I use pan a lot, but would now like to understand what it does.
My question is spurred on by being told in a mix (a rock band for example) everything needs to live in its own space. Well, surely it can't actually have it's own space since they're only 2 speakers - by this definition if you have more than 2 instruments then you can't have everything in it's own space (and this only works if the 2 instruments are hard panned to opposite speakers)
I've looked into this and the information says it 'pans' to the left and right. Well, is this true or just a concept more that what it is actually doing. In other words, is a pan just a way to increase or decrease volume of a certain speaker. For example, when something is panned at 0 (i.e. centred), it plays at 100% of both L and R. When something is panned L50, it plays at L 100% but R is played at 50% (or whatever % the software / hardware chooses)?
Can any one confirm if my understanding of this is correct or if I'm missing anything. I appreciate this may differ from software/hardware, but my question is general about the concept/theories.