How to expand mono to stereo?

C

clazymike

New member
I just had a quick question about mono and stereo.

When I record in mono, mix down in mono and then master in mono, obviously it doesn't sound like stereo. Once the final recording is complete, is there any way I can expand that sound to have the fullness of something in stereo?

I mainly deal with vocal only music, like barbershop. So when I'm mixing, should I pan two voices (out of four) to the left and the other two to the right to create a stereo spread?

I really don't know too much about this.

Thanks.
 
You could do it a number of different ways. I'd pan I guy left about 65%, one guy rite about 65%, one guy left about 30% and one guy rite about 30%. This keeps everybody in their own spot in the stereo field. It depends on if everyone's singing at once most of the time or not, etc... Try it a few different ways and see what sounds the best to you.
 
This won't give you a "true" stereo mix if the stuff's already recorded mono, but if you want to "open up" the mix a little try adding a little bit of stereo reverb if you don't want to re-record the stuff.
 
So in order to have a true stereo mix I have to record in stereo? Even if my mic won't give a stereo output?

Can you please elaborate?
 
no, you can record a bunch of mono sources and , like Sean mentioned, pan them across the stereo spread during mixing....
 
Remember that tracking four vocals seperate and then mixing them into a stereo field isn't the same as tracking them once with a stereo mic setup.
The harmony and feeling of the performance will be better in most cases when tracking is done with the stereo setup.
 
Or... in you sound editing application, you could channel convert your mono wave file into a stereo wave file.

:)

spin
 
Thats what reverbs are for...

I agree with you that stereo recording sounds better IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT ROOM AND THE RIGHT MIC! An U87 has a wide recording area, so it mics the room too.
For us homies, it's usually fine to mic 4 mono voices and running the paned L+R thru a good stereo reverb.
 
This has nothing to do with mic or room quality. If you can mic 4 seperate vocals, you can also make 2 stereo pair of mics. Ofcourse you get more roomacoustic with the stereo setup on your mics, but you'll only have it once in a natural way. With four seperate mics (or seperate recordings) you'll have four times a little roomacoustic, which you're altering in the panning stage. So its one or the other and I'm not sure which one sounds the best.

What I was referring to is that the performance will be better. Just like recording drum and bass at the same time instead of after each other. I always (well mostly) prefer a better performance over a better sound. (to some degree)
 
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