recording tracks in mono vs stereo

when you record a track do you record it in mono or stereo? I've been recording my stuff in stereo and then panning it left or right during the mixing process. what are you doing and why? advantages and disadvantages

when you record in mono which side (Left or Right) are you selecting?

mtgonzalez


when you record in mono which side (Left or Right) are you selecting?

The one that corresponds to the input I am recording from

the two track in your one track view are actually two seperate mono tracks..a left and a right..when your panning your guitars..as i do too..use the left input..so you just have one mono track..something to keep in mind is the way you are doing it puts extra taxing on your cpu..you might as well be recording 40 tracks if your only recording 20 with dual mono.

Yes, double tracking will give you a nice wide sound from your instruments, and as you've discovered, nudging one cloned track relative to the original, then panning them will get you some way towards this.

However, in my opinion and experience, there is absolutely NO substitute for actually recording the thing twice and paning the resulting 2 tracks L/R.
 
I've read that certain highly regarded Metal producers will record guitars as many as 5/6 times per side to get 'that' sound.

Setting up a double track this way will not only result in timing differences, you'll get pitch variations, timbre variations, and many people will go to the extent of using a different microphone for each take, and for guitars, using different pickups, amp settings, mikling a different amp speaker, even using a different amp are all viable options.

You might not want to go HARD L/R, sometimes as little as 20% L/R can produce magical results

For mixdown unless you're doing something fancy, you should be mixing down into stereo.

I thoroughly recommend This Book for anyone involved in mixing, newbies & veterans alike.

Just because a source is mono does NOT mean you can't make a nice stereo (pseudo stereo - not really true stereo) recording of it that works well in context. The more you understand, the more you can play with the rules to your advantage.

Take for example an electric guitar, where you mic the amp. Mono source. Correct? Correct. But we find in this song of ours, it is going to panned around 50% to the left. All good. We record a mono track. It sounds good at 50% L but just sounds really narrow. ONLY exactly at that 50% point. Turns out not much else is going to be happening around there and you want it to really engulf the entire left hand side, leaving space for the vocals in the middle. We happen to have two mics, a condenser and a dynamic. What I might do, is record the amp with TWO mics. I won't go into the details of phase here, but just make sure they are in phase when you do this! Nudging in SONAR post record is acceptable. Now, condenser is a little brighter, dynamic is not so. So we decide to pan the condenser at around 80%L and the dynamic at around 20%. Now the guitar still sounds like it is at 50%, but it's position is more vauge. It fills out the space much more effectively, filling in those empty gaps but also leaving space still for the vocals in the middle. The brighter condenser at the outside enhances stereo perception, whereas the dynamic in close fills out the sound.

Similar methods can be attempted with multiple recordings, but will get a different effect, which may or may not be what you are looking for. Reverb and delays can also be used to achieve a similar purpose but may not work in context of the song.

There are so many techniques out there guys, it's all about learning them and when or not to apply them. I don't like to work on the rule of mono source - mono output. Although you can't really make a technical 'stereo' recording, pseudo stereo is always a possibility for some interesting results. But again, it ALWAYS depends on the song.

I have used this technique alongside multitracked guitars in a chorus to give me a nice wall of sound and I feel it works very well! I really love this one and really like to use it a lot - when the song allows it.

I avoid recording anything in stereo just to avoid phase issues.

I've skimmed over the posts and didn't see this mentioned, but I apologize if I just missed it.

Recording a mono part in stereo takes away proper panning capabilities.

With a stereo track, the pan control really just becomes a balance between the left and right side. You are merely turning down the side that you are panning away from (ie: pan to the left, turns down the right side, giving you an illusion is it panning).

With a mono part recorded in mono - your panning can pinpoint an exact position in the stereo spectrum, and provides the most control

For this reason, I never record stereo, even with a stereo instrument. What I do in that case is record the the left/right channels to their own mono tracks. Then I have full control of the panning. Hard left/right has the same effect as recording stereo, but you are not stuck with it!

