"Stereo Recording"

  • Thread starter Thread starter twonky
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twonky

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Ok I am not a newbie persay this thread will further illustrate my ignorance.

What exactly is Stereo Recording? How do I get one?

If I record a source, lets say a pair of congas w/ two of the same kind of mic, to two individual mono tracks and then pan them L-R...is that stereo? Or just to mono tracks panned?

Isnt stereo just a matter of where you place mono tracks w/ in the stereo field?

Someone please gimmee the poop.

Twonky
 
twonky said:
If I record a source, lets say a pair of congas w/ two of the same kind of mic, to two individual mono tracks and then pan them L-R...is that stereo? Or just to mono tracks panned?

Click to expand...

yeah, that's recording in stereo..........generally, you want to keep the mics a little distance away from each other so they can capture different sounds from the same source.......then pan them a decent distance left and right, and your one object now takes on stereo sound.........
 
It's usually far easier to record individual parts to mono tracks and put together the stereo image by panning during mixdown.
You have much more control, and there are fewer variables and complications like phase problems and such to contend with.

Usually recording to stereo tracks is done when musicians are playing live in a great room and you want to capture the natural beauty of the sound as closely as possible.
 
Two (or more) mono recordings panned anywhere except dead center create a stereo recording.
 
Thats what I thought.

I could be making things more difficult than they need to be.

But, it seems that people make a definite distinction between dual mono and stereo tracks.

Twonk
 
matty_boy said:
Two (or more) mono recordings panned anywhere except dead center create a stereo recording.
Click to expand...

That is sorta true but when you pan 2 mono tracks of the exact same thing it is not really different then a single track panned center. It is just a little louder but there is no 'stereo' effect.

Stereo=

2 Mono tracks recorded with seperate mics of the same source.

2 mono tracks of the same part recorded in seperate passes.

1 mono track panned in the stereo field.
 
AlChuck said:
It's usually far easier to record individual parts to mono tracks and put together the stereo image by panning during mixdown.
Click to expand...

AlChuck, do you have a way of suggesting doing this w/ acoustic guitars.......I tried stereo micing, but I don't have matching mics and it sounded a tad off.........any good ways to get stereo sound w/ panning?
 
Nope, never tried it -- stereo recording is something only real recording engineers should do, not a homereccer hack like me... Besides, I don't have any good acoustic spaces to work in that I would want to capture anyway.

I just record it in mono and add some ambience through signal processing.
 
powderfinger said:


AlChuck, do you have a way of suggesting doing this w/ acoustic guitars.......I tried stereo micing, but I don't have matching mics and it sounded a tad off.........any good ways to get stereo sound w/ panning?
Click to expand...

Record the same part twice and pan each take.
 
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