To record in stereo or not to...

[Promythia]

HI I just was just sitting here thinking to myself about recording bass and guitar and was wondering which would be better; mono or stereo?

I've just been recording in mono, and for distorted guitar parts, I've been doubling up and panning hard left and hard right. What would the benefits be of recording in stereo over mono for instruments like guitar, bass, and drums?

Maybe I'll go out and by a "Y" cable and see whats up.

Thanks again!

Regards,
Promythia

 

[warble]

"Y" cable? I know what the cables are but, are you recording with mics and micing the amp, or using the line out from the amp, or what?

I've had luck using something like a SM57 up close, and using a condenser a bit back from the amp for some ambience. Doubling seems to be the best method for creating stereo images too - or at least thicker tracks.

 

[legionserial]

Mono is usually a better idea. For start it uses less disk space. Secondly, a guitar is a mono instrument, unless you are running it through a stereo effect of some kind like a chorus or something.

So basically if you record one guitar in stereo and pan it dead center its just going to sound like a mono recording panned dead center.

Recording your guitars twice and panning one left one right is IMHO a better way to go. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule but generally its preferable. A lot of people (like me ) record 4 guitars and pan 2 left and 2 right, with distorted guitars anyway. They don't neccessarily all have to be hard panned, if you have 1 hard panned on each side, and one at maybe 65% or thereabouts on each side.... But thats a matter of personal taste a lot of the time

For bass I usually just record one mono track and pan it dead center. A lot of people double their bass tracks too and maybe pan a tiny bit.

Drums again probably a mono track for each piece (ie snare, kick etc), with a couple tracks for overheads?.....I'm not too good as far as drums go as I program my drums in midi. But I do mix each piece down to a mono track so that I can do a bit more with them in mixing.

I personally very rarely use stereo tracks in my music. Unless the track is coming from a stereo source in the first place. When micing tho, if I wanted stereo, I would just use 2 mics, each into its own mono track, and pan each to taste...

However I'm not an expert and I'm sure others will have different ways of doing things.

 

[Dogbreath]

I generally record in mono, except for stereo instruments like keys, and double track. I think by making or buying a "Y" cable, it would amount to about the same thing as recording a part, copying and pasting to a new track. It'll just make it louder.
jus my 2c.......

 

[AGCurry]

Rules of thumb:

If the sound comes from multiple points in space or from an instrument which has stereo outputs (drums, choirs, keyboards, etc.) record in stereo.

If the sound comes from a single source (voice, electric guitar, bass, horns, etc.), record in mono.

Anything that can be recorded in stereo can be recorded monaurally as well.

Anything that can be recorded in mono can be recorded in stereo but will not necessarily benefit from it.

Stereo needs two channels but two channels are not necessarily stereo.

A Y cable will not provide stereo. It will just provide two copies of the same thing.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly what AGC said.

G.

 

[Micter]

As a guitar tone fanatic I will NEVER record a guitar amp with only one mic if I am playing. As an engineer I'll use one mic if that's what the producer wants. Here's the deal I take a close mic (SM57, i5, E609s, etc) on the cabinet say 1 to 6 inches from the grill. Then a large diaphragm condenser mic back 4-6 feet to get part of the room. It will yield a more realistic sounding guitar track when you blend the two signals together. Then I repeat the process to fatten things up. Now I will admit I've heard some good sounding guitar tracks with one mic but I bet they'd be even better with two!

 

[warble]

As a guitar tone fanatic I will NEVER record a guitar amp with only one mic if I am playing. As an engineer I'll use one mic if that's what the producer wants. Here's the deal I take a close mic (SM57, i5, E609s, etc) on the cabinet say 1 to 6 inches from the grill. Then a large diaphragm condenser mic back 4-6 feet to get part of the room. It will yield a more realistic sounding guitar track when you blend the two signals together. Then I repeat the process to fatten things up. Now I will admit I've heard some good sounding guitar tracks with one mic but I bet they'd be even better with two!

Exactly what I was getting at in my post. It's worked well for me and a friend who has a studio. The room plays into this method though - probably should pay attention to the acoustics in the room.

 

[BigRay]

Mono is usually a better idea. For start it uses less disk space. Secondly, a guitar is a mono instrument, unless you are running it through a stereo effect of some kind like a chorus or something.

I completely(and respectfully) disagree. First off, we have two ears. That is the most important tihng..The best way ive found to record acoustic guitar is at a decent distance (1m) with a stereo pair. Why record anything in mono?

 

[boingoman]

Why record anything in mono?

So your lead vocal doesn't wander around in the mix as the singer moves?

 

[AGCurry]

I completely(and respectfully) disagree. First off, we have two ears. That is the most important tihng..The best way ive found to record acoustic guitar is at a decent distance (1m) with a stereo pair. Why record anything in mono?

This is good when you want the guitar to be featured and take up a lot of space in the mix. Guitar radiates sound from a large area, so stereo recording is good in these cases.

However, if you want a rhythm guitar track or want to feature something else, mono recording is perfectly adequate and often better.

Tell me why I should record vocals, or horns, or bass, in stereo.

So your lead vocal doesn't wander around in the mix as the singer moves?

Exactly.

 

[XLR]

If you have a good-sounding room you'll probably end up using stereo techniques more than otherwise... not talking about close mic'ing to two tracks, but stereo configurations that get the instrument/room combination. Easy to test.... just move an ORTF cardioid pair or spaced omni pair back from an instrument 3 to 6 ft and see. If it sounds like crap then stereo techniques probably aren’t going to work well in that room. If you ever get the chance to take a mobile rig to a great sounding hall and record a piano or acoustic guitar this way it becomes pretty plain why the room matters so much.

Nothing at all wrong with mono instruments though, especially if the instrument is going to be in a multitracked mix. And you can give a nice ambience to a mono solo instrument with a tasteful stereo verb.

Tim

 

[legionserial]

I completely(and respectfully) disagree. First off, we have two ears. That is the most important tihng..The best way ive found to record acoustic guitar is at a decent distance (1m) with a stereo pair. Why record anything in mono?

I see where you are coming from, and did say later on about how there were exceptions to the rule. And that I'm not an expert and different people do things different ways. Personally I would use 2 mono mics each going into 1 mono track of their own and pan to taste. I just prefer to be able to mess with things a bit more afterwards.

Also in my situation, I close mic my amps with 1 mic and layer them a lot. I don't have a great sounding room or anymore mics, so its mono for me.

Basically it all depends on preference, the tune your working on, and the tools you have to do it. Obviously guitars are going to have exceptions for stereo. I was going to go on about recording acoustic guitars but my post was too long by that point and didn't want to waffle more than I was already. However my point was that if you are recording a mono source, there's no need to record it to a stereo file.

Whether the source is mono is often up to the person recording it to decide.