Pana

What it does

A panner that keeps the sound an ordinary balance control throws away. Rather than only shifting volume, it models a listener’s head, using micro delays and a filter on the opposite channel so a hard panned track still reaches the far ear. Size sets those delay times and the size of the head, roll off sets the steepness and frequency of the opposite channel’s filter, and crossover leaves everything below a chosen frequency unprocessed. A centre button flips between stereo and mono for phase checking.

In the demo

Jade recentres two already panned guitar tracks in GarageBand and rebuilds the image with Pana, then spreads a busy multitrack project across the field, giving some tracks spill and others none. Headphones are the point throughout, and she contrasts it with Spatializer.

Worth knowing

The filtering changes the tone of whatever it moves, which on distorted guitar is part of the appeal and on an exposed lead vocal may not be. The preset list sits behind the pan lock, which is easy to walk past.