spanishgrass@cs said:
Here's what started this discussion. I am a solo musician. I recently recorded some songs into my VF160. My vocals into the left side on 2 tracks and my instrument into the right side on 2 tracks. Direct record mode. I did not pan left and right during mixdown. So the end result I got on the burned CD is my vocals and instrument coming out the left and right side. In other words, vocals and instrument coming out left side and vocals and instrument coming out right side. This is the result I want and assume is a stereo sound.
That sounds like mono to me...if I understand what you're saying. Your recording (the mixed track burnt to CD) can ony be stereo if the signals in left and right channels are different in some way. If everything is panned in the middle, that's mono, as the same signal will be in left and right channels.
Having only two tracks to work with isn't going to allow you to do much more than either mix as mono, have vocals out of one channel and instrument out of other (which is stereo, but not real pleasing), or add stereo effect to mono tracks (delay, etc) at mixdown. Two channels doesn't always mean stereo...the output of two channels is mono if the same exact signal is coming out of L and R.
Unless you're recording in stereo (two mics or input sources), then you don't need to record the vocals on two tracks and the instrument on two tracks. If you're recording with one mic into a L/R track pair (like 7/8), it's mono no matter how you pan it, since it's the same signal. If you did record in stereo, then pan the vocal track L/R and pan the instrument track L/R. If you recorded in stereo, you'll get a stereo mix.
If you use one input source or mic, then use one track. If you use two mics or signal sources, record on two tracks (or track pair). No matter how you record, if everything is panned center, it will be mono...
If you're recording something simple like voice and guitar, you'd could either use one track for guitar and one track for voice and pan everything center for mono...or you could do something like double track the guitar (two mono tracks) and pan them left and right, or record your guitar with two mics (stereo on two tracks) and pan those two tracks left and right, or use a stereo effect on a mono source (voice and/or guitar).
Depending on what your trying to do, if it were me, I'd probably record my guitar in stereo, pan it left and right, and put the vocal down the middle...nothing fancy.