1."stereo instrument recording"= piano recorded to two tracks w/different pan ,vol level,instrumental factors like EQ being different in each of the 2 tracks so combined and output to 2 speakers the effect in them would be stereo, as opposed to being dual mono which would mean each of the 2 tracks were the same, just output to 2 speakers where the sound would be the same as if I used one of them centrally panned....?
Yes, that's right.
Well, technically summing the two components of a stereo image wouldn't be identical to just panning one of them center, but for the purposes of this discussion, in the context of maintaining stereo image, yes.
2."recorder doesn't offer stereo tracks and if it did..etc"...in other words this would be a single track w/2 pan controls and a configuration that would split up the signal being recorded so the track itself played back on 2 speakers would produce the same effect as the stereo master track my unit makes( or the 2 tracks it gets copied to do as played together w/panning used to separate them)does....
It doesn't 'split up the signal'. Input one would record down to track left, and input two would record down to track right.
Exactly the same as having two regular tracks like you do now, except they're grouped/connected/tied as one in your hardware, or software.
Basically in terms of my unit a single track out of the 8 in multitrack mode is always going to be mono
I only glanced at the spec sheet but yes, I believe so.
The 006 model makes a point of detailing mono/stereo tracks whereas yours does not.
Not sure if I understand the difference between dual mono + stereo as this applies to what we're focusing on......unless you're referring to the stereo master track copied to two tracks as being a "stereo instrument recording" and the initial pre-stereo master track recording process using two tracks as described above would be still be dual mono regardless of individual track settings re-pan etc..(although using this 2 track initial recording process would produce a better result in the stereo master track than if I just recorded to one track initially....)
This probably ends up in a semantics battle.
I think the technical definition of stereo is simply that left and right are different.
Personally, I use the word stereo when a left right image, as perceived by your ears, is capture and maintained.
By the book vox on the left and bass on the right is stereo. By my book, I'd want two mics on a single source creating an image.
The only time I ever use, or see, the phrase 'dual mono' is when bouncing out of ProTools.
Dual mono will give me two files - Mix Left and Mix Right, whereas Stereo Interleaved will give me one stereo file, just like any mp3 you listen to.
In that case it's simply about how the files are presented. The content is the same.
The stereo master is really just your output path.
If you bounce a mix that happens to be comprised of 8 unique audio tracks all panned dead center, then the 'stereo' output left and right will be identical.
By the real book that's probably not technically stereo.
Having fun?
As is often the case, the words are a lot less important than the understanding.
If you understand the ins+outs+routing, and know what's going to come out, it's all good.