Drums Mono or Stereo?

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djshointel

New member
Hey I usually record all my instruments Stereo. Is that weird? I've seen drums mono (kicks snares claps etc). Am I in this sense unorthodox?
 
not at all. Not sure why anyone would want to record their drums in mono. I'm not sure if anyone even does that. But, I'd think for the record, that most record drums in stereo.
 
A kick has no stereo information, so does a clap, hi hat, snare, and all other drum sounds. Having them stereo does nothing for the sound than make it appear louder due to the summing effect of having both the same instrument sound on both sides of a stereo field. Essentially having a stereo kick or snare or hi hat only wastes space.

For instance if I were to record a kick track for the length of a song and it registers as 40mb at 24bit/88.2k if I were to record the same kick in stereo it would register as 80mb at 24bit/88.2k. So essentially record your drums in mono then make the stereo image out of the drums via panning. It saves CPU via processing as mono (one mono track) instead of stereo (two mono tracks).
 
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your the s*it! I like how you broke that down. Would you say that this is an analogical equivalent to layering drums?
 
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Yeah if you are recording drums there's no reason to record in stereo. If you are sampling drums you may or may not want to keep them in stereo. Sometimes a snare or clap from a breakbeat will be layered with other panned instruments so if you keep it stereo it may give you a cool effect. Even when I sample I usually convert the drums to mono. It gives me more control over stereo imaging. If I want a nice stereo effect for a snare I may layer it with a couple different claps and pan them opposite of eachother.
 
umm. in case I misunderstood the original post. I was talking about recording a drum KIT not a drum instrument itself. I like to pan my drum instruments around the stereo spectrum. Keeping in mind what a drum set would sound like to me if I were listening to a drummer play in front of me. Snare on the right. BD to the left. Hi hit on the side of the snare. etc.
 
That's why I was clarifying, since there clearly was some confusion on what "drums" mean in this context (or rather two approaches).
 
OFF said:
A kick has no stereo information, so does a clap, hi hat, snare, and all other drum sounds. Having them stereo does nothing for the sound than make it appear louder due to the summing effect of having both the same instrument sound on both sides of a stereo field. Essentially having a stereo kick or snare or hi hat only wastes space.
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the guy talks about recording drums, not about simple 808 sounds for a sampler. and a recorded drum has alot stereo information: the room and positioning information (by the way, a drum sounds different depending on the listeners position - even with "dead" acoustics). the room was an essential part in all the "vintage" recordings everybody loves so much.

you kill most of the room information by making your drums mono. additionaly stereo recorded drums give you way more flexibility during mixing (since you have 2 slightly different versions of a track). you can even avoid any artificial reverb with this technique.

djshointel, it is not a problem nor a waste of space to record drums in stereo - it's an extremly useful amount of flexibility.
 
And to take it a step further, the tracks that are recorded when mic'ing a full kit are mono tracks panned in the stereo field after.
 
djshointel said:
Hey I usually record all my instruments Stereo. Is that weird? I've seen drums mono (kicks snares claps etc). Am I in this sense unorthodox?
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It's very simple. If you record using only one mic, record it to a mono track.
If you're recording say an acoustic guitar using a pair or a dedicated stereo mic, these need a stereo track to retain the info in both channel(or 2 mono). (Read up on mic-techniques).

For drum recording a basic setup could look like this.
1 Kick-> Mono
2 Snare top->Mono
3 (optional)Snare under -> Mono
4 Hihat->Mono
5 Tom Hi ->Mono
6 Tom Mid ->Mono
7 Tom Low-> Mono
8 Overheads-Stereo/(2 mono)
9 Ambience/room-> Stereo/(2 mono)

When you're done recording, it's time to take advantage of the stereo field again by panning.
Commonly you'd place Kick and snare dead center Hihat slightly panned
Toms moderately panned from one side to another. Direction(L/R) depends one whos perspective you're working from. The drummers or the listener.
Overheads and Ambience hard left and right.
 
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djshointel said:
Hey I usually record all my instruments Stereo. Is that weird? I've seen drums mono (kicks snares claps etc). Am I in this sense unorthodox?
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djshointel, please disregard this post since you have made it clear that you are not interested in hearing any actual facts or correct information from me...

I am writing this for everyone else who may benefit from getting good information (there has been some good and some bad info posted so far.)

anyway...

1. If the thing you are recording contains stereo information, then you should put it on a stereo track. You need to determine that for yourself. You are the only one who knows what you are recording.

