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- Oct 14, 2018
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- DP-32, | 2A Mixer, A3440
Sometimes I get mixing projects with stereo recordings of guitar, keys, etc.. I'll get tracks like "Gtr R" and "Gtr L" and upon loading them into a project, I discover that both tracks are identical. I end up mixing single tracks of mono instruments instead of stereo pairs. The guitars are usually not double tracked because it seems that the client thought the 2 dual mono tracks would produce stereo guitars.
This happens so often that there seems to be a misunderstanding of what stereo really is.
Recording your guitar on 2 tracks in your DP-32/whatever, and then panning track Left and the other Right does not make them stereo. All you have in that case is called "dual mono." There must be something different between the tracks to perceive stereo. I say "perceive" because one doesn't actually have to use 2 microphones and some kind of spatial recording technique to get a perception of stereo width or space. This can also be accomplished with effects. Unless those effects are recorded, there is no reason to duplicate the recording on a second track because the single track can be used with a send effect to create a chorus or spatial sound during the mix. But if you want to use the effect on multiple instruments/vocals you'll have to record the output of the effect and that should be done on 2 tracks (i.e. a stereo track on the DP machines).
If you do have 2 tracks of identical audio and you want to add a sense of depth or space you can check out the posts in this thread.
Save yourself some tracks by not recording mono sources onto stereo tracks. There's no point in doing so.
This happens so often that there seems to be a misunderstanding of what stereo really is.
Recording your guitar on 2 tracks in your DP-32/whatever, and then panning track Left and the other Right does not make them stereo. All you have in that case is called "dual mono." There must be something different between the tracks to perceive stereo. I say "perceive" because one doesn't actually have to use 2 microphones and some kind of spatial recording technique to get a perception of stereo width or space. This can also be accomplished with effects. Unless those effects are recorded, there is no reason to duplicate the recording on a second track because the single track can be used with a send effect to create a chorus or spatial sound during the mix. But if you want to use the effect on multiple instruments/vocals you'll have to record the output of the effect and that should be done on 2 tracks (i.e. a stereo track on the DP machines).
If you do have 2 tracks of identical audio and you want to add a sense of depth or space you can check out the posts in this thread.
Save yourself some tracks by not recording mono sources onto stereo tracks. There's no point in doing so.
