Thought I saw a post here on acoustic guitar micing and stereo width that I now can't for the life of me find.

[Steenamaroo]

What I AM saying is that capturing the position in space* and the acoustic of an instrument (or voice) is the only way worthy of the name "stereo".

OK yes, you can have a collection of mono sources skillfully pan potted across the sound stage with a wash of 'verb that SOUNDS very good and many will call that stereo, but is is really? I am not sure but I do know that two mics at foot from a guitar picking up different bits of it ain't!

I understand, Dave, and I don't think we really disagree on anything.
I do think reserving use of the word stereo for that particular set of circumstances would make conversation difficult, though.

Sgt Peppers is a stereo mix, on a stereo medium, played back on a ...stereo.
Imagine trying to say that ^ whilst remaining technically correct.

Is it an accurate realistic l/r representation of what happened? No, of course not,
but if someone asks me if I have the mono or stereo version, my response won't start with "uh, well, actually..."

Personally I'll use the word stereo anywhere I'm talking about discrete l+r recording, mixing or playback,
and clarify when necessary.



I don't really get the concept of a 'mono' instrument.
We are consumed with the idea of stereo because its how we perceive the world.
There's no natural environment where your trumpeter trumpets and your left ear and right hear hear exactly the same thing.
The question, really, is whether you want to capture those l/r differences in any given session,
not whether they exist.

 

[rob aylestone]

On the trumpet thing - it's because the darn things have one entry and one exit, so are as close to a point source as possible. Indoors, the room does things, but outside, no reverb, no reflections, so symetrical in impact? I get your point of course.

 

[Steenamaroo]

No, I don't think outside changes much.
If you close your eyes you're still getting left/right information about where it is, where it's pointing, subtle movements, wind changes, terrain, buildings...
There's nothing we hear as mono, but I get your point too and would probably use terms like 'mono source' or 'mono instrument' from time to time.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I wouldn't jump to 'double track instead', though.
That has a completely different sound and you should choose the one which suits your project.

Lots of good points, and in particular I agree strongly about your observation about thinking about less of a "stereo guitar" and more about a "mono guitar, in a stereo listening environment.

But, specifically here, yes, my choice to double track is definitely driven by project specific considerations. I'm wrapping up (just put in a time off request for the end of the week to try to bang out all my reamping, in fact!) a recording project of instrumental guitar music where a couple of the songs are driven prominently by acoustic rhythm guitars, and the double tracked parts definitely work much better for that context, while providing good "width," than some sort of a single performance with some width from multiple mics would. If this was a fingerstyle instrumental then yeah that wouldn't be appropriate, and a couple songs either have a single acoustic supporting a rhythm part, or a single acoustic as an intro, or an acoustic melody line underneath an electric one, or any of a number of other reasons why I might want a single track rather than a doulbled performance...

...but for a rock song with an acoustic guitar driving the rhythm, multi-tracked guitars are definitely a stylistic choice that support the material, rather than a "hey, I want one guitar, but BIGGER!" sort of thing. That would never work.

 

[ecc83]

I agree that "stereo" is the only practical term for two channel audio information (not though bi-ligual speech on telly!)
I am just suggesting we make the differences known to "newbs" when things get technical? Everyday language is very loose on engineering matters. Terms like "work, energy and power" have specific scientific meanings and that is fine but sometimes we need to make sure we are all signing from the same song sheet!. Music recording is a mix of Art and Science but you cannot have the former without the latter.

The football analogy was fascinating...never thought about it! A blind man would be buggered listening to the tennis from Queens on BBCTV atmo? The camera is behind the serve receiver or server so no "ping-pong" ball hits!

Dave.