Panagement Advanced Binaural Panner Wants To Control Your Music Space

We haven't heard much from Auburn Sounds for six monthsand now we know why. Auburn tell us Panagement, an advanced spatialisation mixing plugin, is their most exciting plugin to date.  

23 June, 2016–PANAGEMENT is a whole spatialization powerhouse that lets you control the stereo space from your armchair, with deceptively few knobs to turn.

Features:

  • The Distance Fader brings a track nearer or further,
  • The Binaural Panner positions that from left to right,
  • The Mono-to-Stereo enlarges a thin track or simulates early reflections,
  • The Tilt Filter adjusts spectral balance between lows and highs,
  • The Phasescope control displays mono compatibility visually,
  • Finally, a LFO allows to create periodic or even random moves. 

PANAGEMENT is available as a VST 2.4 and Audio Unit for Windows Vista or later and OS X 10.7 or later.

Two different versions:

  • PANAGEMENT Free Edition gets the distance fader, binaural pan, and phasescope,
  • PANAGEMENT Enterprise Edition has all the features and costs €29 (+ VAT).

All versions are fully-functional and unlimited in time. No dongle needed!

Guillaume Piolat, sole founder of Auburn Sounds, hypes his plugin in this way:

"I was always a bit uneasy with panning, and looking for something more gentle. In theory, binaural panning is better than the traditional pan pot. I hear it more and more, but it did not take the world by storm. Why? I think it's down to three reasons.

"On the practical side, we need a panner that would be easy to operate and without audio compromises. Why use an additional processor if you lose something, be it time spent, latency, or sound clarity? My goal was that you would always be able to use Panagement, without wondering "what if I'm loosing something?". I think the tradeoff here is finally acceptable.

Auburn Sounds Panagement

Auburn Sounds Panagement

 

"There is the mono-compatibility problem, because the traditional pan button is 100% mono-compatible and binaural panners are not. Firstly I tried to revert the effect of the binaural delay by equalizing phase. But the results were underwhelming.

"The route taken in Panagement is damage mitigation. The "Mono" switch provides an instant view of mono reduction. You get a fast phasescope display and can reduce "Head Delay" if ever needed. To avoid phase disasters, inter-aural delay is limited to 1.3 ms at a maximum. The LFO also helps: when reduced to mono the inter-aural delay changes into a phaser sound.

"There is finally a likeability problem. Realistic spatialization has a huge potential for direct access to emotions (one proof is all the binaural ASMR videos on the Internet). But it's sometimes overly intrusive, so it's important not to overdo it. The "Dry/Wet" knob helps you tune down the effect to approach a regular pan continuously. Not everything needs to be spectacular!

"In conclusion, I think nothing is blocking you anymore from taking advantage of a huge externalized head space, and telling spatialized stories that will translate well to speakers."

Web: https://www.auburnsounds.com/products/Panagement.html

 

Rounik is the Executive Editor for Ask.Audio & macProVideo. He's built a crack team of professional musicians and writers to create one of the most visited online resources for news, review, tutorials and interviews for modern musician and producer. As an Apple Certified Trainer for Logic Pro Rounik has taught teachers, professional... Read More

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