JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum using Stereo - for one side only?

The general consensus is to record every part in Stereo
I often hear parts in a CD with parts coming out of L or R only to great effect
Do the professionals still record parts in Stereo if it is only going to be mixed to a point at one side?
When I do this I use Mono but I am not sure if I am missing out on some 'special sound' or technique
Thanks
Tony

You can sometimes record in stereo and blend the parts together for a better sound.
For example I can record a guitar part in stereo - I can pan it L/R, I can pan it say 11 o'clock and 8 o'clock left or I can pan or blend them together for a fatter sound. I guess I would say, if you have the tracks, record them in stereo. You can always only use one of them later.

Actually, most instruments are tracked in mono. I rarely track anything in stereo. How it sounds in the stereo field comes from where it's panned.

Some things like Drums may be tracked in stereo for the overheads, but likely mono for each individual drum. Key's might be stereo, depending on the sound.

It's really all up to the engineer and how he/she records the instrument.

Jody
www.jodywhitesides.com

"The general consensus is to record every part in Stereo"

Hmmm...I would question this, too. It has not been my experience in engineering (since the 80's) that this has much basis in fact.

As Jody said, most instruments are recorded in mono. Stereo effects can be added and panning plays a large role, but recording the instrument in stereo is usually just a waste of a track. Most non-acoustic instruments are mono.

Here are some instruments which ARE recorded in stereo:

1. Drum overheads
2. some acoustic guitar parts (but certainly not all)
3. Leslie cabinets
4. string quartets or other small or large orchestral groups
5. Vocal choirs
6. sampled instruments with integrated stereo effects such as a sample of a Rhodes with a phase shifter as part of the sample.

Make sure you aren't confusing the use of multiple mics with stereo recording. Many major label engineers will use several mics on a guitar cabinet, for instance, but often those parts are combined onto one track - sometimes not, but often they are.

Also, double-tracking a part is not the same as recording it in stereo. I double-track lead and background vocals very often, but that is not stereo.

I'm also not counting using a stereo effect such as a stereo delay as being a stereo track.

Out of an average mix having, say, 30 tracks, I would say I have no more than 3 or 4 stereo tracks. Often it's only 1 or 2.

If you record everything in stereo, you end up with what is called "big mono". Nothing can be located in the sound field. It becomes mush as far as localization goes.


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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

I wanted to add to the consensus and amend my original post. In my attempt to generalize I lumped multiple mics in with stereo recording. I chuckled at the term "big mono" but that is exactly what you get if you record everything in stereo. I was actually referring more to the multi mic or multi input process. For example my bass pod has two outputs. Sometimes I will run these to two separate tracks and mix them together as one sound (or I can just record them to one track as suggested by LWilliam).

I do usually use two mics on an acoustic guitar, one where the neck joins the body and one off axis aimed at the sound hole. Those I will pan L & R if the song calls for it.

Ironically, after advocating stereo recording, I actually find that I am now even taking some of my stereo sound modules and sending some of them right up the middle or slightly to one side only. Apparently I was already trying to avoid "big mono" before I even knew what it was called :-))

To hear some extremes in mono recording with creative panning - listen to some old vinyl or CD's of old stuff that was not remixed before going to CD. Drums and Guitar hard right, vocals and bass hard left - almost nothing up the middle )

Thanks Larry and everyone

Its cleared up a misconception on my part
Not having real parts I record individual MIDI tracks for Bass Gtr, BD, Snare and Cymbals, and then recors them to a Stereo track and split them far left L and R. (Protools; 100, 90, 80, 70)
I considered this method to form the foub=ndation of the song.
I havn't noticed any CD recordings (in my CD rack anyway) that put these only on one side although I'm sure there are and I would like to listen.
"Two Against Nature" cleaned up the Grammy Mixing Awards a year or so ago and I have been trying to get direction from some of these engineering ideas.
Anything advice to 'push' my knowledge further and maybe start breaking the few "Pyramid" or "Foundation" rules I have utilised to date would be very welcome.
Thanks again
Tony