2. A drum may or may not contain stereo information. For example, a real straight up 808 clap contains no stereo information. An 808 clap sampled with stereo reverb will contain stereo information. A live mic'ed clap may or may not contain stereo information (depending on how it was recorded.) A clap sample may or my not be stereo depending on how it was created... you cannot determine whether a sound is stereo or mono by its name alone. You need to listen to it.

3. When people talk about "layering drums" they are talking about layering different complimentary sounds on top of eachother with the intention of creating added depth and dimension... it is not referring to recording a mono sound to a stereo track (and it is not analogous to it)

4. If you record a mono sound to a stereo track, you will not hurt the sound. It will sound the same as if it were on a mono track. But you will be wasting an available audio track (or sampler voice.) It is an unnecessary waste of valuable resources with absolutely no benefit whatsoever (plus, it would be more difficult to pan the sound where you want it.)

5. Anything you record through one standard microphone is mono. If you use multiple microphones to create a sense of L/R space, you are recording in stereo.

6. Recording a mono sound on a stereo track is like buying a color TV to watch an old "black and white" TV show... it will not look any different than it would on a "black and white" TV, but you wasted a lot of money buying a color TV just to watch that show... You should have just bought a "black and white" TV.



Everything I explained here is 100% accurate.

But, hey, "dvyce is a f***ing idiot!!! str8 up moron...u dumb s**t moron"... "y'all dont listen to him"


:rolleyes:
 
Bravo Dvyce...

now THIS seems like a sensible chunk of info...in fact this was great you broke it down beautifully. I apologize for the comment, but i just didnt agree with the last few comments you made in those other forums...and i think i made it clear. But this gets a ten. Good info dvyce...OFF you're tha sh*it too! Here's to good information!:cheers:

KUDOS: krushing, dvyce, degree, OFF

VISIT MY MYSPACE PAGE!!!!!!
VISIT MY MYSPACE PAGE!!!!!!
VISIT MY MYSPACE PAGE!!!!!!
(see signature)
 
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djshointel said:
I apologize for the comment
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ok


djshointel said:
but i just didnt agree with the last few comments you made in those other forums...and i think i made it clear.
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like I said in the other thread... you read my posts and somehow decided they said the complete opposite of what I was saying there... you were disagreeing with what you imagined I said.

(which is still no reason for your unfounded personal attacks)


There will be plenty of times you disagree with people, and I really hope that is not the reaction you have each time. This is supposed to be a civil environment where people can feel comfortable asking questions and learning.


(This is the last I will say about this here because it is not really the place for it...)

if you had just said: "I don't agree with saying ______"

Then I would have said: "but I said _______, not ______"

And you would reply: "oh, ok, I must have misunderstood"



...and the world would be a much better place.
 
ok, everyone is confused. But heres my two cents: recording live record stereo room tracks, mono everything else (and then pan some of them). As far as drum machine, if you record EVERYTHING in stereo, you'll get an effect called "big mono" and it basically kills your headroom, while taking up more space on your hard drive and not ACTUALLY sounding better. However, there are times to use stereo on individual drum hits, I've heard 808ish hits that just sound much better in stereo, some hi hats have a small delay between the right and left- I keep that in stereo. It depends on your ear, but most kick and snare stuff shouldn't be, but there are always exceptions.
 
moses said:
the guy talks about recording drums, not about simple 808 sounds for a sampler. and a recorded drum has alot stereo information: the room and positioning information (by the way, a drum sounds different depending on the listeners position - even with "dead" acoustics). the room was an essential part in all the "vintage" recordings everybody loves so much.

you kill most of the room information by making your drums mono. additionaly stereo recorded drums give you way more flexibility during mixing (since you have 2 slightly different versions of a track). you can even avoid any artificial reverb with this technique.

djshointel, it is not a problem nor a waste of space to record drums in stereo - it's an extremly useful amount of flexibility.
Click to expand...

Interesting, now I have miced drums in a live room and I can tell you this much, Stereo micing each and drum is a lesson in futility. You mic them and record them mono and have one stereo mic pair in front or behind the kit using NOS or or Bluimline (spelling), ORTF or Spaced Pair micing techniques and record the drum kit as a whole stereo. Now you have real options.

You can either use the stereo mics by themselves as your drum sound. Or you can pan out you mono sounds like how they are in the stereo image and be able to have the ability for individual level adjustment than you would have with just the stereo signal. You can even use the mono signals to reinforce the stero recording for a fuller drum sound.

Oh and the room sound your talking about is achieved with Mono room mics on either side of the room.

:cheers:
 
it's usualy better to record more than needed. this flexibility can avoid excessive processing in the later stages and improves the overall session-"safety".
 
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