Mono Confusion
- Thread starter 10ndayii
- Start date
Steenamaroo
...
Well, generally, we work in stereo. We have two speakers; One to the left, one to the right.
To make something sound as if it's in the middle, we pan it in such a way that it is equally audible from the left and right speaker.
The fact that we have to ears means we interpret everything in stereo.
A singer is a mono source, but you can tell where he or she is in a room just by listening. That's because the reflections in the room and perceived volume at each ear allow you to calculate position.
If exactly the same signal is produced at more than one speaker, it's still mono.
I guess what you need to clarify is what you mean by "sounds like stereo".
If you use any stereo simulating plugins on a mono sample, like stereo reverbs or anything like that, then what you're hearing is a stereo signal, albeit synthetic.
To make something sound as if it's in the middle, we pan it in such a way that it is equally audible from the left and right speaker.
The fact that we have to ears means we interpret everything in stereo.
A singer is a mono source, but you can tell where he or she is in a room just by listening. That's because the reflections in the room and perceived volume at each ear allow you to calculate position.
If exactly the same signal is produced at more than one speaker, it's still mono.
I guess what you need to clarify is what you mean by "sounds like stereo".
If you use any stereo simulating plugins on a mono sample, like stereo reverbs or anything like that, then what you're hearing is a stereo signal, albeit synthetic.
Last edited:
R
RAMI
Guest
Yeah, I'm not sure what you're saying either. What do you mean by it "sounds stereo"? If it's because you hear it coming out of both speakers, that's still mono. Drums, vocals, guitar, bass, and about 99% of what anyone records is mono. The "stereo" part occurs when you take all those mono tracks and pan them across the stereo field. So, in essence, you end up with a stereo mix of a bunch of mono tracks.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
they JUST got through explaining this to you ..... did you not read the responses?
Mono has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with how many speakers it comes out of.
Mono will come from whereever you pan it. If you pan it to the center it will come through both speakers equally. If you pan it hard right or hard left it will only come out of that speaker. If you pan it slightly left or right it will come out of that speaker louder than the other but will still come out of the other speaker ...... just softer.
If you somehow hook up 1,478 speakers and pan it so it comes out of every single one of them it will still be mono.
R
RAMI
Guest
Did you even read any of the responses you got? It was explained to you very clearly.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
My turn.... 
Think of it in terms of "stereo image"...that's the 180 degree L-to-R sound stage.
A mono signal can be placed at any point in that stereo image...from full left, to center, to full right. At the full L/R points is where it will only come out of one speaker, but at any degree in between, it comes out of both. How far you pan it to one side will dictate how much you get out of one speaker VS the other.
Now here's the punch line...no matter where you pan it, it's still a mono signal and it will sound the same. If it's panned more to one side...it will just sound more to one side...BUT THE SIGNAL IS STILL MONO.
A stereo signal has to be recorded as a stereo source...with at least two mics...and it will need/occupy the entire L/R 180 degree stereo image...and, you usually don't need to do any panning...it just IS a stereo source signal.
So...two tracks don't always = stereo and two speakers don't always play back in stereo....it's all about the source signal.
.
Think of it in terms of "stereo image"...that's the 180 degree L-to-R sound stage.
A mono signal can be placed at any point in that stereo image...from full left, to center, to full right. At the full L/R points is where it will only come out of one speaker, but at any degree in between, it comes out of both. How far you pan it to one side will dictate how much you get out of one speaker VS the other.
Now here's the punch line...no matter where you pan it, it's still a mono signal and it will sound the same. If it's panned more to one side...it will just sound more to one side...BUT THE SIGNAL IS STILL MONO.
A stereo signal has to be recorded as a stereo source...with at least two mics...and it will need/occupy the entire L/R 180 degree stereo image...and, you usually don't need to do any panning...it just IS a stereo source signal.
So...two tracks don't always = stereo and two speakers don't always play back in stereo....it's all about the source signal.
.
Last edited:
R
RAMI
Guest
In a nutshell, Mono is exactly the same as Stereo. Just different.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Exactly.
Steenamaroo
...
See, this is why we're all glad RAMI is here! lol.
