pan left, pan right, what the heck???

[feaker]

Never been here before. Just the word technology scares me.Took a vocal last night and panned it to the right 40% and it seemed to clean up the entire mix? Never messed with the pan control before.I googled for hours last night and didn't get much info.My question is, can I get a cleaner mix using the pan control and mixing in stereo? Right now everything is in mono both recording and what I place on the forums.Some recording I hear from folks are so clean here. I don't know if they are mastered or they just clean them up themselves.I read comments all the time about panning and EQ. Did a search on the forum and did not find anything.Do I export my final mix in stereo if I didn't use any panning?16 or 24 bit?Ok enough. I don't know much as you can see. A reccomendation of a good book would be greatly appreciated.I have to admit, I like the tweaking as much or more than the whole songwriting/production process.Paul