No, a mono track is a mono track. Well, there's mono audio tracks and mono Instrument tracks, but mono in both cases means the same thing. Basically what this means is that the same signal is directed to the left and to the right.
Think of a single microphone going to your interface. If you record, you only have one source. Just the single microphone. You will end up with a mono audio file, that you can pan to either the left or right, or leave in the center of the stereo field.
Now, say you wanted to record a piano. You may want to set one microphone to capture the lower register, and another microphone to capture the higher register. Or, you may set up two microphones to capture a single acoustic guitar. This again will create a single audio file with two sources, i.e. two microphones, i.e. stereo. Important to note: the left and right are NOT the same, as in a mono audio file. So panning them will not simply move the signal back and forth in the stereo field, as the signal on the right is different from the signal on the left.
You can see the same meters that Peter is using in the tutorial if you go to one of your inserts slots and choose Metering, and then choose the level meters. Put this on any mono track, and you will see the same effect as in the tutorial.
So in summary, the pan on a mono track does not change a mono signal to a stereo signal by turning it, it simply adjusts how much of the signal is going to the left and right sides of the stereo field.
Hope that helps. Be well.
M
