You're talking about the panning knob at the very top of the box of the channel settings, right? Will using this panning knob effectively pan effects, too? What do you think of the panning knob in the step sequencer? That's the one I've mostly used.
The panning knob in the sequencer is directly linked to the one in the channel settings. Also, you can right click on it and use the edit events box to do a lot of automated panning. it takes a little longer, but its better than using the piano roll. it works the same as the piano roll, it just works in values from 0-100% rather than notes.