Using a stereo channel for a mono instrument

W

wisebaxter442

New member
Hi there, I have the Volca series, which are mono instruments and I've been using a Y cable with just one of the inputs plugged into my soundcard. This sounds fine on a mono track but when I create a stereo track with both leads plugged into two inputs, it sounds a little beefier/louder. This may be a silly question, but am I just hearing the same sound played twice? Or are some mono synths designed to use the left and the right inputs on a stereo track to get the full mono sound? I did read somewhere that the volcas have a stereo out for some reason and that they output dual mono. Obviously I would rather just use one input. Thanks
 
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well, that depends on the y cable.
If it has a copper core, it would send a single ( mono ) speed signal.
However, if you have a more expensive cable, with a platinum or golden core, the signal goes twice as fast, resulting in a semi stereo signal.
You can even get a fiber core based cable to get a surround sound.

or wait...
 
Can I determine the type of cable I have simply by looking at the end i.e will it be either bronze/copper, silver/platinum or gold?
 
if you knew how much plastic or rubber is used on it, you could weight the cable and determent the metal used for the wire,
or just ask the store where you bought it
 
Ah ok, thanks. I had no idea that the quality of the cable determined it's ability to transmit a stereo signal
 
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I've been informed by another user that your answers are phoney. You're a time waster and I suggest you get a life rather than spend time making other people's lives more difficult. I'd hope that a moderator would step in. You're probably the kind of person that feels justified in taking the p!ss if someone asks a dumb question. What a great guy I'm sure you are. And as for the other user who alerted me to your hoax, he's just as bad as he said he was tempted to join in. Although he did alert me, any decent person would have joined the discussion and made sure another genuine forum user wasn't misled instead of just sending me a pm.
 
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You know what,
you are right.

I just came home after a hard days work, had to wait for my dinner and was just joking.
But I thought you would see throw the first reply...

Sorry dude.

But here is some reel info.

Most instrument come with balanced outputs.
This way you get a minimal noise pick up on your cable (when you use balanced stereo) cables.
Your headphone output is typical not balanced, also known as unbalanced, meaning both left and right use the same ground wire.
Balanced cables don't connect that ground wire.

Also you might want to check the impedance of your outputs, as well as the ones on your soundcard.
Notice that the headphone is way lower then your line out.
It has a lot to do with the speakers that should be connected at the end and , here is comes, the radius of the wire.
The bigger the radius, the better it can send signals.
In other words, the smaller the radius, the more resistance the signal gets, hence the Ω or mΩ number.

So,
I hope you can laugh about the joke now.
 
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I have now laughed at the joke, especially the line about weighing the cables, but at the time my pride was wounded due to feeling so gullible, hence my annoyance. After a hard days work there must be other ways to wind down other than making jokes at a noobs expense? Ok I'm done now, you have expressed repentance and provided me with what seems to be factual information regarding outputs, although I may verify it's authenticity. I hope you've grown as a person after all this and can now become a valuable member of society. Oooooh...burned hehe. My pride may have been restored again :)
 
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I'm not familiar with the Volca. The manual shows that the headphone out is stereo. But that doesn't mean it is producing stereo content, but perhaps the mono content is replicated for both channels.

If you add the same audio twice to a session, it will sound 3dB louder, or possibly 6dB louder depending on your DAW's implementation. Maybe adding it with a stereo plug into a stereo channel is just increasing the volume? Louder can sound fuller. Turn down the volume until they sound the same level, then compare the sound fairly.

It's possible that the Volca creates mono signals enhanced with stereo processing. That could make it sound bigger and bolder. But beware: if every instrument track you use is like that, and you pan every one full left and full right for maximum width and space, your mix still sounds very mono and simple. Some producers call that "big mono".



Joke section:

The jacket of the cable matters a great deal for maintaining the integrity of a stereo signal. I find my braided camel hair cable significantly more accurate than the cheap squirrel fur cable my cousin uses.

See if you can score a mercury-core cable off of eBay. It can actually make a mono signal into a stereo signal. The only metal that can do that. But you have to keep the entire length in a freezer at all times, or the cable melts into your carpet. Learned that the hard way...
 
