Stereo track or 2 mono tracks...

[schwa]

Hi All,

I have been wondering abou this for a while and thought I would put it ou there for the experts to consider. It is mostly concerned with guitar tracks, but would be applicable to any stereo source.


Most of the time, I record my electric guitar parts in stereo. This makes it a little easier to manage the track levels, sends, and such. The thing is, I can't seem to figure out how to manage the "stereo field" of these types of tracks.

If I split the two stereo parts into individual mono tracks I have much more flexibility in terms of panning the parts, which is helpful in the mixing process. Unfortunately, I then lose some of the ease in managing levels and effects settings.

I know there are no rules, but are there any accepted practices for stereo sources?

thanks for any input or strategies you might want to share.

[Gidge]

I have no idea what is "accepted" but i know that recording a 2 mono tracks is much more flexible, and far outweighs the few pros of doing a stereo track.....you may want to use different effects, different EQ, etc on the two sides and that cant be done if you record it stereo....

[schwa]

Thanks for the input gidge, I however find that I DO want to eq or compress the two sides of a stereo guitar track the same way in most cases. What I can figure out is how to tune the panning of a stereo track other than left or right.

I suppose I could eq and compress them and set the panning later in the mix process.

[maestro_dmc]

Huh?



Maybe I missed something, but. . . .

Huh?


How are you recording "stereo" Electric Guitar parts?

x/y with 2 SM57's?
One close one distant?(How is this stereo?)
Some configuration of 3 mics?

What I can figure out is how to tune the panning of a stereo track other than left or right.

I thought panning was left or right.

Huh?

Do you want to pan UP? Or IN?

Sorry if I'm being obtuse, but what are you guys talking about???

[schwa]

My stereo source is from a POD, as it happens, but I could be doing a stereo mic setup as well.

With two mono tracks, one can limit the spread of the stereo field with pan controls, but I don't know how to do this with a stereo track.

That is to say, with mono tracks, I can pan from center all the way to the right or the left. With a stereo track there is no way to have the tracks sit at say 2:00 to the right and left?

Clear as mud?

[shackrock]

i'm confused, but i say - if it's from your pod in stereo, i guess just keep it like that if it is how you want it to sound! haha.

[Tukkis]

unless your doing some effects on your POD like chorus or phaser why even both recording a stereo track. Why not just record one mono?

[Armistice]

I presume you're talking about taking two outputs from a guitar processor that has them - useful for the chorus / flanger type effects.

I do this a bit, and what I find is that if you have too many "stereo" sources in a mix, then everything is very hard to define and it doesn't really hang together.

There's a natural tendency when using these type of things to pan one hard L and the other hard R because on its own, that sounds really grouse and wiiiiide and swooshy and funky. I've found that in a mix however everything just interferes with everything else so what I tend to do is to try to postion things a little differently.

You should be able to pan the stereo tracks wherever you like though - stereo is just two mono tracks with different versions of the same information on it.

If I have electric piano, organ and electric guitar all as stereo souces, then I will put the two keyboards as follows (as an example):

Piano - hard L centre
Organ - centre hard R
Geetar - half L half R

makes it sort or easier to hear and you still get the advantages of a "larger". Other times, things just sound better in mono.

Then, when/if reverbing, try to separate them front to back a bit as well by using more/less.

Hope this is the sort of advice you're looking for? Works for me.

Cheers