Mono vs Stereo for a good mix

[Harry]

Hey everyone!! - I have always made stereo midi tracks when making a new project for orchestral and rock music. I aim to create a nice sonic space, with each part defined in my mix.

But Im questionning that now, Im wondering, how do I decide to create a stereo or mono track for each midi instrument, piano, strings, percussion, choirs, drums etc. Are there any advantages, disadvantages to either format?

Id be really interested to hear peoples opinions on this, thanks so much.

[EdRyan]

In a real world sound recording situation, sound sources such as a bass, guitar, vocals etc tend to be monophonic, due to the fact they originate from a single sound source,then picked up by a single receiver. Things like drums, guitar cabs, choirs etc can be a bit more difficult, because you will mic them from multiple positions.

Then you should consider the polar dispersion pattern of the source. Put simply, the ratio of direction that sound travels in from the source. If you are familiar with microphone pick up patterns, you can think of it as the same principle in reverse.

It is the environment that then adds delay,echo and reverb to the source. These are created by copies of the source being picked up after the most direct source path is received by the mic or listener. So in effect, the environment size, material, listening position/mic placement, sound source placement,direction & width are what generate spacial information, not the instrument itself.

It will be your instruments internal or daw/plugins that simulate the above. Your instrument will be a monophonic sound source. It's location within the mix will depend on your panning and spacial processing via reverb,delay and width controllers.

Unless you are using stereo process reverb,delay and width plugins, there is no point in running a stereo track. You could achieve the same amount of manipulation and placement with a mono channel and plugs.

[Harry]

thanks for that Ed, some insightful tips, but im confused by "Your instrument will be a monophonic sound source". Wouldnt this depend on how the virtual instrument was originally recorded? what if it was recorded in stereo? like many of the vsl orchestral instruments. And what about the fact that we hear all instruments with 2 ears? isnt there a lot to be said for both techniques?

[waxxy]

i wouldnt really worry about rights or wrongs if you think it sounds good keep it

one rule most follow is bass and kick are mono that way they sit in the middle of the mix and if your doing dance it can give it lots of drive.but if your using lots of vsts some are already set up to take advantage of your daw so they useally sit well in a mix.

[EdRyan]

Originally Posted by Harry

thanks for that Ed, some insightful tips, but im confused by "Your instrument will be a monophonic sound source". Wouldnt this depend on how the virtual instrument was originally recorded? what if it was recorded in stereo? like many of the vsl orchestral instruments. And what about the fact that we hear all instruments with 2 ears? isnt there a lot to be said for both techniques?

You are getting confused with stereo recording and stereo mixing.

Orchestras are a good example to go from.

Due to their sheer size, an orchestra would be recorded using many microphones around the kit. This gives the recording a stereo width.

Now imagine you have a solo vocalist on the opposite side of the stage, covered with just one mic.

When you come to mixdown the project, you would have to pan the orchestra and vocalist apart to maintain their stage position. Your panning would decide the location of the orchestra(or vocalist for that matter), or it's possible to alter the width using extremely wide or narrow pan schemes.

And if you wanted the vocalist to sound further away, you would need to implement delay,echo and reverb to simulate the effect of increased distance or room size.

As for your hearing. A single ear would still be capable of some spatial placement. It has been suggested that animals have two ears as a form of defence mechanism. The human brain uses both ears to extend the accuracy of placement for objects. It takes around 620ms for sound to travel around your head (this isn't set in concrete, the size of your head plays a big part in the physical time). Your brain knows this is occuring, then uses the time difference and direction of sound arriving at each ear to decide where the object is and how far in that direction.

[KRE8A]

Originally Posted by waxxy

i wouldnt really worry about rights or wrongs if you think it sounds good keep it

one rule most follow is bass and kick are mono that way they sit in the middle of the mix and if your doing dance it can give it lots of drive.but if your using lots of vsts some are already set up to take advantage of your daw so they useally sit well in a mix.

Hi waxxy,

I thought that i might point out that you state that bass and kick are mono direct signals, very true. I just want to add that in dance music, sometimes splitting the signals, as stereo is a good thing because the volume drops a slight touch below the set threshhold. So my point is that when to loud and not set in the processor, pan left and right and the dullness will occur, also other parts like synths. etc. are given a pan effect. This is good when you're testing out and exploring sound recorded parts, in which how they can fit into, what you are recording. After all this, you can re - cable back into mono recording.

I just looked and read back into your quote and realised that mono sits everything in the middle and also given drive. I hope my post hasn't been pointless.

RESPECTIVELY

I am no engineer or anything like that, i just wanted to share some of my knowledge and practical experiences