Why is the centre not simply full level on both channels?

Because the law is equal power. With a straight line pan, moving the image to the middle would make the sum of the two channels louder than either extreme, so the level would change as the image moved. Equal power attenuates each channel by about three decibels at centre, which keeps total energy constant and the perceived loudness steady.

What happens at a hard left or hard right setting?

The pan becomes exact. A hard left leaves the entire signal in the left channel and nothing in the right, and a hard right does the reverse. This is verified behaviour, and it is also the reason a hard panned file sounds silent on one side when it is played back on a single speaker.

Does panning destroy the stereo information?

It folds it. The tool re-pans the source as a whole, so any width that existed in the original is compressed into the position you choose rather than preserved alongside it. If you need to keep the width and only change where it sits, that is a different job from what a single pan control can do.

How is this different from the balance tool?

Balance attenuates one channel and never touches the other, so the centre of the image does not move. Panning applies a gain law that shifts the whole image, raising one side as it lowers the other. Use balance to correct, and pan to place.

Can I pan only part of the file?

Not here. The position is set once and applied to the whole file, so any change part way through means splitting the file and running the tool on the sections separately. That is a deliberate simplification, since the common job is placing a complete stem or clip.

Panning Tool

You Might Also Need

Balance Adjuster

Adjust left/right balance

Stereo Widener

Enhance stereo field width

Channel Mixer

Mix and balance audio channels

8D Audio Converter

Convert audio to rotating 8D spatial sound

Panning Tool moves a stereo source across the stereo field with an equal power law, so the total energy stays constant as the image moves. Centre sits at minus three decibels per channel and a hard pan puts everything on one side.

What is Panning Tool?

Drag the position slider anywhere from full left to full right and the file is re-panned, with the footer naming the position and the law being applied. Because the law is equal power rather than a straight line fade, perceived loudness holds steady while the image travels.

What you control and what you see:

A position slider covering a hundred percent left to a hundred percent right in single percent steps, centred by default.
Readable position labels, from hard left and hard right through percentage left and percentage right to centre.
An equal power gain law, matching the behaviour of the standard stereo panner in the browser's own audio graph.
A footer that states both the position and the law, so the setting is recorded in the interface rather than remembered.
An output WAV named after the source with a panned suffix.

The pan law is equal power, which is the same curve a stereo panner node applies in the Web Audio graph. At centre each channel is attenuated by about three decibels, which is not an error but the consequence of keeping total energy constant: the listener hears the same loudness as the source moves, because as one side falls the other rises, and the two gains are computed as sine and cosine of the pan angle rather than as a straight line. At the extremes the pan becomes exact, with a hard left leaving all the signal on the left channel and nothing on the right. Verified behaviour is that the centre position produces minus three decibels per channel and that a hard pan isolates the chosen channel precisely.

What panning does not preserve:

Panning folds a stereo source onto an arc, so width that existed in the original is compressed into the pan position rather than kept.
Monophonic content panned hard to one side plays on that side only, which is what you asked for and often not what you wanted.
There is no automation, so the position is fixed for the whole file.
The law is fixed at equal power, with no option for a linear or a compensated pan law.
There is no metering, so any level change from combining panned content elsewhere in a project will not be visible here.
It positions the whole file rather than an element inside it, so it cannot pan one instrument within a mix.

Use it when a whole file needs to sit somewhere specific in the stereo field: a one sided effect, a stem that has to occupy a slot in a layout, or a test signal you want to identify on one monitor. Remember that panning is a placement decision rather than a mix fix, so a file that sounds off centre because one side is simply louder will not be improved here; correcting that is the balance tool's job. If you are adjusting how wide the image feels rather than where it sits, the mid and side processor is the right tool instead.

How to use Panning Tool

Drop a stereo file onto the panel and note where the slider currently sits, which is the centre by default.
Drag the slider left or right, or fine tune toward the extremes for a hard pan.
Read the footer label to confirm the position being applied before committing to the download.
Download the panned WAV and check the result on headphones, where a one sided file is most obvious.

When to use Panning Tool vs related tools

Panning Tool is for placing a whole file in the stereo field rather than mixing elements inside it. Balance Adjuster is the opposite kind of correction, attenuating one side to fix a leaning mix without moving anything, and Stereo Widener adjusts how wide the image feels instead of where it sits. When the goal is to rotate content around the listener rather than to one position, 8D Audio Converter is the effect designed for that.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.