great recording all mono tracks ?

[maxman65]

I'm limited to 8 track . This is partly deliberate . I figure if it doesn't sound good on 8 then I'll just make it twice as bad in 16. Anyway I'm now experimenting with recording individual tracks as single rather than any stereo pairs . Even with eq It's still challenging to avoid mud . Is it possible to achieve as good sound mono as stereo

[Gtoboy]

I rarely record anything other that keys in stereo. It should be easier to avoid mud when you dont have to dig it out of stereo tracks. Is there a particular reason you record everything in stereo? It's not really the common way to record genres that i am familiar with.

I know synths and keys are often recorded stereo but those are the kind of tracks that have to be arranged to fit, either by panning, eq, etc.

IOW I often find a stereo wurli or similar patch works best when its panned to 9 o'clock on the left channel and 11 or 12 on the right, or the vice-versa.

Getting everything to fit is part of arranging, not everything needs to be equal or stereo.If everything is in stereo it just stacks stuff up and mud would seem to be inevitable IMHO

Some things to think about: Boot Camp Tip: Simplify and Feature - YouTube

[mjbphotos]

You are mistaking what 'stereo' really means. Take one mono track and pan it full left in your DAW. Take another mono track and pan it full right in your DAW. Now listen or export the track as a stereo WAV file.

Why limit yourself to 8 tracks if it is not a hardware limit? A lot depends on the type of music you are recording, of course.
On a typical rock track, I have drums on 7 tracks (overheads on a stereo track, the others mono + a reverb bus), bass (I may track it twice), keyboards (piano on a stereo track or organ on a mono one), 2 or 3 rhythm guitar tracks (one may only be on a bridge, or chorus, for example), lead guitar track (I usually will record at least half a dozen takes, and use separate tracks as I find it easier to work with tracks rather than takes in Reaper) + instrument reverb bus, lead vocal (I may comp from as many as 4 separate takes), reverb track for it, backing vocals and/or harmony tracks + reverb bus.
An 'acoustic' song will have at least 2 acoustic guitar rhythm tracks, lead guitar (multiple takes), bass, strings and vocals and reverb busses.

[maxman65]

Gtoboy yes that makes alot of sense . Yes it's the synth strings which sound better (in isolation ) in stereo .but by the time it's in the mix it's garbage anyway .now I'm trying single tracked strings just by way of experiment . As you say it was also my instinct that more stereo tracks would probably create more mud . (Guitars / vox are put down mono through single mic )
Incidentally yes it is hardware limitation also (standalone 8 track ) but that's partly choice to get to grips with basic principles inside a narrower scope

[grimtraveller]

Why limit yourself to 8 tracks if it is not a hardware limit? A lot depends on the type of music you are recording, of course.

Limiting oneself isn't necessarily a bad thing. It can help one avoid the outcome of recording too many bits and then having to jettison parts; parts that you might have really wanted in the song. I think it can train one to be economical in one's arranging too, as well as learning certain tricks that you don't need to learn with unlimited tracks but which are good to know as they can be applied in other scenarios.
By the same token, it can be too limiting. As you say, it depends on the kind of music one is recording {sometimes}.
Also, I think people know when their limitations are too limiting and it's time to move on up. It's happened to me three times {2 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 12}.

[rob aylestone]

With no track limits, I can’t imagine any synth sound being better as a merged single track. If I add real flutes, sax or guitars they tend to be single tracks, but I’ve always found the synths and samples are better in whatever format they live in naturally.

[maxman65]

Yes I think they are better in stereo . But they compete even when eq'ed.(with another choral type synth patch and so on ) I guess I'm using a negative rationale thinking if they sound garbage in a mix I may as well save a track in mono and see what happens