Recoring a mono instrument and adding stereo effects.

[FVH]

Revisiting this issue again - sorry if it's annoying.

I REALLY can't believe that I cannot use a stereo insert on a mono track in Cubase 5!
The more I think about it, the more absurd it gets.
The suggestions in the feedback in this thread is that I have to make an effects track - that's fine.

But what if I want to only record a voice and put a stereo reverb and stereo delay on it?
Then you'd have a mono instrument with stereo effects added to it right.
One mono track with stereo effects. I know that the inserts menu is full of stereo plugins like that.
Do I really have to make an effects track just to get stereo effects added to my voice recording??

Not likely, but imagine that you'd want a voice (this voice is all you have in the entire project) with all the typical stereoeffects you can imagine added to it (reverbs, delays, flanger, chorus, autopan, etc.)
Is it likely that I would have to set these up in a bunch of fx-tracks? Why not just activate them in the inserts menu?
I'm missing something, no doubt about it.

As I see it, I HAVE to make fx-tracks to achieve this scenario.

If I record the voice onto a mono track and add the plugins from the inserts menu, they all come out mono.
If I record the voice onto a stereo track (plugging the mic into i.e. 1 on my soundcard), and add the plugins from the inserts menu, the effects come out stereo - but then the recorded voice can only be heard in the left channel.
If I record the voice onto a mono track (thus being able to hear the voice in both channels), and adding an fx-track with plugins from the inserts menu - THEN I get stereo effects added to my (mono) voice.

Is there really no way of doing this the simple way in Cubase 5??

All help is highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

 

[JimmyS1969]

How about using one of these on the way in? Record a stereo track.

 

[FunkDaddy]

FVH, I think you're over-complicating the problem. You can add a stereo effect to a mono track and it will be heard in stereo. I don't know any DAW that DOESN'T allow this. A few things to check...

- Are you monitors set up correctly? Are your outputs setup correctly TO your monitors? (Easy test, listen to a CD and check the stereo image. Easier even would be to Youtube search for a "Mixing How To" sort of video and find a part on panning, you'll find out quick if your monitors are setup properly for stereo mixing)

- The one thing that sticks out to me, as I don't know Cubase that well, is that you say you are choosing to RECORD ONTO A MONO TRACK. Perhaps you're actually setting up a MONO TRACK. If you've told your DAW to interpret this track as mono, then everything you use on it (including stereo effects) will be heard in mono because that's what you've told it be. Now that I'm typing it out, I think this might be your problem...if I've skimmed past somebody mentioning it already, my apologies.

 

[FVH]

Thank you to both of you.
Yes, jimmys69 - I've considered a splitcable, both jack and XLR.

FunkDaddy, thanks a lot for that.

As I see it, my setup is correct. My souncard is hooked up to a stereomixer, and the monitors are hooked up via XLR's from that mixer.
There's no problem in playing back stereo music on this system.
A way for me to doublecheck is that I can plug in my earphones directly into the front of my soundcard, and that way bypass all monitors and mixers - only play back what the DAW puts out.

I will try to explain this.
When I open cubase 5 (empty project), I have to make tracks to record onto.
If I want to record a voice through a mic, I select new audio track. Cubase then asks me how many tracks I want to make, and wether they are stereotracks or monotracks.

If I selct monotrack - then it's like you said. Cubase treats it like a monotrack all the way.
If I select stereotrack the plugins will be stereo - but the directsignal (the voice) is only heard in the left channel. This is of course because the mic is plugged into 1 on the soundcard, and Cubase sets up a stereotrack like this:
left= input 1, right=input 2. Thus, I only get sound out of the left channel as the mic is plugged into 1. If I plug it into 2, I will only get sound from the right channel.
So if I record like this and add plugins and then listen to the playback in my earphones, I will hear the voice isolated left, and the added stereoeffects in both right/left. But no direct voice in both, only the added effect.

I hope I'm explaining this so that it is understandable.
I'm really stuck here, and it seems that adding the fx-track is the only way I've found for adding stereoeffects to a mono instrument.
You say "I don't know any DAW that DOESN'T allow this", and that's exactly what I thought. There HAS to be a way - I'm just unable to see it.
I'm beginning to believe that the only way around this is to buy a splittercable, so that I can record the voice onto both channels at once on a stereotrack. But I refuse to accept that such a big program has that kind of limit.

 

[grimtraveller]

The other question that needs to be answered is how you can have been here for over 6 years and only posted twice?

Something we said?

good question. In fact, I didn't realize that I was registered here - so when I decided to post this noob question, I went into the process of registering first.

Easilly done.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

If Cubase really behaves the way you say then maybe the best compromise would be using a stereo submix group bus. Assign the mono track to the stereo bus and insert whatever stereo effects you want on the bus as if it were the track.

But Cubase is just following analog mixer form. If I were mixing on my Mackie I would have to do the same thing that you're doing to get stereo effects even if I had just one solo voice. Using post-fader effects sends is actually the best way to handle effects like reverbs that add new sound to the original. Effects that change the original sound, like eq and compression, go on inserts.