The stereo track just sounds a little..'subbier,' like there are more overtones, but my ear, like my knowledge of braided camel hair cables, is undeveloped and it may just be louder. I've posted on the Korg forum and I'm hoping to get a definitive answer as I can't stand the thought of loosing any intended sonic goodness, even more than I can't stand the idea of using two inputs for every Volca. Don't fancy having a 'big mono' either, which is the first time I've said that. I will be doing some panning of course. Now, on to Google to look up those Mercury-core puppies, along with a good freezer.
 
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I got the "big mono" tip from one of Bobby Owsinksi's books. I'm not positive, since I have several of his, but I'd guess it was from the Mixing Engineer's Handbook.

Traditionally, when panning mono instruments, you might keep the vocalist and kick drum at 0, piano at L40, guitar at R40, shaker at L80, etc. Pan things wherever they sound good. But stereo synths sound better when spread. Since it sounds boring to pan every stereo synth from L100 to R100, give each a separate range. Maybe a wide one from L60 to R60. And a left one from L100 to L10, and a right one from R10 to R100. They can still have width even though they're not all panned as wide as possible.


I don't know your workflow, but I think it'd be really tricky to compose with external gear like that. Modern DAW sessions are completely tempo linked, and everything builds off that foundation. Most everything I work on is assigned to the grid, and I play midi performances through a midi keyboard into software synths and software instruments. Then I can tweak, arrange, and re-sample my performances. And there isn't any game of syncing up the DAW with an external device to get one to record into the other at the right moment.
 
my line of work is coaching refugees.
these days we have a lot of people coming in from Syria.
I help people for a living (and live in Europe)
But whatever restores your pride cuz.

You might want to dig into signal processing for a hour or two.
The knowledge you will gain on that is useful and a must for the serious sound engineer/producer, because at some stage in your process it comes down how to manipulate a magnet to make the sound you played and/or recorded heard to others.
If you understand the basics of electricity, you will have a much more beter overview on how to connect your wires,
I understand that this might be too much for you at this stage,
but if you are serious,
and my guess is you are,
investing in your own knowledge now,
will pay itself back many many times in the future.


also, it helps you understand a synth a lot faster, since a synth basically works on the principals of electricity.
 
after a quick look at the Korg toys (I have a korg ms2000br, which I will never sell or dumb, ever!),
I see you only have a phones output.

That might be the issue here.
In short,
the power that is send to the phones out is pretty low (still good enough to make little spreakers pump the hell out of your head using earphones),
however, the input on a normal soundcard is made for line out power (which is pretty high compared to the phones output.)

The two most common options are:

a. connect your instrument to a mic input

b. use a mic-preamp
(some soundcards have at least one input that can function as a pre-amp input as well)

Now back to your original post...

This is why it is useful to read the technical specs. when you buy gear,
and why they print those kind of information in every quality manual.
People actually take notice of those pages because they want to buy a toy that last longer then a month,
and really is a upgrade to their ever growing studio set-up.

If their is no manual, or the manual does not give out any technical data related to mV, kHz and db, don't buy that crap!
 
I was just blowing off steam, didn't mean to imply you were a bad person. I was kind of acting more annoyed than I was for effect, with the whole, 'I hope you can grow from all of this' thing. I was being ironic as it wasn't a serious thing at all like I'd made it out to be and I genuinely saw the funny side

I know that a mono instrument can't create a stereo field. But my monosynth has a stereo output and I was wondering if it used both channels for it's mono signal.

I've read about oscillators and circuits and I've done a lot of background research. I'm not the kind of person to just ask questions on forums and expect others to help me.

I have the Korg volcas connected via a Y cable from the headphone jack and it sounds pretty good, doesn't need a pre amp at all. I do read the specs. I have a Mininova and a Microbrute also. You're implying I'm wet behind the ears because I only have Volcas. Firstly the Volcas are great and secondly you assume way too much. I may not be not as a inexperienced as you think, although I am inexperienced. Have you heard these synths? They have a warm analogue sound to them. I've heard them called toys before, maybe because of their size.
 
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I've controlling my external hardware with a Midi controller and syncing in their clocks to my DAW so I don't have any problems with tempo. I can press play on my controller and get a nice 808 sounding beat loop playing on the Volca. Thanks for the advice concerning panning. I haven't really started playing with the stereo field yet. Took me a couple months just to work through the manual to Cubase
 
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