2 Simple things

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Alanfc

Alanfc

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Thrilled to find this Board!
Warning : I am totally NEW to PC Digital Recording.

I have Home Studio XL 2002 + Edirol UA-5 card. Dell PC with Win XP. 1 GB RAM. Making simple hard rock out of my apartment.

I have one big question that I couldn't find answered simply enough for MY brain.. out of all the posts I scoured here.

1.) Record in Mono or Stereo?
I think I've gathered that all MONO will give me flexibility later on for mixing. BUT it sure sounds better in Stereo in the tests I 've done so far with my drum machine and guitar tracks. I mean "better" as in, a bit brighter and louder. But is that deceiving?

2.) Drum Machine input.
==Line into soundcard Stereo ?? (with 1/8" out of headphone jack to stereo plug converter )
==Or Mono 1/4" into soundcard?

I am clueless. The Stereo line-in sounded better. I have a Zoom 123 drum machine that I have grown incredibly attached to. I heard some of the sounds and patterns of the Session Drummer thing on Cakewalk, and I like my little machine better. Anyway, the main point is, is there some major thing I'm missing with regards to the drum machine? Or do I put it through just like any other insturment..

Thanks alot
 
One way to look at it is to have some or most of the tracks mono, panned, effected, whatever, but have a few important things in stereo. The theorry being if ther're all stereo, it not as effective. Like trying to have everything big-and-upfront.

A mix of drums comming out of the two drum machine outs, sounds like a go.
Two mics for one of the 'Big guitars' can = nice depth.
Yea?
:D
 
Thank you Mixsit-

So with me, every answer leads to a new question...

Effects applied after recording the instruments dry (without effects?) are equally do-able either with having done them in Stereo or Mono.? Or is there a major difference in the flexibility I'd have. I've read warnings about recording in stereo and losing flexibility with the processing/effects. Is that true?

I do indeed want the guitar to be Big.
Do You mean "two mics" as in , recording in stereo?

Thanks alot
 
First, there are no rules to this stuff. That's what makes it an art.

However, if you want some guidelines, you generally want to track any instrument that has any "width" to it in stereo (e.g., piano, drums), and track any instrument that doesn't have width in mono (bass, guitar, vocals, horns).

For ex., the idea of capturing drums in stereo is to recreate the natural "width" of the kit, so that the high hat will tend to come from the right, while the floor toms will come from the left, just as if you were listening to a live kit standing in front of the bass drum.

Of course, if you record each drum individually, you would then record in mono and "place" the drums into the right spot of the mix. Generally you will find that panning (left to right placing) a track is a much easier task when use a mono track.

However, many people do use stereo tracking as an effect - even on vocals or guitars. So alot depends on what you are trying to achieve.

My suggestion is to follow the above "guidelines" until you have a handle on what you are doing, and then branch out and experiment. When you do something contrary to the guidelines, you should know "why" you are doing it.

BTW, your drum kit may be sounding better when recorded in stereo because you may possibly only be recording "one side" of the kit when you record in mono. If the "outs" of your drum machine are stereo, it is probably designed to be recorded in stereo. In other words, the left out does not contain the same makeup as the right out. As per my example above, the right out may favor the hats, while the left out may favor the ride and floor toms. Snare and kick are typically dead center (i.e., same data in left and right track). To get the entire kit proper, you may need to record in stereo. (Just a guess.)
 
Just to tag on a bit...
Some effects units, when fed both left and right-in, combine them to mono, then output a 'stereo' reverb.
Sometimes, if it's a real important part of the sound, a 'true stereo' reverb might be nice (verb for a nice sparse stereo mix?). 'Mono' in usually does fine.
 
I'd say, if you're recording a drum machine with stereo outputs on it, go ahead and record them each to their own track. The maker of the drum machine designed the thing to sound best in stereo anyway, and if you decide later that you don't like it, you can always pan them both center and mix the two tracks on top of each other to taste.
 
So there's a way to assign half of the stereo to one track and one half to another?

I will look at that ! I assume there will be directions in the Tutorial/help.

Thanks
 
Alanfc said:
So there's a way to assign half of the stereo to one track and one half to another?
Click to expand...

Let's get real basic for a minute. Stereo in the sense we are talking about, simply means there are two tracks worth of audio coming into or out of your soundcard, and how you process them into your software determines how they can be played back. In theory, you should be able to record as many channels as you want at the same time into your computer, onto as many different tracks as you want. Alas, I see that you are using Home Studio which can only do 2 tracks at a time if I'm not mistaken.

But for example, some DVD players have 6 analog outputs for audio on the back of them in addition to the regular "stereo" R & L outputs. These are for 5.1 surround sound. If you had the right hardware & software you could record all 6 of these into your computer at once. Is this stereo? no it's much more. The point is that the same is true if you wanted to record a drum kit and make it be as realistic as possible, you would record each mic to it's own track, then mix them back to create a "Stereo" sound scape.


At any rate, yes you should be able to record at least two tracks (stereo) at once into your computer, with even the most basic sound card.
 
Ah yes.... a mixer. I 've been avoiding that issue. Its not the expense, its the complication . Will it make my life easier in the end, even if I'm probably only going to need the stereo inputs I already have in my UA-5 at a time, working by myself?

For some reason a mixer seems to make things more complicated, but every one is talking about them and everyone asks me if I have one. The Cakewalk Console on the computer seems manageable -- but a mixing board console in real life (even a little 4-channel Behringer or something) is intimidating. That is something I think I'm going to have to face, yes/no?

Thanks
 
Found It !

James-
Found your thread on mono/stereo-thanks alot

I just discovered that there's a Newbie Board.!

I will live there for awhile.

Thank you all for your patience.
 
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