Just my 2 cents.

mtgonzalez
what are you doing and why? advantages and disadvantages

I started out a couple of years ago recording my vocals and trumpet (separately) in stereo; thinking that it would make the sound "bigger" or broader. After following threads on other forums, I tried them in mono and found that they occupy a much more prescent space in the mix. I found stereo on each of them made them softer and not as vibrant - I may look at that again as a particular effect for another time?

As for now: Mono for mono source, stereo for stereo generally.

mtgonzalez

I might add a nudge to it to see if that helps out in any problem areas.

Is this "nudging" moving it forward in time slightly to fatten the sound?

If I don't click on 'interleave', the sound is thin and just on one side. If I select 'interleave' the sound is on both sides, it sounds better to me, plus I can adjust panning if I want to. So this is a stereo track, even though I'm using one mike?

But this part I don't get. And per what Roddery said abpve, when I select a mono record input, brand new audio track with interleave stereo, I get a mono (single wave) track. This isn't just 'cause the pan control is set over to one side?
'Cake says roughly.. Interleave is to force a stereo track path down to mono. Unless I'm mistaken it doesn't define the track mode.
 

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I think what happen is that the project i was working on was created in a template that had NO master bus. Don't know why I used that template. When I created a new project with the default template w/Master Bus, the interleave automatically is in a mono status when I select a mono input track

Side note: I tried creating my own project template but it doesn't show up in the template selection when creating a new project. I check the folder that hold the other templates and the one i created is there. Any idea how to add it to the template selection?

I downloaded Wavosaur for WAV to MP3 conversion..wow that app is robust...looks like I'll have to join another user forum!?!?

Late to the party.... lots of good advice up above.

I always consider the instrument I'm recording... if it's a mono source I record it mono. The side (R/L) doesn't matter. It ends up centered in a mono track. Totally pan-able R or L as needed.

If the instrument is truly a stereo output, I do record it stereo.

With huge hard drives, this is not so much an issue today as it was when I first started recording. A stereo track uses twice the HD space as a mono. Back in the days of much smaller HD's this was valuable real estate that we needed to conserve. As a result, I went for mono unless stereo was an absolute must.

All the little tricks with panning and doubling are valid techniques to accomplish some "studio magic" with the sound. I use them from time to time. Generally I try for a balanced mix..... what happens on one side of the stereo field should have something equally interesting happening on the other side.

On a mix down, I always mix to stereo. mixing to stereo should not weaken the robustness of the sound. If it does, you have something else going on that needs to be fixed.




my 2 cents

Hello
 
I realize it has been over a month since the original posting of this. And nearly the same since the last.
 
I do feel a bit obligated however to un-muck the waters as they be.
 
True per track stereo can be achieved by.
 
1) Stereo mic - A microphone with a pattern 180* opposite each other with a null center.
 
2) M/S recording and decoding - Using two mic' the first being a cardioid pointing toward source. And a figure-eight 90* left so that the two are perpendicular to one another. And so that the source mic (cardioid) sits exactly in the null spot of the figure-eight allowing both direct and indirect signal to be decoded by the M/S matrix. Adding in phase and subtracting out of phase signal to produce L/R stereo image.
 
Stereo mic' have there niche with overheads area/room mic'ing etc. but would not be effective or practical for any direct, or proximal applications for obvious reasons.
 
M/S recording and processing is a powerful way to manipulate stereo signals. Often used by mastering engineers to pull things out of a mix, or enhance certain aspects the stereo field.
 
At the end of the day track everything that is close, proximal, or direct using mono.
 
I say this for a multitude of reasons of which I have no wanting to delve into now.
But for the most part the over all flexibility using multiple mono signals to create depth, and width of field using short delays, phase reversal, and having more precise control when panning.
 
There is copping tracks as well. But I strongly suggest against it. Two separate guitars takes playing the same bit panned against each other sounds 100% better 100% of the time.
 
Tread light in the land of comps, and nudging because it is littered with booby-traps, and pitfalls.
Comb filtering, phase relation amongst like tracks as well as the entire mix just to name a few. 
 
If you fill strongly against tracking more than once at least use a short delay on one of the two twins rather than pushing the physical signal down tempo.
 
I gotta growler   If I remember anything else and fill like typing rather than creating Ill drop back in.
 
Hope this helps someone,
 
MP3ISTHEDEVIL