Reply to Panning in 3D: placing things in space

This is a question that has been bugging me for a while. Everyone knows how to pan from left to right, that's pretty straight forward. However, is there a way to pan front to back, or top to bottom, i.e. to place things in 3D space? For example, lets say i want a synth to feel like its coming from up above you as it comes into focus in the centre, or placing a synth directly in the background behind the lead line, or a white noise swoosh to feel like its passing right through you as opposed to just going left to right.

How does one accomplish this? Is it a matter of smoke and mirrors using things like auto filters? Is there a plug-in somewhere that lets me place things in 3D space? Is this something i even REALLY want to do in the first place with EDM, or is that too much stereo info to translate in a club setting and better left for the movies?

Google wasnt too helpful with this, but that's probably cuz i wasnt asking the right question. Hopefully someone here could shed some light on this.