Diff. between mono and stereo?

[Nightfire]

I hear people on this board talk alot about recording in mono or in stereo. How do you know what you're recording in? If I go from my mixing board (mono right?) into my comps stereo line in will my recording be "stereo"?
Or what is the fundamental difference?

Mike

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

No, you can't turn a mono track into stereo by plugging it into a stereo source. Stereo is a combination of 2 independent audio channels and you need to record in stereo to start with using two mics.

 

[MessianicDreams]

I hear people on this board talk alot about recording in mono or in stereo. How do you know what you're recording in? If I go from my mixing board (mono right?) into my comps stereo line in will my recording be "stereo"?
Or what is the fundamental difference?

Mike

Mono means that an identical signal will come out of your 2 (stereo) speakers. If you're recording using 1 microphone, that is a mono recording. If you capture the sound using 2 microphones (at the same time!), it will be a stereo recording.

Certain FX units (reverbs for example) CAN make your mono signal into a stereo signal.

However, you can get a stereo mix from mono sources, by panning the recorded signals between L and R.