Difference Between Panning Stereo Signal Recorded to Mono vs. Stereo track

If you are new here check this forum first, your question may have been answered.
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

If you take a stereo signal, such as a synth (which is usually mono) that has been processed with a stereo effect, and wish to pan it, in what ways would the sound be different if this has been recorded to a mono vs. stereo track?

I understand (I think) from a fair amount of googling that when a stereo signal on a mono track is panned the volume in one channel is merely silenced, whereas in a stereo track one channel is actually being moved over into the other. In both cases, if you pan completely to the left, for example, would the resulting sound not be the same? I suspect there's something I'm overlooking or misunderstanding.

I've doing a lot of reading about whether instruments should be recorded as mono or stereo tracks, and while there is no consensus, there is definitely a strong bias towards recording as much as you can in mono. So I'd like to try to record in mono as often as I can, when appropriate.

Thank you for any help.
Last edited by Libertine Lush on Tue Jun 30, 2015 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post

Indeee, there are multiple strategies for panning a stereo track. So it depends what you use for panning, and how (if any) panning laws are set up.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

Post

BertKoor wrote:Indeee, there are multiple strategies for panning a stereo track.
But is the resulting sound the same if a stereo signal is panned completely to one channel, when recorded in mono compared to when in stereo?

Thanks.

Post

No, ofcourse not. But it depends a bit on what exactly the "stereo" content is.

You could also ask yourself this: when panning a stereo track completely hard-left or hard-right, why did you first process it by a stereo effect? Wouldn't a true mono effect be more "effective"? (pun intended)
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

Post

BertKoor wrote:No, ofcourse not.
I'm too new to understand why that's obvious. Could you explain?

Or I'll provide my thinking and perhaps someone can tell me what I've misunderstood: I understand a stereo signal recorded to mono will be summed for each channel, resulting in two identical channels. If that same signal is recorded to stereo, the channels will not be identical. Then if I pan both channels to the left in both instances, in the former, I would not be losing any unique sounds in the right channel since it's identical to the left, and in the latter, I would merge the unique sounds in the right channel to the left, so I wouldn't lose any unique sounds either. How then do the two differ?
BertKoor wrote:You could also ask yourself this: when panning a stereo track completely hard-left or hard-right, why did you first process it by a stereo effect? Wouldn't a true mono effect be more "effective"? (pun intended)
I've read that some effects like choruses and reverbs are stereo. So if your mono instrument is processed by one of these affects, I assume they must always be recorded stereo and that can't be hard panned, but perhaps partial panning is fine?

Post

Libertine Lush wrote:Could you explain?
I can at least try...

Panning a mono track is trivial. The signal is divided across the two available L & R channels.

As a side note: here are some strategies to chose from as well. You could divide it such that L & R summed has always the same level as the original: panned dead center is -6dB on each channel compared to hard left or right. But then when something is panned dead center it is by our ears perceived softer than when panned hard left or right. So another "pan law" can adjust that: dead center then is -3dB instead. Many DAWs offer a couple of such pan laws.

Code: Select all

Equal power (mono summing compatible)
Pan pos: | Left | Mid | Right
---------+------+-----+------
L output |   1  | 0.5 |  0
R output |   0  | 0.5 |  1

Equal volume:
Pan pos: | Left | Mid  | Right
---------+------+------+------
L output |   1  | 0.77 |  0
R output |   0  | 0.77 |  1

another possibility:
Pan pos: | Left | Mid | Right
---------+------+-----+------
L output |   1  |  1  |  0
R output |   0  |  1  |  1
Panning a stereo track can be done in some different ways as well.

1: keep L & R always separated. When panning is set to hard-panned left you get only the input L channel on the output L channel. So whatever was on the right channel is completely lost and it depends on the audio weather that's good or bad. Put this in a schema:

Code: Select all

Pan pos: | Left | Mid  | Right
Input:   | L  R | L  R | L  R
---------+------+------+------
L output | 1  0 | 1  0 | 0  0
R output | 0  0 | 0  1 | 0  1
2: blend some of L or R to the other side, so stereo tracks that have very different L & R channels (say already hard-panned) survive the panning better.

Code: Select all

Pan pos: | Left | Mid  | Right
Input:   | L  R | L  R | L  R
---------+------+------+------
L output | 1  1 | 1  0 | 0  0
R output | 0  0 | 0  1 | 1  1
Libertine Lush wrote:I understand a stereo signal recorded to mono will be summed for each channel, resulting in two identical channels.
No, mono means you have just one channel. You can pick either just the L or just the R channel, or mix both.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

Post

BertKoor wrote:
Libertine Lush wrote:Could you explain?
I can at least try...
Some of the info is bit too technical for my level of experience so far, but I think I grasp the gist of it. And I think it'll be something useful for me to refer back to as I continue to learn. Thank you for taking the time to explicate all of that in such great detail.
BertKoor wrote:
Libertine Lush wrote:I understand a stereo signal recorded to mono will be summed for each channel, resulting in two identical channels.
No, mono means you have just one channel. You can pick either just the L or just the R channel, or mix both.
I think what I meant to say is this, but left out a few details: that a stereo signal recorded to mono will be summed, and at that point exists as a single channel, but when played back on a stereo system, that single channel is then played back in both speakers--and the content in both speakers is identical. Would that be an accurate statement?

I think there may have also been some errant assumptions I was working with when I started my post. I had thought, from some forum posts, that when you pan a stereo source all the way to one channel that it is being summed. Is being summed different from panning a stereo channel completely into the other?

Thanks.

Post

:tu: That statement of yours is accurate indeed.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

Post Reply

Return to “Getting Started (AKA What is the best...?)”