Stereo to mono and Pan Law

Hi! I am just an amateur trying to sort things out. I have a stereo track (live drums overhead to be precise) that I have split into two mono files using the import function in the pool (reimporting the original stereo overhead wavfile and choosing the split option). I’ve put them on separate tracks and panned them fully Left and Right.

When I compared the two split files to the overhead track I found they were lower in volume (The stereo track and the split mono tracks both fully panned, set to unity gain and there’s nothing going on between the tracks and the stereo output) .

After scratching my head for a while I found that the Pan Law had something to do with it. When I set my Pan Law to zero they were identical in volume. So here’s my question:

Why is this? Isn’t Pan Law applied to stereo tracks as well as mono tracks? I have probably missed some fundemental knowledge about this, I’ve read the manual but that doesn’t make it any clearer, so if anyone could enlighten me I would appreciate it! :slight_smile:

Isn’t Pan Law applied to stereo tracks as well as mono tracks?

Well it is if you pan them.
In your example the stereo track has not been panned at all therefore pan law cannot come into play.