stereo mono

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DonaldChang

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what are the differences between stereo interleaved, split stereo, and mono , I heard stereo interleaved uses 1/3 as much disk space as split stereo so there must be some sonic difference :confused:
 
mono is mono, stereo interleaved is two channels in one file, and split stereo (aka multiple mono) is just two stereo channels separated into two files.

there is no file size or quality difference between split and interleaved...they're just different ways of packaging your audio. 16 bits per sample at 44.1 kHz still creates 705600 bits per second in each channel of audio no matter how you store them.
just know that when creating an audio CD they'll need to be stereo interleaved
 
bennychico11 said:
just know that when creating an audio CD they'll need to be stereo interleaved
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You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure this out. I'd burn one side of a split stereo file, not realizing what I was doing, and wonder why my mixes always sounded like crap and everything panned to the non-burned side was really quiet or inaudible. How moronic. :rolleyes:
 
Im starting to wonder why there is even an option to have multiple mono or stereo interleaved. I understood it when i thought that keeping your bounces in multiple mono until the CD burning stage would yeild better results because you could dither each track seperately. But that could be a load of rubbish. :confused:
 
It is so that you can do stem mixes and bring them back on separate tracks in you sequencer.
 
ecktronic said:
Im starting to wonder why there is even an option to have multiple mono or stereo interleaved. I understood it when i thought that keeping your bounces in multiple mono until the CD burning stage would yeild better results because you could dither each track seperately. But that could be a load of rubbish. :confused:
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there was a post about dithering multiple mono tracks versus stereo tracks around here (although, i think you were in on the conversation too).
some people will provide multiple mono tracks for mastering engineers. It's can also be useful in surround sound since multiple mono doesn't have to just be 2 channels. I'm sure there are other uses too
 
DonaldChang said:
what are the differences between stereo interleaved, split stereo, and mono , I heard stereo interleaved uses 1/3 as much disk space as split stereo so there must be some sonic difference :confused:
Click to expand...

It may be because there is less header information to maintain the file format, I doubt that it has anything to do with the audio data itself. Where did you hear this?
 
masteringhouse said:
It may be because there is less header information to maintain the file format, I doubt that it has anything to do with the audio data itself. Where did you hear this?
Click to expand...

even if that were true I doubt it'd be as much as 1/3 the file size. 1/3 of a 1MB file veruse 1/3 of a 75MB file is drastically different. the header information would account for probably only a few KB of the file.
 
bennychico11 said:
even if that were true I doubt it'd be as much as 1/3 the file size. 1/3 of a 1MB file veruse 1/3 of a 75MB file is drastically different. the header information would account for probably only a few KB of the file.
Click to expand...

A good ref on wav file format:

http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/wave.htm

From what I can decipher (see Sample Points and Sample Frames section) the main difference between mono and stereo interleaved are the number of sample points. There is a bit more overhead due to header info in storing them as mono, but you're right I don't see this as being a 1:3 ratio. There may be some additional overhead in how the file system stores these, but again this wouldn't be a ratio of 1:3 just some additional padding I'm assuming. There may also be overhead involved with byte alignment.

Would have to do a bit more research, but don't have the time at the moment.

Any programming geeks here?
 
one of the simple reasons split mono is being used is because some of the older version of well known software sequencers didn't handle stereo tracks.

And for practice reasons. i get a lot of live recordings where some sort of prerecorded/seq tracks are playing along in sync with the 'live'band :rolleyes:

And because they are normally just used on stage they are in mono but you don't find that out untill you start mixing in the studio. Than you realise the stereo backingtrack is actually a simple mono track, left and right are equal. split them, shift one the two tracks a couple of ms and voila...'stereo feeling'
 
well maybe the guy was accidently converting his file to 16 bit instead of 24...i dunno if 16 to 24 is 1/3 though so maybe im wrong... im not good with ratios even though im asian
 
DonaldChang said:
well maybe the guy was accidently converting his file to 16 bit instead of 24...i dunno if 16 to 24 is 1/3 though so maybe im wrong... im not good with ratios even though im asian
Click to expand...

Donald, actually you seem to have a very good knack for ratios.

24 bit = 3 bytes
16 bit = 2 bytes

difference would be exactly 1/3.

Good catch!
 
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