Ask about Mono vs. Stereo

nice lil post, I was thinking mono takes away quality from the sound of recording vocals and sweatin stereo.
this answered questons
 
musicbyme said:
mono no goodddd.
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Mono is king when it comes to mixing. Through mono you are able to know how loud something should be perceived in the mix you're workin on. It also helps when looking for unwanted artifacts, distortion, etc. If you can hear everything in mono then you can safely say you did your job.

Oh also I believe weiss told me this. Making your music sound good in mono is great for club music because sometimes the music being played is in mono. Why? Because they dont have engineers.

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nznexus said:
so i dont understand one thing.

should the kick be completely in mono?

i usually make one kick nin mono and then layer with one stereo. but what makes it better if u set it to mono?
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agree with weiss. it hits harder when its mono. i mean you can actually feel the top end trying to punch its way out of your skull lol. as a wise man once said, "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." lol
 
well... I didn't say the reason some club playback systems are because there aren't engineers... did I? Usually it's because the speakers aren't set up in a stereo friendly way. Might end up with everyone on one side of the room rockin' out to the hi hat, while every one on the other side is wondering why the other side is having so much fun.
 
WeissSound said:
well... I didn't say the reason some club playback systems are because there aren't engineers... did I? Usually it's because the speakers aren't set up in a stereo friendly way. Might end up with everyone on one side of the room rockin' out to the hi hat, while every one on the other side is wondering why the other side is having so much fun.
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Ah so it was you who told me that. Thanks again for that. It really improved my swing. You didn't say engineer but it did have something to with not having some sort of sound guy present at any given venue making it easier for whoever is there to just leave it mono.
 
WeissSound said:
well... I didn't say the reason some club playback systems are because there aren't engineers... did I? Usually it's because the speakers aren't set up in a stereo friendly way. Might end up with everyone on one side of the room rockin' out to the hi hat, while every one on the other side is wondering why the other side is having so much fun.
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Haha I love this

I gotta say, the more I delve into production, the more mono my kicks get. I used to have the widest kicks and now I'm rarely ever going out of full mono. It's like it's already been said, it just sounds that much more important in the middle.
 
Yuno said:
Haha I love this

I gotta say, the more I delve into production, the more mono my kicks get. I used to have the widest kicks and now I'm rarely ever going out of full mono. It's like it's already been said, it just sounds that much more important in the middle.
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And it makes no sense to fix something that needs not to be. One of our problems when we 1st start out is that we try to be so different that we completely miss the point we were trying to make. Then again some of us never had a point to make...and others never thought to make one and end up lost in a sea of sound. Lol
 
The whole point about mono sound systems for live situations is that there is no way for you get a good stereo image anywhere in a venue except where the sound desk is - to create a stereo image simply so that sound guy has a good sound is just plain bonkers - mono is the go because then every part of the venue gets the same sound and everyone gets to rock out together - even if you are setup to have 4-way stereo crossover system, it is better to slap it into mono mode for a live gig. this is true whether it is a club system for disc/mp3 playback or a band system - both need to be in mono to have maximum impact in the setting.

Sound designs created for live theater, should be mixed for a stereo presentation as the art of theater requires that there be cues that indicate where on the stage something is - for example someone falling down a staircase, the sound will progress from left to right, or right to left, depending which way the staircase is situated on the stage the audio cue should reflect this physical facet of the stage. Sound cues that should be coming from off stage right are not going to sound right if they are coming from the center of the stage in the playback system. In addition you might use height and width cues if you can create the illusion during mix-down.

For a recording that will definitely be heard in a stereo friendly listening environment, such as a domestic listening room or home theater or Film theater, then you would again create a stereo mix that reflects the listening environment.
 
@bandcoach so every live event has music playing in mono? Ballet, opera, a play? Omg how about live orchestra??? Now there's a feat.
 
you twist my words. and missed my comments about theater.

In opera there are stereo cues because of where the singers are on the stage and how the orchestra is laid out in the pit..

In ballet the orchestra is perceived stereo-phonically as that is how they are laid with certain instruments in different parts of the pit.

It is only in very recent times that both of these arts units have resorted to using full scale PA systems for audience playback these are designed to provide reinforcement rather than amplification so will retain most of the original balance of the pit and the singers because of the acoustic sources coming through over the sound system.

No need to be so picky - when I talk about sound systems I am speaking from the experience of the guy who sets them up runs them and then pulls them down. There is no simple solution to sound reinforcement or sound playback. Most venues not designed for theater or opera are incapable of sustaining a good stereo mix for everyone in the venue; it's just common sense building and room design: most clubs are built into existing structures and have little scope to restructure the room to accommodate true stereo
 
serious thread.
so, if i have some tunes i made, which i intend to be played on large soundsystems, is it a better idea to export in mono? also, if i have tracks or samples (like a kick drum) that are centre panned (as in, at 0), and then i record or export the track, is the kick considered mono? if not, am i able to track or record samples in mono?
 
twoheadedsnake said:
serious thread.
so, if i have some tunes i made, which i intend to be played on large soundsystems, is it a better idea to export in mono? also, if i have tracks or samples (like a kick drum) that are centre panned (as in, at 0), and then i record or export the track, is the kick considered mono? if not, am i able to track or record samples in mono?
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Export in stereo but mix your record in mono. If it sounds good in mono then it will sound great in stereo. Just as long as you make good use of all the space. I always keep my bass leads, main vocals, and instruments centered no matter what. I make club music so it has to be done that way because you never know where they're placing their monitors. For all my synths, adlibs, and fx I pan around and fill the spectrum to taste. But I always make sure you can hear everything in either side of the monitors, headphones, and mobile devices.

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Question for weiss and other smart people.

How well should everything as far as melodies go in terms of being perceived in mono vs stereo? I mean the space is so limited that things kind of go through an unwanted, saturated cohesion for me in really loud dance music.
 
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I prefer to record vocals in stereo because it allows me to add a stereo widener and things like a ping pong delay.
Also you can split a stereo into a mono, but not vice versa so it's better to be safe.
 
mycbeats said:
I prefer to record vocals in stereo because it allows me to add a stereo widener and things like a ping pong delay.
Also you can split a stereo into a mono, but not vice versa so it's better to be safe.
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Exactly how do you make your track stereo when the source is mono - unless you have multiple mics set up in diffrent locations you cannot be recording a stereo source.

Creating a stereo track from a mono track is as simple as:
copying the original recording to a new track and hard pan one left the other right,
load/create a new track with the same vocal and do as before: pan one hard left, the other hard right

I'm sure Weiss can give more examples of to do this simply.

FoulMouthFacts said:
So is it always best to use mono for vocal recording?
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I cannot see the point of recording in stereo unless you are recording on a large sound stage, in a large hall with A/B or X/Y or even A/B and X/Y miking techniques to capture the sound of the room as well as that of the singer.
 
bandcoach said:
Creating a stereo track from a mono track is as simple as:
copying the original recording to a new track and hard pan one left the other right,
load/create a new track with the same vocal and do as before: pan one hard left, the other hard right
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was actually just thinking about that. kind of eliminates the need for stereo recording. i mean unless you were recording stereo for a specific purpose...like layering a chorus or something...but even then, i would prob just pan a mono track
 
As I said above:

unless you have two point sources being recorded at the same time you are using a stereo track to record two copies of the same single point source.......
 
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