Im Lost Now..MONO OR STEREO

[bad news]

mono or stereo when recording vocals..?
because the vocals seem fuller when its stereo..or is it no diff..
someone let me know
thanks

[gtrman_66]

Vocal tracks are most commonly recorded mono. Backing vocal parts etc. can be panned across the stereo image, but each part is recorded as a mono track 99.999% of the time.

[bennychico11]

mono = 1 mic
stereo = 2 mics

Your voice typically has sound coming from one place...your mouth. so you use one microphone. recording a track in stereo is usually meant for instruments that produce more than one sound (drums, acoustic guitars, choirs, piano, etc.)

---and you beat me to it gtr---

[XLR]

The only reasons I could see for using 2 mic's on a voice are:
1) you like the sound of your voice mic'd from a distance, have a great sounding room, so are mic'ing the room with a stereo pair
2) with close mic'ing, you like the combined sound of two different mic's positioned right next to each other (to avoid phase problems)

Tim

[lotuscent]

depends on what you want to do with the mix. you can certainly do cool stuff with a stereo (or more) vox track...

there are limitless possibilities, really.

just because other people only see certain uses or applications for stereo vox does not mean you can't discover your own or talk to different people.

i'd say experiment if you have the time.

[chessrock]

The problem with stereo vocals is that it gets distracting at times.

You pretty much want the vocal track straight-up, dead center in the mix.

And what happens if you give the vocal any sort of stereo width ... is that if the singer doesn't stick his head in a vice or something, you get this very subtle, unfocused quality to it. Any time the vocalist "works the mic" in any fashion, you lose a little of that center focus as his head moves slightly to the left, to the right, or back. Basically, if the vocalist is in any way animated and likes to move around at all when he/she tracks, then you might run in to some issues.

Another issue is that you just have to be recording in a really good-sounding room, because it's going to play an even larger factor if you're stereo micing anything.

[bad news]

thanks to everyone in here

[volltreffer]

The only 'stereo like' thing I could think of is to use several mics on the same track to avoid clipping on louder parts. That MAY help in comping a good track in the end...

YMMV

aXel

[Farview]

That still isn't stereo, it is just double mic'd. When you use 2 mics on a snare (top and bottom), it isn't stereo. It is just 2 mics on a snare.