Hi there
I have installed 64-bit sonar and have tried all manner of stereo delay VSTs, free ones as well as the included Nomad and Sonitus ones, 64-bit ones and 32-bit ones, ones that specifically describe themselves as creating a stereo signal, and the signal is always bounced to mono before it goes anywhere. ALWAYS. Anything described as a left or right channel in the VST comes straight down the middle whether the source audio was mono or stereo.
Same goes for anything that separates a mono signal into stereo.
Am I going to be suffering the same as in a past life and having to manually create tracks for separate delayed signals every single time? What am I doing wrong? I don't understand why stereo phasers work fine [on a stereo input signal at least] but delays and reverbs uniformly do not. Please help.
Many thanks
Sync

Should not be a problem, but there are many ways to end up inadvertently mixing the channels. Describe your scenario from end to end.
 
 
 

Thanks for the reply.
I will double-check everything when I get home tonight but as far as I know it is just an audio track with mono guitar waveform -> FX box with only stereo delay in it (whichever one I'm trying at that moment) -> output directly to plain Master BUS (stereo).
The output from that track (i.e. from that delay box) is mono (as shown by its lights) before it gets to the Master BUS.
The stereo BUS is working fine for panned/stereo audio (e.g. from Addictive Drums) and flangers etc. But I cannot achieve any stereo image from a guitar or vocal track, it just comes straight down the middle. So to have a stereo delay I would have to add some more panned tracks just for the delayed version of the sound (this works but obviously should be unnecessary).
I will post more detail later on. Cheers

Convert the guitar track to stereo or route it to a stereo bus and add your delay there.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Converting the guitar track to stereo didn't make a difference yesterday. The delay reduces it to mono. Even though if you take the delay out, it is stereo (which pretty much means the delay is the problem?).
 
I will try a stereo bus with just the delay on it though. Will update later, cheers.

Keep in mind that if you're using any kind of stereo effect on a mono track, you'll need to set the track interleave to Stereo.

OK, after much more experimentation, here are my findings.

If used in the FX box directly on the guitar track (or in a separate stereo BUS), Sonitus delay and Cakewalk tempo delay both work in stereo. These are DirectX. So I can use these in this position on a track.


If the very same plugins/settings are dragged to ProChannel, they do NOT work. The output becomes mono.


Further, none of the VST delays work in either the FX box or ProChannel. Only by using the DirectX ones can I get a stereo result. If they are placed in an FX box in ProChannel the result is always mono.
 
Given the above, can anyone help me with a solution (or with understanding why they don't work in ProChannel/why none of the 64-bit VSTs work)? I am still asking because they should work as far as I can tell and I don't want to be applying stereo verbs etc. and getting mono results further down the line. Cheers

It's my understanding that only ProChannel effects can be used in the ProChannel, unless they are wrapped as an FXchain. My understand may be incorrect though...I don't use the ProChannel at all anymore.
 
And as to why a VST effect doesn't work, it sounds like a stereo interleave problem, which is why I suggested routing to a stereo bus. It eliminates the whole problem.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

I just checked BT Tempo Delay in the Prochannel with a mono source. Works as expected, maintaining stereo separation of different delays panned hard left and right so long as the track interleave is set to stereo as suggested earlier.
 
 

I'm gonna have to go with...
 
You have the "Interleave" button on the tracks and/or busses and/or somewhere in the signal chain set to "Mono".
 
Check your signal chain for anything that is set to mono. This can happen in many places but first place to look is right in the track/bus strips in Sonar (look up "Interleave" in the manual to see what the button looks like). From there look inside your effects to see if they are set to output to mono.
 
This has already been alluded to in this thread but seriously... this is likely the issue and you need to hunt it down at EVERY point in your signal chain. One single thing in that chain (that can be infinitely long in the digital world) can turn your stereo signal into mono.
 
Cheers.