hi~

i'm deaf in one ear, so i don't really know how to do panning and stereo imaging correctly. is there a way to tackle this problem ? so far i've been relying on visuals of my sounds and theories. i've been trying to do stereo flip (or whatever it's called) so i can switch listening to L and R, but this doesn't seem to work~

really appreciate your advice on this !

holy moly, people like you who can continue perservering despite massive obstacles are amazing. I don't think there are any surfire ways for you to be able to hear in stereo, but to figure out this problem, a good place to staart is why stereo is important. Humans have two ears in order to figure out where sounds are coming from. If they're louder in the left, they're to your left, etc. With one ear out of the equation, there is still one other way to figure out where sounds are. The ear is shaped in such a way that sounds from behind are filtered/distorted in some way that I don't totally understand. What's important is that you can tell. Now, I just tried this myself, and it's a little harder to tell left/right than front/back, but try putting one headphone ear cup on your face and one on the back of your head. You should be able to kinda tell whether a sound is stereo or mono, but it might get better over a long period of time. Alternatives are maybe getting a cochlear implant, depending on your personal condition. I'm not a doctor so I have no idea how that works.

Some of the greatest music comes from people who are inhibited in some way. Toni Iommi, the lead guitarist of Black Sabbath had to string his guitar in a different way because he's missing two fingertips. Also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Deaf_musicians. I haven't read any of those, so I have no idea how they do what they do, but if you haven't already, I would read it. Good luck!

Could actually be a little beneficial in a way being deaf in one ear - makes everything mono then doesn't it! Useful for mixing clubs tracks, because everything should be able to be heard nicely in mono with that type of music.

Maybe if you're talking about panning... you could test it out by panning something to the ear that you use for hearing.  Then say "okay, I know that if the panning knob is turned to 65% and it sounds like this, assigning that value in the other direction will create the same effect on the other side."  Does that make sense?

Not being deaf in one ear, I can't say for sure that this would be the best way to do it - but it sounds like a logical way of going about things. That, and asking other producers for advice.

imo just don't bother panning then. a lot of people who aren't deaf in one ear don't pan at all, in edm it's pretty common.

It's not entirely an issue of manual panning though, this could cause problems with stereo effects, e.g. Chorus, unison, etc.

@BrianWithAnE : ah thanks. i've been trying to ask other producers near me for help on some tracks, but haven't really done one yet. maybe i should try this sometime soon thanks !

@jaxter184 : haha i should totally try putting my headphone front and back. thanks for that list of deaf musicians i'm totally going for the ear treatment. not exactly sure how it'll be, but i'll give that a shot. there's no replacement for a pair of ears anyway~

@Pixel Blood : aah, i have that plug but never used it. going to try that to check how things work. thanks, totally !

@Hytyma : hmm true, but when i analyze tracks from my "heroes", i always see the stereo image to be spread in a manner that's similiar from one to the other. i'm sure about not doing mono, buuut maybe starting mono then working on the stereo later on would be beneficial

@Drainpuppet : that's assuring. i just had the idea of having both ears would totally help understanding the nature of stereo width (even though i can kind of feel it with my current condition). yeah, the option for asking others for opinion would always be there, last resort though.

@polymetric : ah that's nice ! would love to hear what he got to say about my issue

Yeah cool dude. I didn't really mean that quite the way it was written. What I meant was, it's important to be able to hear everything pretty clearly with a Mono signal for a club track, because a lot of club systems are geared up that way (Mono). Stereo and panning for sure is still very important for those listening on headphone or at systems at home.

Maybe I wasn't the best person to answer your question, it's a difficult one haha!

haha yeah i get it def a great input, thanks !