Is "mono" a bad word?

  • Thread starter Thread starter nate_dennis
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Greg_L said:
I wish to follow what sounds good and that's stereo drums. You can pretend to be retro avant-garde all day long. Your mono drums will still sound like ass. ;)
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Doesn't everyone know, farts are always mono? :confused:
 
Well maybe I have been confused all these years but I always thought that a true stereo recording had to be done with two microphones placed only about 6 to 8 inches apart. Kinda like the way our ears are placed. :confused:
 
Drums are not a mono instrument. Record them that way if you want, but they'll sound better in stereo.
 
Greg_L said:
Drums are not a mono instrument. Record them that way if you want, but they'll sound better in stereo.
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And I think what Gerg means is, when you mixdown, a stereo mix gives a better representaion of what a drumkit truly sounds like....if you want a different sound, then go ahead and experiment.
 
Dogman said:
And I think what Gerg means is, when you mixdown, a stereo mix gives a better representaion of what a drumkit truly sounds like....if you want a different sound, then go ahead and experiment.
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Yes, experiment yourself silly, and then go back to the stereo drum mix because it will inevitably sound better. :D
 
listen to some of frusciantes 2004-records (the will to death, inside of emptiness...) they've got drums recorded with two or three mics and mono.
 
Herm said:
Well maybe I have been confused all these years but I always thought that a true stereo recording had to be done with two microphones placed only about 6 to 8 inches apart. Kinda like the way our ears are placed. :confused:
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That is a binaural recording. That's a completely different subject.
 
Drums don't have to be stereo to sound good.

Things don't need to be stereo to have depth.

One of the things that happens in mono is that you have more masking. Masking creates depth, it creates a sense of front to back due to losses in timbral detail from things overlapping.

Earth to America by Widespread Panic and Warpaint by the Black Crowes both have mono drums. There's plenty of depth to both of them.
 
Mono.

I think mono recordings sound great if the microphone placement was properly done. All of the old classical recordings I have sound really good and realistic. Most of the Sun records, Hank Williams... All of that stuff sounds really great to me. All of the stadium/theatre concerts I've been to lately have had mono FOH mixes. I tink

IMHO, stereo recording means placing two identical microphones from the source with the same gain setting, the same distance away, and letting the source provide locational cues by getting being louder in one microphone then the other provided that the microphones are panned hard left and right. If both microphones recieve the same signal at the same amplitude the sound will appear to be between the speakers - in the center.

You can change how wide the stereo pan is by spaced pairs, or X-Y configurations, even with hard panned tracks.


I don't know... all my stuff sounds assy anyway, so what the hell do I know.
 
AndyK12 said:
IMHO, stereo recording means placing two identical microphones from the source with the same gain setting, the same distance away, and letting the source provide locational cues by getting being louder in one microphone then the other provided that the microphones are panned hard left and right. If both microphones recieve the same signal at the same amplitude the sound will appear to be between the speakers - in the center.
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That may be a valid definition of stereo recording, but I think the larger scope of the discussion is a stereo mix vs. a mono mix.

Case in point: sometimes I record up to 12 tracks with drums: 2 snare, 2 kick, 1 on each of 3 toms, HH, 2 OH, 2 Room.

Each one of those tracks is a mono track. And if I do nothing but adjust their levels (leaving the pan in the middle) then my drums are a mono mix. But I move the HH a tad right. I sweep the toms a bit. I spread the OHs & room mics. So even though this isn't a "stereo recording" (2 identical mics, same distance, etc.) the result is a stereo mix. (Again, with the same 12 mics, the result could be a mono mix.)
 
Smokin! I like it. But you know that the drums cant sound that good with one mic its just not possible. It has to be atleast 5 if not more and in stereo;)
And Dang now I want a 4050
 
you just generally get more subtle details in stereo but i use mono drums once in a while for hip hop tracks.. best thing is to experiment, for example you might want a mono kick but a stereo snare etc.. depends on the balance
 
Gargantua said:
you just generally get more subtle details in stereo but i use mono drums once in a while for hip hop tracks.. best thing is to experiment, for example you might want a mono kick but a stereo snare etc.. depends on the balance
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In your method, what's the difference between a mono kick and a stereo snare?
 
UMmmmm............. okay, but

Gargantua said:
you just generally get more subtle details in stereo but i use mono drums once in a while for hip hop tracks.. best thing is to experiment, for example you might want a mono kick but a stereo snare etc.. depends on the balance
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I usually record the individual drum mics as a mono recording and get the stereo picture by how I mix and pan those tracks in the final. .......... Um..... isn't that the way most people do it? Maybe it's me that is being stupid.
 
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