DavidK said:
Dachay, why is this?
When I have midi tracks, They are in Stereo. When I record them, they sound either mono or very limited stereo. What's up with that? It is very frustrating.
When I have recorded a midi track to mono, no problemo. I can pan it anywhere I want. When I record several midi tracks to a stereo track, it doesnt work. What the heck am I doing wrong?
Shouldnt I just press stereo and record, and then it sounds just like I hear it in midi?
I have a Darla24 Soundcard.
OK, let me try this one.
At its heart, stereo is an illusion. Basically you have just two spots from where sound eminates (e.g. a left and right speaker). Yet the sounds can "seem" to come from not only the left and right, but from from anywhere inbetween as well.
When you pan a mono track, essentially all you are doing is determining how much of your signal is going to each speaker. If a mono track is panned 100% left, all of the signal will come from the left speaker and none of it will come out of the right speaker, and you will hear it on your left. If you pan it dead center, an equal amount of signal will come out of the left and right speakers, BUT you will "hear" it as if it is coming from the center (the illusion).
The same happens with inbetween settings. If you pan 50% left, more signal will be sent to the left than to the right, and the sound will "appear" to move towards the left (where the stronger signal is). But not fully left, because there is still some signal being heard out of the right speaker.
Now let's take a stereo track. With a stereo track you already have a left and and right source. Let's use a recorded piano track as an example, and let's assume the the lower register keys are on the left track, while the higher register keys are on the right track. When you play the track with a center pan, it sounds as if you are sitting at the piano playing it.
When you pan this track left or right, however, you simply cause more of the left track to be played than the right track (and if you pan it fully left, you will only hear the left track). So instead of moving the sound, you just make the lower keys louder and the higher keys softer (or vice-versa if you pan right).
Following?? Since a stereo track has two sources of sound, panning simply favors one source over the other. Think of this like your home stereo. If you are playing a CD, and you pan to the left or right, the band doesn't "move." Rather, you simply hear the instruments that are on the left track, and no longer hear the instruments that are on the right track.
In mono, there is just a single source, so when you pan you are in essence causing it to "appear" as if that signal moved.
I hope that helps. I don't think I did a good job of explaining.
P.S. I'm not going to hold you.
