The importance of Mono for live guitar playing

When I'm playing live, I just want a great tone and to engage the audience. Stereo comes with a lot of variables that could take away from that, whereas performing my best and getting into it will make way more of an impact, and does.

Every show I am told how amazing my guitar sound is. Every single one.
 
touch33 said:
Sure they will — but only if FOH does it correctly (and at the right time).

FWIW, I just saw the U2 show at Sphere Vegas last week — Edge’s guitar was mono in the FOH “proscenium” mix, but when he solo’d all his FX spread out into the “immersion” and “rear ambience” systems. Glorious.
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Right, but the Sphere uses a lot of tech that no one else has, they spent over $2 billion to build it. Let me know when your local dive bar is getting the 160K Holoplot speakers.
 
chrisjnyc said:
Right, but the Sphere uses a lot of tech that no one else has, they spent over $2 billion to build it. Let me know when your local dive bar is getting the 160K Holoplot speakers.
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It doesn’t take super-tech to be able to go from a guitar being a part of the mix (mono) to dominating the mix (stereo) — just good judgement and the willpower to pay attention.

(BTW: I think the Magic in the Holoplot gear is its ability to “disappear” behind the video screens — give me an equally-overblown amount of properly-deployed L’Acoustics kit and the end result would be sonically as-good if not better.)
 
Strange thing:
I have kitchen sink presets with 2 amps, using the same cab IR.
When summing to mono, I get some kind of phasing.
This is less when I only use the same amps and cabs without any other blocks.
But still some phasing .
So, I might conclude that 2 amps/cabs panned hard L/R and then summed to mono doesn't work.
 
MisterE said:
Strange thing:
I have kitchen sink presets with 2 amps, using the same cab IR.
When summing to mono, I get some kind of phasing.
This is less when I only use the same amps and cabs without any other blocks.
But still some phasing .
So, I might conclude that 2 amps/cabs panned hard L/R and then summed to mono doesn't work.
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What is the cab block set to with its inputs and outputs. Also, are you using the room parameter. What happens when you use only one cab.
 
javajunkie said:
What is the cab block set to with its inputs and outputs. Also, are you using the room parameter. What happens when you use only one cab.
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No room parameters used.
One set to Left input, the other to the right input.
Amps are panne Left and Right
Not tried using one cab with two amps though
 
MisterE said:
Strange thing:
I have kitchen sink presets with 2 amps, using the same cab IR.
When summing to mono, I get some kind of phasing.
This is less when I only use the same amps and cabs without any other blocks.
But still some phasing .
So, I might conclude that 2 amps/cabs panned hard L/R and then summed to mono doesn't work.
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Are there more blocks in one line than the other?
 
Stereo when I'm the only guitar in the gig, mono, but not hard panned L/R, when we're two guitars. Panning is up to FOH, but from what i understand anything from 70 - 90% depending on the size of the room and distance between speakers.
 
javajunkie said:
What happens when you use only one cab.
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Same as when summing to mono.
Doesn't sound the same as panning hard left and right.
Funny enough, when panning amps centre, input cabs on stereo and panning centre, summing to mono sounds exactly the same.
So there's a big difference when panning amps and cabs hard left/right and then summing to mono and panning all centre and summing to mono.
 
MisterE said:
Same as when summing to mono.
Doesn't sound the same as panning hard left and right.
Funny enough, when panning amps centre, input cabs on stereo and panning centre, summing to mono sounds exactly the same.
So there's a big difference when panning amps and cabs hard left/right and then summing to mono and panning all centre and summing to mono.
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I will test when I can.
 
One good thing...
I tried to make a preset with two amps, one cab and a mono chorus and it worked surprisingly well.
Only tried it at home but I'll give t a try in my rehearsal room.
Since I've been without band, I've gotten so much used to the stereo sound that, when I tried it in a band setting, it didn't quit sound the same and I was wondering if I shouldn't go back to mono.
One thing that's strange though is the mono chorus. When changing the stereo spread to 0%, I have to lower the level.
Another thing may be that, when setting the amp's balance to centre, it sounds louder (this is normal I guess) and that may explain the difference in sound.
I was convinced it was some kind of phasing but it may be due to the infamous Fletcher Munson curve ;-)
 
I am not experiencing a change a when summing to mono. I tried on dist and clean amps. I kept the amps/cabs panned but changed output 1 to sum mono in the global out 1 settings and monitored through headphone out on the axe-fx. Now, at my audio interface mixer, I get a volume boost, that it expected, but if compensate for that there is not significant change in tone.

on the chorus stereo spread, yes at zero it is louder. This true in stereo or summed output. if the chorus is before he amp block the volume change can be much less.
 
oddly enough the volume boost when summed at the audio interface can compensate for the decreased intensity of some of my heavier stereo effect presets. Its when the left and right signals are out of phase where things can get funky. Every patch is different. I just check to see if it sounds good in mono.

As far as what the audience hears at the places I play. I go out into the room and here what it sounds like with band during rehearsals and pre-performance sound check.

One thing I have found stereo or not I prefer no enhancer. There is something that I don't like about the effect. It isjust like putting sugar on top of Birthday cake :)
 
For those of you that run Mono to FoH and Stereo for monitoring. What's your process? Are you running stereo when testing it out and general practicing/playing with Studio monitors and then just SUM L+R on Output 1 before the gig?
 
I wonder how it would sound in the house if you did stereo IRs that are very close to each other, such as the same cab with mics positioned on different sides of the speaker?
 
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