Auburn Sounds has released Panagement, a commercial binaural panner effect in VST/AU plugin formats for PC and Mac. A freeware feature-limited version of the plugin (labeled Panagement Free Edition) is also available.
Panagement is a binaural panning utility that was designed for quick and easy placement of sounds on a stereo stage. The free version of Panagement lacks the advanced mono-to-stereo, tilt filter and modulation controls that are included in the full version of the product (priced at €29). The most important core features are available in the free version, though, and that includes the binaural panner module, the distance fader and the visualization tools.
Stereo placement of mix elements using Panagement Free Edition is a breeze. The Distance slider affects both the volume and the tone of the processed signal, pushing it closer or further away from the listener. As you push the signal away, Panagement Free Edition will roll of the top frequencies and slightly boost the low-mid range, while reducing the overall volume accordingly. The Binaural Pan knob, on the other hand, is used to place control the panning of the processed signal.
Used in tandem with a couple of nice sounding reverbs, Panagement Free Edition makes it possible to set the complete stereo image of a basic mix in a matter of minutes. To make things even easier, an XY control is included on the front panel, allowing the user to literally place a sound anywhere on the virtual stage.
Auburn Sounds is a relatively new name on the VST plugin development scene, however their website features two freebies (Distort and Psypan) that were previously released under a different label – Games From Mars. Those two plugins are well worth checking out, especially Distort. It’s a simple but very useful distortion effect with up to 16x oversampling to ensure there’s no aliasing on the output.
Panagement Free Edition is available for free download via Auburn Sounds (6.18 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU plugin format for Windows & Mac OS).
