Members tdempsey Posted January 3, 2006 Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 Hi folks. Specifically, for guitar and vocals - is there some compelling reason to record in stereo rather than mono? I'm not intending to do any panning, and the chore of mixdowns is taking all the fun out of my modest home recording pursuits. Sorry if this has been covered, and of course Happy New Year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 3, 2006 Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 Sure, if you want a certain effect on your vocals, absolutely. And there's compelling reasons to use two mics but not in stereo (one mic has, for example, a good high end but lousy low end, and another mic has the opposite). Or you might want to capture more sense of space from the vocalist by having a stereo pair. And for stereo (or at least two mics) on a guitar cabinet, well, there's all sorts of reasons. You have stereo effects on two speakers (Leslie, chorusing, delays, whatever), etc. etc. Or even if you have a guitar cabinet with only one speaker, you can have a close mic and a distance mic, blending the two to get some of the room but get the thrust and impact of the close mic (yes, I know this is not technically stereo). And for acoustic guitar...well, there's a thread about this in Phil's forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tdempsey Posted January 3, 2006 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 Thanks UstadKhanAli , and I'm heading to Phil's forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted January 3, 2006 Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 I almost always record acoustic guitar in stereo, and, particularly if the end product is voice and guitar only, some imaging to the guitar will add depth and space to the recording. Vocals, if there are a group of them, can definitely benefit from stereo micing, and multiple mono tracks can be panned to give added imagineing and width. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 3, 2006 Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 There is also the peripheral issue of recording a mono source (like a single mic) into a stereo track. (Most DAWs these days allow you to record into either a single mono track or a yoked stereo pair.) One (this one, specifically) can't imagine why that should make a difference (assuming you're not going to burn a bunch of stereo FX to the track, anyhow) -- but I have read a number of people using several different DAWs claim that they perceive subtle and not-so differences when doing so. (They said they were mystified, at first, too, as to why that should be.) I couldn't help but think maybe these folks were standing too close to the speakers for too long, but, these days, I don't rule anything out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 3, 2006 Members Share Posted January 3, 2006 Originally posted by where02190 I almost always record acoustic guitar in stereo, and, particularly if the end product is voice and guitar only, some imaging to the guitar will add depth and space to the recording. Vocals, if there are a group of them, can definitely benefit from stereo micing, and multiple mono tracks can be panned to give added imagineing and width. Yes, thank you, I answered the question only thinking of ONE vocalist. And panning can add extra imagining ? Well, hell, if that's all it takes!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bp Posted January 4, 2006 Members Share Posted January 4, 2006 Check the Brucie the Viking threads. He records almost everything in stereo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members shniggens Posted January 4, 2006 Members Share Posted January 4, 2006 Originally posted by where02190 I almost always record acoustic guitar in stereo, and, particularly if the end product is voice and guitar only, some imaging to the guitar will add depth and space to the recording. Could the same thing be accomplished by doubling the track and panning the two tracks opposite each other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted January 4, 2006 Members Share Posted January 4, 2006 Originally posted by blue2blue There is also the peripheral issue of recording a mono source (like a single mic) into a stereo track. (Most DAWs these days allow you to record into either a single mono track or a yoked stereo pair.) One (this one, specifically) can't imagine why that should make a difference (assuming you're not going to burn a bunch of stereo FX to the track, anyhow) -- but I have read a number of people using several different DAWs claim that they perceive subtle and not-so differences when doing so. (They said they were mystified, at first, too, as to why that should be.) I couldn't help but think maybe these folks were standing too close to the speakers for too long, but, these days, I don't rule anything out. Dude, in Acid 4 I can hear the difference between even and odd tempos! I can't tell in version 2, but I noticed it right away in 4. I've started paying attention to any instance of numerical value in the program. Yeah. It's hard to describe, other than it's a phase/comb filtering type of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kendrix Posted January 4, 2006 Members Share Posted January 4, 2006 Originally posted by blue2blue There is also the peripheral issue of recording a mono source (like a single mic) into a stereo track. (Most DAWs these days allow you to record into either a single mono track or a yoked stereo pair.) One (this one, specifically) can't imagine why that should make a difference (assuming you're not going to burn a bunch of stereo FX to the track, anyhow) -- but I have read a number of people using several different DAWs claim that they perceive subtle and not-so differences when doing so. (They said they were mystified, at first, too, as to why that should be.) I couldn't help but think maybe these folks were standing too close to the speakers for too long, but, these days, I don't rule anything out. One reason to record one mic to two tracks is that some plug-ins ( such as the SIR convolution reverb plug) tell you to input mono sources in stereo in order to fully leverage the processing features of the verb. Apparently, even tho the inputs to the two stereo channels are identical this yields results that are different from inputting one channel only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 4, 2006 Members Share Posted January 4, 2006 Originally posted by shniggens Could the same thing be accomplished by doubling the track and panning the two tracks opposite each other? You can do that - and get some very pleasing results - but it's not the same thing as stereo micing an acoustic guitar. The method you mention above is what I always call "Dual Mono". It ain't really stereo in the true sense of the word. It's simply two mono tracks that are panned. Doesn't mean it's bad, just that it ain't stereo. Stereo micing an acoustic guitar is (in most cases) an attempt to recreate the stereo sound field. This is a very important distinction from "Dual Mono". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Which ALMOST brings up stereo sources into "dual mono" as opposed to into a single stereo track. Best advantage of dual mono there, off the top of my head, is that you can pan the two 'sides' wherever you want... if you had a stereo piano in a trio or combo setting, you probably don't want it spread from extreme left to extreme right... you might pan one channel to, say, 10 o'clock and the other to 2, with other instruments scattered around the stereo soundstage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Dang, I think you're right about that! Whooops, back to the USC game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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