Stereo track or 2 mono tracks...

S

schwa

New member
Hi All,

I have been wondering abou this for a while and thought I would put it ou there for the experts to consider. It is mostly concerned with guitar tracks, but would be applicable to any stereo source.


Most of the time, I record my electric guitar parts in stereo. This makes it a little easier to manage the track levels, sends, and such. The thing is, I can't seem to figure out how to manage the "stereo field" of these types of tracks.

If I split the two stereo parts into individual mono tracks I have much more flexibility in terms of panning the parts, which is helpful in the mixing process. Unfortunately, I then lose some of the ease in managing levels and effects settings.

I know there are no rules, but are there any accepted practices for stereo sources?

thanks for any input or strategies you might want to share.
 
I have no idea what is "accepted" but i know that recording a 2 mono tracks is much more flexible, and far outweighs the few pros of doing a stereo track.....you may want to use different effects, different EQ, etc on the two sides and that cant be done if you record it stereo....
 
Thanks for the input gidge, I however find that I DO want to eq or compress the two sides of a stereo guitar track the same way in most cases. What I can figure out is how to tune the panning of a stereo track other than left or right.

I suppose I could eq and compress them and set the panning later in the mix process.
 
Huh?:confused:



Maybe I missed something, but. . . .

Huh?:(


How are you recording "stereo" Electric Guitar parts?

x/y with 2 SM57's?
One close one distant?(How is this stereo?)
Some configuration of 3 mics?

What I can figure out is how to tune the panning of a stereo track other than left or right.
Click to expand...

I thought panning was left or right.

Huh? :confused: :confused:

Do you want to pan UP? Or IN?

Sorry if I'm being obtuse, but what are you guys talking about???:D :D :D
 
My stereo source is from a POD, as it happens, but I could be doing a stereo mic setup as well.

With two mono tracks, one can limit the spread of the stereo field with pan controls, but I don't know how to do this with a stereo track.

That is to say, with mono tracks, I can pan from center all the way to the right or the left. With a stereo track there is no way to have the tracks sit at say 2:00 to the right and left?

Clear as mud?
 
i'm confused, but i say - if it's from your pod in stereo, i guess just keep it like that if it is how you want it to sound! haha.
 
unless your doing some effects on your POD like chorus or phaser why even both recording a stereo track. Why not just record one mono?
 
I presume you're talking about taking two outputs from a guitar processor that has them - useful for the chorus / flanger type effects.

I do this a bit, and what I find is that if you have too many "stereo" sources in a mix, then everything is very hard to define and it doesn't really hang together.

There's a natural tendency when using these type of things to pan one hard L and the other hard R because on its own, that sounds really grouse and wiiiiide and swooshy and funky. I've found that in a mix however everything just interferes with everything else so what I tend to do is to try to postion things a little differently.

You should be able to pan the stereo tracks wherever you like though - stereo is just two mono tracks with different versions of the same information on it.

If I have electric piano, organ and electric guitar all as stereo souces, then I will put the two keyboards as follows (as an example):

Piano - hard L centre
Organ - centre hard R
Geetar - half L half R

makes it sort or easier to hear and you still get the advantages of a "larger". Other times, things just sound better in mono.

Then, when/if reverbing, try to separate them front to back a bit as well by using more/less.

Hope this is the sort of advice you're looking for? Works for me.

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top