Flying FX with Panning, Pitch Envelopes and Multi-Delay

Panning is an essential aspect of sound design, yet it is often mislabeled as a task for the mixing engineer. At the mixing stage, these professionals typically only concern themselves with placement and automation of the output (pan dials). The reality is that only you, the designer, know how the SOURCE should be moving. Modern digital effects and instruments can move about the image at a set rate, in a specific periodic or nonperiodic contour - controlled by a modulator or an envelope.

There is no denying that this is a breakthrough technology evident in almost every electronic production these days. But this is not the only way to create a larger-than-life source movement. For example, you could render a sub-mix of duplicated and hocketed outputs panned to several different positions, use an instruction-based sequencer like Csound, or use various delay times to simulate changes in the source’s distance from the surfaces in a room. In this tutorial, I will walk you through one method to provide speedy, alien-like movement to your sounds. This is what my flying FX sounds like...

A Little Psychoacoustics Background

Change is movement, and movement is change. Nothing can move without changing, so why should we pan electronic sounds without changing the source?

ILDs and ITDs - Humans are remarkably talented locators. We know where sounds come from because of ILDs (interaural level differences) and ITDs (interaural time differences). Simply put, it is either a difference in level between our ears or a difference in arrival time to each ear that gives away a sound source’s location. That is why phasers and flangers seem to make sounds move around - they slightly delay a copy of the signal and pan it. Low frequencies tend to be resolved using ITDs, and higher frequencies tend to be determined using ILDs. 

Behind, In Front, Above, Below - Making sounds seem behind or above you is complex and can only be accomplished using binaural recording or surround sound systems. However, if you think about diffraction (sounds bending around obstacles) and the shape of our outer ears for a moment, you may realize this…. Our external ears are the main reason we can tell when something is behind or in front of us. This goes for sound from above as well. The unique effect of our outer ear and the widened reflections tell us that something is overhead. It is challenging to research sound coming from below us - that is, after all, an alien concept. Can you imagine any situation where sound would be coming directly below you? Maybe while skydiving, or swimming….

The Doppler Effect - Sounds seem to change pitch when they move at a significant speed. The deeper the pitch modulation, the faster the source appears to move as you move its pan position.   

Method - Modulated Panning, Pitch Envelopes, and Multi-Delay

These three parameters change to some degree when a sound is in motion. I take a reflective room to notice delay time changes and a significant speed to observe the Doppler Effect, but subconsciously, we always use this information to localize sound. For example, I set up an LFO modulating the pan position on a few variations of two similar samples, a little pitch enveloping, and multiple mono delays with different delay times and automated wetness. An old automating or modulating delay times because we don’t want that characteristic tape emulation - that dramatic “whip” in pitch. Sample Layout

Pan Modulation

Pitch Envelopes

Serial Delay

Parallel Delay (Pre-Mixer Return)

So, this is what my arrangement of affected and processed textures sounds like...

Tune in to future blog posts for more on simulating source movement, psychoacoustics, and audio processing!