Mono/Stereo Miking

[Noplasticrobots]

I'm reading Creative Recording Recording 2 by Paul White and there's a small chapter on stereo recording techniques. From what I understand stereo recordings are nothing more than two mono microphones angled to capture sound from a wider angle to give a more spatial representation of sound to the human ear.

My confusion comes in here. I thought stereo recording had to be done with a stereo microphone. Unless I'm reading this all wrong, anyone can record in stereo with two mono microphones? If that's the case why weren't people recording "In Stereo" when this whole shebang first started?

Any explanations would be appreciated.

 

[famous beagle]

Yes it can be done with two microphones. That's essentially what a stereo microphone is: two mics built into one casing.

A stereo mic is like your head if your ears were the mics.

If you set up two separate mics and record the same source, you can pan each individual track (mic 1 panned left, mic 2 panned right, for example), and you'll have a stereo image of that sound.

 

[bennychico11]

Unless I'm reading this all wrong, anyone can record in stereo with two mono microphones? If that's the case why weren't people recording "In Stereo" when this whole shebang first started?

correct, that's how it's done. however, why record everything in stereo when it doesn't create a stereo image? In other words...a sound that comes from one (number one meaning mono) place doesn't need to be recorded in stereo unless that's the feel you're going for. A vocalist has sound that comes out of his/her mouth, so putting two mics on the mouth doesn't really create that much of a difference in sound. The sound is only coming from one place. An instrument like a guitar has multiple sounds. One from the body of the instrument and another from the fret area. Same with a piano....it's such a large instrument with many differen strings being struck and many different physical locations. Also, recording everything in stereo means more tracks are involved taking up more space on your computer or tape machine or whatever. If you were recording on a 24 track machine, you'd only be able to record 12 "stereo tracks".

stereo recording is great, but not always needed. You'll see it done on guitar, piano, small and large ensembles, and drums. Think mono=one sound, stereo=more than one sound.
but there are no set rules, and if you like the way stereo sounds on everything, do it!