Need help, noob, can I record in stereo...

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drummerboy_04AP

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with only one mic? OK, I have an Mbox2, and only one AudioTechnica mic. I figured Id be able to just copy the mono recording and pase it into a new track and pan them left and right, but I cant seem to figure it out on Pro Tools.

Is it possible? If so, please help me out!

Thanks, sorry for teh noobness, just got it for christmas!
 
why do you need to record in stereo?...if this is for vocals...i would think it should be mono...unless your using some stereo effects.
 
You can do as you said, but you won't get a stereo result. You'll just have exactly the same thing left and right. Your ears will mix the two together and it will sound like one track in the middle.
 
Maybe i have it messed up. I mean, theres only sound coming out of the left headphone.
 
This is such a typical and basic question about recording that there really needs to be a sticky about it. I can't tell you how many times I've come across this confusion about stereo, and it's really a testament to how one of the basics about recording and mixing gets unrelated to those just getting into it.

On most recordings, the majority of the instruments, and certainly vocals (and let's not get into the whole "a voice IS an instrument" discussion), are recorded with a single mic. These are recorded as a mono track. One mic = mono track, period. The placement of that mono track into a stereo field is determined by taste and individual mixing standards.

To be more specific to your question, though, typically vocals are recorded mono and panned center (that is equally left and right).
 
I think I understand that, but say i pan it all they way right, I still will get no sound out of the right headphone, and its not that the headphones broken...
 
Getting a mono signal on the left side only almost always means that one is trying to send a mono (single conductor) signal into something that's expecting a stereo (two-conductor) signal. With computer recording this can be accidentally done a couple of different ways.

The first is plugging a mono/unbalanced signal cable with a single-couductor (tip/sleeve) plug into a stereo jack expecting a stereo, two-conductor (tip/ring/sleeve) plug instead. What happens is the mono signal is carried on the tip, which the stereo jack routes to the left channel. The right channel would be carried on the middle "ring" conductor, but since the TS-only mono plug does not have a seperate ring conductor, there is no right channel.

The second (and probably what is happening here) situation is that you are set up in your software to record a stereo track, but you have the sound card routing in the software to expect a stereo signal with seperate left and right leads. Since you're only sending a mono signal, it's getting routed to the left channel only. This is basically a software version of what I just described in hardware above.

What you need to do, drummerboy, is make sure your MBox routing is configured in PT to route the mono signal from your mic in to both sides of the stereo track you are laying down in ProTools. I'm not intimately familiar with ProTools enough to give you the exact keystrokes, but your manuals and/or help files should document that well. Or hopefully Benny or someone else familiar with PT can chime in here with the right keystroke recipe for you.

Bar-rump-a-bum-bum.

:D

G.
 
Thanks a lot for typing all of that! Ill have to check it out tommorow, too late now. I would definately apreciate it if someone who is familiar with Pro Tools could help me out even further, if not, Ill just have to figure it out i guess.

Thanks everyone!
 
stereo

Hi,

You cannot record stereo with only one mic. Most stereo techniques use two mics and some use three.

You can record a bunch of mono tracks with one mic and pan them all over the place to get a stereo image. This however is not recording in stereo.

A stereo recording tries to recreate the sound of the instrument/band in the room. Swirling electric guitars all over the place with moving pan pots is a stereo effect not a stereo image.

For really great info on stereo recording techniques read the sticky thread at the top of the microphones forum.

As far as why you're not getting anything out of your right channel I don't know. I don't have mbox or pro tools. My DAW, SAW, will copy from left to right or right to left, I'm sure pro tools will too. This, however, will not give you stereo. Just mono on two tracks.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
So, if you record a mono signal into the left channel of a stereo track, you have sound only on the left side. You don't have anything on the right, and you don't hear anything on the right. If you then copy that stereo track to another stereo track, and pan it all the way right, you are really panning it all the way to the right side of the left channel. Which kinda puts it in the middle. But, you still don't have anything in the right channel of the stereo track. Therefore, you still don't hear anything on the right side.
 
hairylarry said:
You cannot record stereo with only one mic.
Click to expand...
Well, technically you can. It won't "sound" stereo, it'll just sound mono in the center like has been said many times already. But with today's DAW recording software it is quite easy to set up the inputs to record a mono signal as a stereo track in the DAW.

Normally one would not want or need to do this; 90% of the time you'd rather just record it as a mono track, that's true. But there are times where to save time you might want to record it as a stereo track if you intend on applying a stereo effect to it such as a stereo reverb or room simulator. But drummerboy, if you don't intend on doing that, then you'd probably be best off just recording it as a mono track (you can always convert it to a stereo track later if you wish.)

If you don't get a specific response here by the time you're ready to attack it again, drummerboy, check out www.protoolsforum.com. I'll bet you somewhere in their FAQs or forums this topic is covered in detail.

G.
 
drummerboy_04AP said:
But, I think, Im recording to a mono track...
Click to expand...
Based on what you have described so far, if I understand you correctly, it sounds like you are actually recording a mono signal *as left channel mono* to a stereo track. This would explain why you are only getting a mono signal out of the left speaker and when you pan right you get nothing. If it were a mono track in PT, when you panned the mono signal right, it would actually move right.

What does the track look like on your display? If there are two horizontal lines in the one track, one above the other, with one (probably the bottom one) being flat and the top one having the seismic-looking waveform of your recorded signal, then it is actually a stereo track.

Again, this is in how you have the recording input section on PT set up, whether you have hit set up to record to a mono or stereo track, and if it is a stereo track, whether the signal is routed to L or R or both.

G.
 
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there is a difference between recording in stereo and playing back in stereo.
you should ALWAYS be playing back in stereo...but not necessarily always recording in stereo.

stereo means two. two speakers or two microphones. when you press play the sound comes out in stereo...two speakers. But when you record a voice, you record with one microphone...making a mono track.


for some reason, in PT you're not doing it right. It sounds like to me you're probably creating a stereo track in Pro Tools when trying to record your voice. What's happening is Pro Tools is looking for a stereo source (remember...stereo=two, so PT is looking for two microphones). But you're using one! So you're probably setting the stereo track to Inputs 1/2, right? But you have a microphone only in channel one, right? So you're hearing only the left channel (channel one....channel two is recording blank).


What you NEED to do is create a MONO track and set it's input to channel one. Making sure the pan slider is in the middle....record now, and provided the output of the track is Output 1/2, and your headphones are properly plugged into the Mbox's headphone jack....you should hear in stereo now.

double check that you have a mono track.
File-->New Track-->Add mono
Input set to Channel 1
Output set to channel 1-2

If all that is correct...it's either something wrong with your I/O setup or the headphones you're using.


-----edit-----
Glen beat me to it! I was typing like crazy to beat him ;)
 
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bennychico11 said:
sorry, college bowl games are one. haven't seen this thread yet ;)
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NP, Ben. :) I was just trying to refer you as the go to guy for Pro Tools on this board. I know exactly what the problem and solution is for bar-rump-a-bum-bum boy in concept. Just not sure of the mouse click/menu selections in PT to get there. :)

G.
 
I dunno, my headphones must not be working then or somethings not plugged in right. I dunno, Im too tired to try and figure it out right now. Thanks for trying to help me out, Ill check it out again tommorow

goodnight.
 
drummerboy_04AP said:
I dunno, my headphones must not be working then or somethings not plugged in right. I dunno, Im too tired to try and figure it out right now. Thanks for trying to help me out, Ill check it out again tommorow

goodnight.
Click to expand...


well, if you followed all the above instructions and things are still not right...it could be something with your I/O setup.

go to Setups-->I/O setup
select the output tab
press ctrl+A (Cmd+A) and this should select everything in that window.
click on the delete button (or press delete)
click on default
press okay
make sure your outputs are still set to 1-2




also, what is your mix knob on the front of the Mbox2 set at?
 
I think people may be going over your head.

You're probably trying to record in stereo.

If you only have one microphone, and attempt to record in stereo, it's only going to playback in the left headphone.

Record in mono, and it should playback in the center.
 
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