Mono or Stereo
 

Do you guys typically find yourself recording your virus sounds in mono or stereo? I'm guessing that the more bass oriented the sound, the more apt it would be recorded as mono. I'm finally starting to lay down tracks and am finding that I am running out of sonic space fast when recording in stereo!!

everything in mono unless i am recording a sound with stereo delay.
if i need a stereo track, i just duplicate the mono one and pan one left andthe other right

I used to always record in stereo but read from various sources that what doesnt really needs to be stereo shouldnt be.

I usually record everything in stereo but i?m not sure this is the right way to do it (lazy me :oops: ). I guess that if it?s a mono sound you should record it in mono and if it?s stereo the in stereo. I you use a panning delay or LFO, unison with panspread, panning keyfollow (like a piano) or other stereo effects there wouldn?t be much point in recording it mono. On the other hand there wouldn?t be any point in recording a mono bass in stereo would there? But if you record a mono synth in stereo wouldn?t it be the same as if you copy a mono track. I mean you just get 2 identical waves :roll: You may be right in that more bass oriented sound usually are in mono but i guess they are made that way because the human ear has trouble pointing out the direction of low frequency sounds (in other word: It dosn?t make any difference so why do it). On the other hand you would also (i guess) record mid and high pitched sounds in mono if they are mono to start with. Maybe the thumb rule is: If it?s in mono, record it as mono; if it?s in stereo, record it as stereo. But hey, i?m only guessing here. Anyone who actually knows about this? I would like to know too...

thanks for the tips guys, it's amazing how quickly you run out of headroom with these virus sounds.

Bass sounds need to be mono so that you don't get phasing issues when two subs try to play them back. Otherwise, massive bass cancellation will occur which is never fun. Other than that, its pretty much up to you.

Bass and kicks always mono. The rest I'll generally record in stereo, but it really depends on the sounds.

This is news to me...!

Suppose I am recording a basic bassline from my Virus B where ChanL=ChanR, in theory.

If it sounds alright on my speakers then is it not safe to assume that Sound Forge will record it correctly as stereo?

Also, what does 'record in mono' mean?
Is it to mix down both (L/R) channels into 1 mono track?
Or is it to record only the Left output?

recording in mono means you assign your patch to either Out L or R, and not L+R