied to the sound when at a a full Radius setting of 1. The larger this Range is, the quieter a sound will become at large distance values. A lower Range setting will result in less attenuation. It is generally recommended to dial in a Range setting appropriate to the maximum distance you wish to simulate, and then use the Radius control to automate positioning changes.
LFO controls are avaialble on both the Azim and Elev parameters. Each of these LFOs may operate in one of two Time Mode settings. When in Freq mode, the cycle time is a function of the LFO Freq multiplied by the LFO Rate. Note that the LFO Rate also controls the direction of oscillation. When in Sync mode, the cycle is specified by combination of a clock division and a direction.
The Azim LFO has two modes. When in Cycle mode, the source signal oscillates through an infinite loop about the horizontal plane. When in Sin mode, the azimuth value is modulated by a sin wave over a radial number of degrees specified by the Depth parameter. The Elev LFO always oscillates using a sin wave, with a Direction and Depth control.
Note that when either LFO is stopped, the Azim or Elev controls will be updated to the last modulated position that the LFO stopped at, to avoid any sudden discontinuities in the position of the sound.
The Stereo Panner additionally has Spread controls on both the Azim and Elev parameters. These specify the amount of separation between the spatialized locations of the left and right input signals.
There are also dedicated LFO controls for the Spread parameters. Like the other LFOs, these may operate in either Freq or Sync mode, with a specified Rate and Depth. Also similar to the other LFOs, the Spread knob will be updated to the last modulated value whenever the LFO is stopped.