Why would anyone want to use mono sounds instead of stereo when using sound libraries?  I've always used stereo.
 
Aric

Hmm. Depends what you're trying to achieve, really. There aren't many standard musical instruments that have any kind of meaningful stereo image. Large things like drum kits and pianos, sure. But not a bass or a guitar.
 
One reason for using mono signals it that it makes the individual elements of a stereo mix less prone to ambiguous positioning. Which may or may not be desirable, depending on what you're doing. I don't think either of stereo or mono can be said to be "better" than the other.

There are reasons. A bass sound might have been sampled in stereo or have some sort of stereo effect on it and you might not like hearing that way in your mix. Sometimes it better to collapse it down and centre it instead. The same could be said for snares and kicks too.
 
You might want to use three brass patches say to play three brass parts. The three brass patches might be very wide stereo wise for example but having all of them that way may not also suit your mix. So you might collapse them all down to mono and position them close togther as a tight group perhaps.
 
Also a sound might not just need to take up an interleaved track and use two channels for plug in processing. Things could be tight CPU wise and turning some stereo sounds that you know will be centered or in just one spot can save a bit of processing power here and there too.

This is a huge issue, bit flipper gave a recent full on exquisite discussion of these issues in response to a similar inquiry. Am mobile at the moment but just search the forum for a lot of discussion on this...it is very confusing and talked about at length
 
 

Thanks for the responses.  I currently working on an orchestral project.  I'd like to get a little more definition from my low brass and low woodwinds.  I like the balance between the instruments but I'd like to hear more of their individual tone qualities.  Each instrument is panned to where I like, I'm just wondering if using mono sounds would help.  I'm know EQ would help on individual instruments but I'm afraid of doing too much as not to ruin the tonal characteristics of each instrument.

Assuming it was sampled that way then yes it probably would. Well it depends what you are going for. However it probably won't make that much audible difference, it's all going to swim around in the mix one way or the other.
 
Think about how you would go about it if you were recording an actual orchestra. Would you close mic the whole orchestra, or would just stick a few mics in front of the players?
 
As far as reverbs are concerned for instance I would make sure all sounds are dry and put them all through the same reverb bus, I assuming here you are mainly doing one instrument at a time of course and your samples are dry(ish).


You would then "close mic" your soloists if you like as and when you please to bring out a performance (or play the instruments louder!)

Nitrox32
Why would anyone want to use mono sounds instead of stereo when using sound libraries?  I've always used stereo.
 
Aric

Why would one prefer a blue colored car over a red colored car? When you figure this question out, you'll answer your own post.
 
FYI: Most tracks in a song are mono and most sounds are mono

this'll keep you busy for awhile and give you a headache but discusses lots associated with your question and things you never even thought about but probably should:
my favorite: (note bitflippers awesome off the cuff depiction of all the mono vs stereo issues one has to consider; it's really amazing): http://forum.cakewalk.com/Interleave-Mono-or-Stereo-educate-me-m2956296.aspx
also, http://forum.cakewalk.com/Stereo-v-Mono-interleave-and-mixing-m1629981.aspx
and this'll make your head spin:   http://forum.cakewalk.com/Mono-or-Stereo-m2956574.aspx
This goes way back... even further than this:  http://forum.cakewalk.com/We-were-having-this-little-chat-over-here-about-mono-and-stereo-tracks-in-Sonar-m1586221.aspx#1586221
 
bottom line, to me? OY!

Thanks for the links. In my last comment about about why would anyone would want to use mono instead of stereo, I I didn't mean to sound arrogant, I only was trying to understand the purpose of mono sounds.  Sorry if I offended anyone who uses mono tracks elusively.
 
Aric

Just to further clarify what I'm trying to achieve (if possible), I'm working on an orchestral piece that uses only woodwinds and brass.  The lower voices are basically block chords.  The overall chordal balance between instruments produces a nice overall sound.  Because the lower voices consist of many instruments (tuba, euphonium, trombone, bari sax, tenor sax, bassoon and bass clarinet), they all are taking up the same frequency space.  Because of this I have lost the characteristic sound of each instrument.  What I've done so far is eq'ed out the sub bass frequencies of each instrument, narrowed the stereo field of each instrument and panned them to their proper position on the stage.  The reverb is subtle and I don't feel there is a muddiness to the overall sound.  As a result I hear a nice blended sound.  That being said, in this situation with seven instruments occupying the same frequency space playing only block chords is achieving a blending sound the best I can hope for (which I'm fine with) or is there a way to improve the mix by using mono sounds instead of stereo to isolate each instrument.  I recently posted the same question on the VSL forums.  The only response that I got was that based on my situation creating a blended sound was the best I could get.  Any other thoughts?