Richard Monroe
Well-known member
OK 10ndayii, let's try this:
Stereo recording is a way to use 2 or more mics to create a model of what you would have heard if you had been in the room when the sound was recorded. It is not an electronic decision. Your 2 ears don't hear the same thing at the same time. If a sound is to your left, it gets to your left ear before the right, and is louder on the left than the right. Your brain interprets these sounds so you know the sound is coming from your left.
Of course, stereo recording is only a model. If we do spaced stereo recording, the mics may be 10' apart. You could never hear that exact sound, because your ears aren't 10' apart. The most accurate form of stereo recording is binaural, where 2 small mics, with diaphragms similar to your eardrums, are placed in a dummy head. But- "most accurate" doesn't mean "best" necessarily.
The point is- stereo sound is all about what you hear on the left and right speaker that is *not* the same. When mixing, we "pan" the tracks, just like a camera "pans" across a scene. Some stuff goes to the left, some to the right, and some equally to both sides (this is called "down the middle"). Some things may be sent to both sides, but one more than the other. When a track is mostly or entirely on the right side, we call it panned "hard" right. If it's more like 60/40, we would call it panned "soft".
If exactly the same thing is coming out of 2 speakers, it is called 2-channel mono. This is what you hear on AM radio, which does not have stereo broadcast capability. That's one reason why a good mixing engineer will always check to make sure his mix sounds OK in mono, in case it actually makes it to an AM radio. It's happened to me. (Yay!). A lot of recording software lets you set up tracks as "mono" or "stereo". This is bogus. If you only have one track, it is a mono track.
For the record, the "classic" rock mix for most of the 60's was to send guitars to one side, vocals to the other, with bass and drums down the middle. That's the basic rudimentary rock mix. Note that by using changes in panning during the mix, you can create stereo mixes that can't exist in real acoustic space. This is the musical equivalent of an M.C. Escher painting. It drives classical musicians nuts.
Note that headphones muddy up the water quite a bit. In a real room, there is damned little that you hear in one ear, that you don't hear in the other. If you do, it's probably a bug in your ear. But- if I pan something hard, with headphones, you really only hear it in one ear. This is one of several reasons why good mixing engineers use monitor speakers, not headphones, for mixing.
Hope that makes it clearer.
Stereo recording is a way to use 2 or more mics to create a model of what you would have heard if you had been in the room when the sound was recorded. It is not an electronic decision. Your 2 ears don't hear the same thing at the same time. If a sound is to your left, it gets to your left ear before the right, and is louder on the left than the right. Your brain interprets these sounds so you know the sound is coming from your left.
Of course, stereo recording is only a model. If we do spaced stereo recording, the mics may be 10' apart. You could never hear that exact sound, because your ears aren't 10' apart. The most accurate form of stereo recording is binaural, where 2 small mics, with diaphragms similar to your eardrums, are placed in a dummy head. But- "most accurate" doesn't mean "best" necessarily.
The point is- stereo sound is all about what you hear on the left and right speaker that is *not* the same. When mixing, we "pan" the tracks, just like a camera "pans" across a scene. Some stuff goes to the left, some to the right, and some equally to both sides (this is called "down the middle"). Some things may be sent to both sides, but one more than the other. When a track is mostly or entirely on the right side, we call it panned "hard" right. If it's more like 60/40, we would call it panned "soft".
If exactly the same thing is coming out of 2 speakers, it is called 2-channel mono. This is what you hear on AM radio, which does not have stereo broadcast capability. That's one reason why a good mixing engineer will always check to make sure his mix sounds OK in mono, in case it actually makes it to an AM radio. It's happened to me. (Yay!). A lot of recording software lets you set up tracks as "mono" or "stereo". This is bogus. If you only have one track, it is a mono track.
For the record, the "classic" rock mix for most of the 60's was to send guitars to one side, vocals to the other, with bass and drums down the middle. That's the basic rudimentary rock mix. Note that by using changes in panning during the mix, you can create stereo mixes that can't exist in real acoustic space. This is the musical equivalent of an M.C. Escher painting. It drives classical musicians nuts.
Note that headphones muddy up the water quite a bit. In a real room, there is damned little that you hear in one ear, that you don't hear in the other. If you do, it's probably a bug in your ear. But- if I pan something hard, with headphones, you really only hear it in one ear. This is one of several reasons why good mixing engineers use monitor speakers, not headphones, for mixing.
Hope that makes it clearer.
R
