Why do i have to record vocals mono and not stereo?

[John Willett]

I'm using sonar 8.5 and i used to record my vocal tracks stereo like other music tracks but I've read that it is preferable to record vocal tracks mono and stereo but i don't know why. does any body give me an answer please?

If you have assumed M&S is "mono and stereo" this is incorrect - it means "mid & sides" and involves a forward facing mic. (normally a cardioid is used) plus a figure-8 pointing sideways to the left and then matrixed into left/right stereo.

 

[Bobbsy]

Good spot, John. That could well be what he means by "mono and stereo".

If so, I'll just add that, even if you have the gear, M-S is NOT a technique you'd usually use for a solo vocal in a home studio.

 

[bLUiVORY]

Gecko zzed hit the nail on the head in post #2 - one mic or two - it depends on what you're trying to achieve.

And although it's been commented more than once that the voice is a single source of sound, 'so use one mic' - most people I know have 2 ears.

 

[Farview]

Gecko zzed hit the nail on the head in post #2 - one mic or two - it depends on what you're trying to achieve.

And although it's been commented more than once that the voice is a single source of sound, 'so use one mic' - most people I know have 2 ears.

Yes, most of us have two ears. But with those two ears we hear the environment that the sound we are listening to is in. In a production, that is very rarely useful.
When you stereo mic something like a voice or a single speaker guitar amp, you are recording a mono instrument in the room. The stereo part of the signal is the sound ofthe room. This can be awesome in certain circumstances, but not usually in the random bedrooms, closets and basements that home recordists just starting out (I assume the op is, because of the question) are saddled with.

 

[bLUiVORY]

This can be awesome in certain circumstances, but not usually in the random bedrooms, closets and basements that home recordists just starting out (I assume the op is, because of the question) are saddled with.

Good point, Jay.

 

[Massive Master]

Throwing in late -- I've had recordings come in with absolutely terrible phase cancellation in the vocal... I always asked about if there was a non-wet mult somewhere (usually an aux send that wasn't 100% wet). That's the problem the majority of the time.

More than a few times though, the engineer would swear up & down that there wasn't anything like that going on, but at some point he'd say "I wonder if it was one of the microphones..."

I'd say "ONE of? You used more than one?"

He'd say "Yeah - One right up close and another (a few inches, a foot, whatever) back a bit."

Super-bad idea. SUPER bad.

Even if you make a PROPER "stereo" close-up vocal recording (as in, XY, ORTF, MS, Jecklin, etc.) the *tiniest* deflection of the source is going to cause absolute chaos in the imaging.

You can record as many sources as you want, pan them however you want. But a single source is a single source. "Stereo" is the difference between left and right. As Jay mentioned, if you want to capture the room (usually completely separate from the source - a stereo pair distant from the vocalist) along with the source, that's fine. But if you're trying to get some lush, wide vocal spread by multi-mic'ing a single vocal, it probably ain't gonna happen.

 

[Atkron205]

I am using a mixer and not an interface which is connected to the DAW on the computer through the line in plug of the sound card. My mixer has a pan button for every channel. So my question is how to adjust the pan of this channel during vocal recordings. Thank you so much for caring.

The pan is usually used for stereo inputs such as a keyboard, for instance, the keyboard has a left and right output, in this case you could use channels 8 and 9 on the board, pan 8 left and 9 right. for mono inputs such as a kick drum or vocals, leave in the center. As some here have said, your voice comes from one source, although Gecko's idea of the cave was good. As Jimmy said, if you have more than one voice you may need more mics.

 

[Supercreep]

I came to a thread in which I thought I would find amusement, and folks are dropping knowledge. I love this website.

 

[bLUiVORY]

I came to a thread in which I thought I would find amusement, and folks are dropping knowledge. I love this website.

Great, isn't it? And you're on scooper patrol!

So once you pick up all the droppings, all you have to do is strain-out the opinions and you're good to go.