Should I go mono or stereo to FOH

I saw Steve Vai in at the Joy Theatre in New Orleans. The venue probably holds about 1000 people. His effects were in stereo, I thought it was strange at first for him to be mixed in stereo, but the results were nothing but outstanding. Unless you were in the very front of the stage, the stereo effects worked because you were never at a really severe angle from center. Sounded good to me.NN
 
This is something I've been thinking about...I play at 2 places...1) my house through studio monitors or phones and 2) church. We just installed a new line array (SLS) last week. Due to the layout of the room/cost it was best to go with a mono pa. BUT...I much prefer hearing stereo (2 different cabs specifically) in my ears. What do I need to avoid in preset craeation? Any issues with my LR getting summed in the console? Easier put...how can I get a proper stereo feed to IEM and not create phase or comb filtering at FOH?
 
ChristThePhone said:
Avoid the stereo enhancer in classic mode.
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Honest confession....I've never even tried the stereo enhancer :). I tend to set my patches up like I have in real world...and haven't experimented much. Mono "pedals" in front of amp, to 2 diff IRs, parralel delays and verbs (mimicking an amps effects loop).

I should play with the enhancer :)
 
This is an old, near religion/politics, argument. We've had this discussion in my band many times. In the end, what you decide to do will be the best way for you, and that's fine. The fact is that there are pluses and minuses to either way, and to most listeners in the audience it won't matter at all. Make yourself happy, and do it the way you think it sounds best.

You can use this high-tech testing device to determine the best method!

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^ Same. I go stereo onstage from Out 2. I do whatever the soundguy wants for FOH. Doesn't really matter to me. I don't use ping pong delays or any crazy stereo fx. Just some pitch shift detune for some 80'style grease on my sound.
 
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Okay theres lots of good advice and suggestions here :) I will try it out!

I have a question regarding the "Out mode" now then! It is set to stereo from the factory. I played it set to stereo to our mixer/FOH, but used only one XLR. So I was going Mono but with Out set to Stereo. It sounded good as far as I could hear.

Does it make any difference how it is set in generel, or is it only if there are heavy panned effects involved it matters?
 
I would leave it in stereo. If you set it to mono, it will sum L+R, and to me, it has more artefacts than just running one of the sides to FOH
 
I switch back and forth. When I play in my cover band with another guitarist, my send to FOH is mono as the other guitarist and I are panned slightly left and right. When I play at Church, I am the only electric guitarist and I send a stereo signal to FOH.
 
No one is going to hear stereo in a traditional live venue. The speakers are too close together and too loud. Leave stereo for recording and the movies...
 
For what is worth... Yesterday I set up my PA and listened to music from my phone. I had the speakers set up about 12 ft apart and was running the music in stereo at about 85 Db. I walked around the room (about 21ft x 17ft) and listened to a variety of styles of music. What I noticed was that it sounded great pretty much everywhere except if you put your head right in front of the speaker. I even listened from outside the room and it sounded pretty good. There was a definite sweet spot if I stood in the center of the stereo field, the sound just opened up and everything sounded way better, but it still didn't sound bad in the rest of the room. Even on songs with hard panned dual guitar harmony you could hear both guitars distinctly from anywhere in the room. The mix wasn't perfect everywhere but it never sounded bad. The worse places in the room sounded about like a good mono mix, the majority of the room sounded better than mono and the sweet spot was just amazing and powerful.
 
For those who typically run mono presets live to FOH and just to be clear, only one xlr out is needed correct? I have always run stereo presets and use two xlr's to FOH but lately I am starting to think that a mono send from a single cab IR is a better way to go especially in smaller venues and having another guitar player in my band.
 
StefanDahl said:
Hi all :)

So I´m like a 3 week old AX8 child! It sounds amazing and I´m absolutely happy with the choice.

I´m playing direct to FOH and a Yamaha DXR12 for monitor.

I´m thinking a lot about playing stereo to FOH. I know it sounds killer through my studio monitors.

SO - My question is! Does it make a difference through FOH, and can the audience hear it? We are a typical coverband playing scenes that are like 5 meters wide more or less.

Pros & Cons are really wanted! And really any experience from you guys who tried it :)


Stefan, Denmark :)
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Just one more thing to remember, and I know it's elementary, but sometimes guitarists forget to ask: make sure your house sound system(s) are CAPABLE of running stereo and are set up that way. A lot of small/medium clubs just run mains in parallel. If your mains aren't running in stereo, you can send two panned signals all day long and it won't matter. You'll waste a lot of time setting up patches for no reason. So just check to be sure there are separate amps and sends for your L and R mains.
 
Works for me. I also asked Leon Todd who has a killer live tone with his AX8, (check out his you tube channel) and he agreed going mono with one xlr to the board seems to be closer to using an actual amp and cab than running stereo.
 
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