Timeline for What are the benefits of stereo or mono recording?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
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| Oct 19, 2020 at 22:14 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | Tim, I wasn't replying to you, I was replying to @CarlWitthoft , but I can see how I made that confusing by omitting the @. My response about "panning in stereo" or "panning in mono" is that panning is not part of the recording process. Just as Duston commented. Perhaps there's some vagueness in the original question - I interpreted it as being about the recording phase of production and not about the mixing phase or all phases taken together and called "recording". I should think the benefits of mixing, mastering, and releasing in stereo are obvious. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 20:21 | comment | added | Tim | I understand all that. What i'm trying to say is that mono is mono, and it cannot be panned like stereo, if everything is in mono. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 19:23 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | When I’m trying to capture the sound of a room, I use more than just two mics, so that’s not really recording stereo either. Aside from orchestras or drum kits and a few other situations, almost everything that we hear in commercial recordings was either recorded mono or what I would call “multi-mono”. Even orchestras are recorded with a stereo decca tree and stereo or multimono room mics plus mono close mics. It’s how you mix the tracks that makes a recording stereo or mono or surround. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 17:56 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | @ToddWilcox If you listen to the difference in a solo voice "live" in a concert hall vs., say, a dining room, you'll appreciate why proper stereo recording matters even for a single 'source.' | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 17:55 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | @Tim IIRC one of the first stereo playback systems in fact dropped 2 stylii in parallel into parallel grooves on an "LP" . Didn't get far. Multi-track tape systems were certainly the easiest to implement seeing as it's easy to align mag heads and so on. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 16:00 | comment | added | Duston | @Tim "Record" and "Mix" are two entirely different issues. I agree, you can only pan in stereo. But that has nothing to do with how the track was recorded. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 15:34 | comment | added | Tim | @CarlWitthoft - dare I say thanks again? Edited, so another opportunity. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 15:33 | history | edited | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 19, 2020 at 15:31 | comment | added | Tim | @ToddWilcox - so true - but that wasn't the point. Certainly record in mono - each track often is - but what can't happen then is to pan in mono. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 15:24 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | There are many good reasons to record mono and mix in stereo. We might have two ears but singers have only one mouth. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 15:14 | comment | added | Carl Witthoft | I wouldn't say "deemed sufficient" -- there simply wasn't reasonable technology to reproduce stereo. It was difficult enough to get amplitude balance over a group of performers; now imagine trying to create a stereo playback system based on needles and acoustic horns. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 14:08 | comment | added | Tim | @Duston - the ability to pan is only available in stereo. It's not possible to pan using mono. How can you pan a mono signal in the mix, unless the mix is stereo? | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 13:49 | comment | added | Duston | The ability to pan is independent of how the signal was recorded. You can record in mono using one microphone and pan it in the mix. Or you can record in stereo using two microphones. Which brings us back to OP's question:, why use one over the other? | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 10:45 | comment | added | Tim | In mono, there can be no effective panning. In stereo (recording) , panning can happen at any time after, as unless it's a live perfomance, each instrument will have its own track, and that can be panned wherever in the final mix. With mono, nothing is movable. | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 10:28 | comment | added | Lyuba Ivanova | But in the mix it doesn't matter because then we still build stereo using panning? Sorry for silly quesion | |
| Oct 19, 2020 at 10:05 | history | edited | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 19, 2020 at 8:08 | history | answered | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |