q: for someone whos been here since the dawn of time

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nord

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how many vocal tracks, on every song ever recorded has been recorded in stereo?
or maybe a more general answer

nord
 
what you do is take the sum of every song that you have ever heard and divide by 79, now take this number and add 2 then multiply by 94, now divide by your current age minus the age you were when you heard your first song, unless you heard your first song at the age of 3 in which case you would use 4....now take the square root of this number. its going to be really tough to explain the rest of the equation...so once you get this number, let me know what it is and Ill just figure out the rest myself and tell you the answer..
 
None on average.

I guess it depends on how you define stereo. More than one mic. Perhaps a fair average. Stereo image, perhaps any shows recorded live. Not that I've seen many studios, much less any that used more than one mic on a vocalist. But there are ways to generate a stereo image from a mono track. Or a mono track from a stereo image, so I guess it depends on how you define "stereo".
 
Ok, I was just having fun.

I have used two and seen even three mics on a single vocalist for a take. The idea was not for a stereo image however, but to have some options for the final vocalist and even to have a separate track for backing vocals or ideas for vocal fills. They run each mic down its own track however not for a stereo print.

Some engineers, the better ones, EQ with mics. They know the frequency characteristics of their mic locker and they create options during tracking. But, with the inherent risks of phasing using two mics they don't print to stereo for the most part.

That said, there is the common use of mid/side recording which depends on two mics to build a stereo image. Generally not on voices but hey, it's your time and money, have at it and see if it works. I like this on acoustic guitar.

The last Stones album had a video extra on one of the disks. They had some outtakes of the tracking process and you can see they were using a Neumann 67, Shure SM7b with, I think it was an AKG C12 but its been months since I saw this. Anyway, they were running these all into a bank of Neve 1073s or 1084s for tracking Mick Jagger's voice.

Generally however, you see more of the big vocal thing happening with a U47 into a Neve into an LA2A. Single chain, single track. This is followed by layers of the vocal. All in mono because the main vocal is going right down the center of the final mix ultimately.

Never say never in recording however. Also, you can pan a mono track so if you are hearing a vocal or backgrounds coming out wide left and right, it might just be a couple of mono tracks panned.
 
we played with M-S micing on the lead vocalist on my band's last EP. we didnt end up using too much of it in the final mix, but it is there nonetheless.
 
Tell you what: I'll go and listen to every song ever recorded since the dawn of man ... and get back to you on that one.

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You really can't record one singer in stereo. The person only has one voice.

Anyway, the last thing you need is the main vocal bobing left and right everytime the singer moved his head 3 inches during the performance. It would make you sea-sick.
 
You really can't record one singer in stereo. The person only has one voice.


whoa there!!! Sure you can....you can record an accoustic guitar in stereo cant you? or a piano, or a drum kit....just use 2 mics panned 100% and you have stereo my friend....
 
whoa there!!! Sure you can....you can record an accoustic guitar in stereo cant you? or a piano, or a drum kit....just use 2 mics panned 100% and you have stereo my friend....

You could also record in mono and then pan left and right, back and forth on mixdown. That would technically be stereo.
 
You could also record in mono and then pan left and right, back and forth on mixdown. That would technically be stereo.

yea...but that would be dumb...I would just record in true stereo, pan left and right, and turn them up and down alternately during mixdown... :p
 
yea...but that would be dumb...I would just record in true stereo, pan left and right, and turn them up and down alternately during mixdown... :p

OR... you could just record in true stereo, pan left and right, and turn them up and down alternately during mixdown.
 
whoa there!!! Sure you can....you can record an accoustic guitar in stereo cant you? or a piano, or a drum kit....just use 2 mics panned 100% and you have stereo my friend....
A guitars sound comes from many different parts of the guitar. (the sound hole, the tail piece, the fret board, etc...)

A voice comes out of your mouth and your nose, both are really close together. You also tend not to try to get 'room sound' with the vocal.
 
A guitars sound comes from many different parts of the guitar. (the sound hole, the tail piece, the fret board, etc...)

A voice comes out of your mouth and your nose, both are really close together. You also tend not to try to get 'room sound' with the vocal.

the definition of stereo remains the same reguardless of the source....
 
the definition of stereo remains the same reguardless of the source....

Indeed. The better way to say what I'm sure he meant would be that recording something in stereo is done to recreate a stereo image through the speakers/in headphones through the recording. As most of what makes a sound stereo is the difference between the sound hitting the left and right microphone, and as the difference grows greater and the effect becomes more apparent as more of the room is heard, it would stand to reason that whatever you're recording in stereo, is most likely done to capture the natural sound of the instrument in the room.

As vocals are ideally captured with little-to-none of the room sound captured (hence, vocal booths), it would stand to reason that a stereo recording of voice is therefore unnecessary, and in fact undesirable.
 
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