Re: Inserting True Mono Track ?
2015/12/12 10:39:40
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What confuses people about mono tracks is that they are neither left nor right, they're just mono. Panning has nothing to do with the mono track itself, only where you're going to send it next.
Another common source of confusion is the term "panning" in the context of a stereo track. Panning has nothing to do with the track itself. A stereo track consists of two interwoven mono tracks, both of which can be thought of as permanently panned hard left and hard right. (You can, however, alter that with plugins such as Channel Tools.) Just as with mono tracks, the pan slider does not affect the track itself, only where the track's output is routed.
"Interleave", in a general sense, refers to the way two tracks are combined into a single data stream to form a stereo track. What happens is the data alternates between left and right data frames, hence the term "interleave". This is not to be confused with the "Interleave" button in SONAR, though!
As SONAR processes data, it maintains two separate data streams internally, which it can combine or separate according to the demands of individual plugins along the way. On a mono track with mono plugins, the two streams remain identical throughout and are ultimately combined at the end of the process. However, if you insert a plugin on a mono track that has stereo outputs, SONAR can handle that because it simply switches from mono to stereo processing internally, separating the two streams as needed.
The Interleave button determines whether the the two streams are kept separated at the track output or if they'll be blended into one.
Practical example: you put a delay on a mono track. Most (but not all) delays are stereo, meaning they have the ability to create differences between the left and right data streams. Internally, your mono track has just become stereo. However, if you set the Interleave option to "mono" those two streams will be combined at the track's output. If you want, say, a ping-pong effect from the delay, you'll need to set the Interleave option to "stereo" to preserve those L/R differences when the track is routed to a stereo bus.
I know, that explanation sucks, being simultaneously an oversimplification and yet overly-complicated. Sorry.

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