Recording in stereo or mono?

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tin34543

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i,

When recording rhythm guitars for metal songs from kit like a Fractal or Eleven rack,
is it better to record multiple mono tracks or multple stereo tracks, to get a big
sound? Also, how many tracks should you record? One left and one right or multiple
left and right tracks and pan them to fill the stereo field?

Thanks
 
Do whatever works for your song. A lot of modern metal is recorded with multiple takes of multiple mics and cabs.
 
I would think generally if you're doing multiples for the doubling of a part- stereo wouldn't be needed or very useful. 'Stereo for capturing a stereo effect or image, but that's a different application.
 
If you want to be able to fine tune the panning, go with mono tracks.
 
There's not much to be gained in recording in stereo unless you are recording source that has a wide sonic footprint (e.g. piano, harp. drum kit), or you can to capture a source and its position in an acoustic space.
 
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I use stereo while recording some rehersals.Hmmm I've never need a stereo recording for a normal session
 
If your guitar has some sort of stereo effect that you want to preserve, record it in stereo.

If it is just a relatively dry rhythm part, just record a single track for each.performance.
 
Even with stereo FX, I'd go dual mono over one stereo track.
 
I would go dual mono too. Way more control.

But most of the time, for normal rhythm stuff, there isn't much point in having or recording stereo effects on a guitar that you are going to double anyway. The doubling is the stereo effect. Adding other stereo images on top of that will get muddled up pretty quickly.
 
I agree with all of the above in general, but there are genres where it's normal to record multiple takes with multiple cabs and mics per take.
 
Right, but he is using a Fractal or guitar rig, so there are no cabs.

Even with the multi mic and cab scenario, each input is treated as a mono signal. The two cab, two mic thing isn't for getting a stereo image, it's to layer tones.
 
Farview said:
I would go dual mono too. Way more control.

But most of the time, for normal rhythm stuff, there isn't much point in having or recording stereo effects on a guitar that you are going to double anyway. The doubling is the stereo effect. Adding other stereo images on top of that will get muddled up pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

^^^ This, especially this "The doubling *is* the stereo effect."
 
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