Does your band run mono or stereo guitars live?

H

Hansen

Experienced
I play in a metal band with two guitarists. One with Kemper and myself with AX8. I play 60-70% rhythm guitar, while the other guy also plays a lot of rhythm and a lot of leads. I think we would have more power and a bigger sound if we both run stereo live. That way we could have rhythm guitars in both sides all the time and it would especially be beneficial the parts where only one guitarist plays rhythm. I guess it would sound bigger. In addition, running stereo we could use stereo effects.

I guess the downside is that it could potentially be a more messy sound and perhaps more hard for the sound engineer to mix properly?

Do you run stereo or mono and do you have any view on what gives the best experience for the audience?
 
Are both guitar going to FOH only or also with a cab on stage?

Do you keep guitars panned full left and right or a certain percentage for each side?

My band is usually mono with a slight pan of each guitar to the opposite side.
 
My band play stereo both guitars. We using Filter block at the end of the chain which only panning 60 percents right for first guitar and left for second. FOH guy panning 2 channels of each guitar 100 percent left and right, so then the guitarists play riffs, guitars panning 60 percent each. For lead we are using patches without panning.
 
I'm a soundguy too, and prefer getting either mono or stereo-hardpanned signals from each guitarist. That way I can pan the signals on my desk as far possible, suiting the venue/speakersetup and the amout of audience.

If you pan somewhere in between you limit the options a soundguy has.
 
Both guitars mono and our FOH guy takes care of all the panning and levels between different sounds, harmonies, leads etc.

Requires the ”luxury” of having your own sound tech who know the songs though ...
 
Do yourself, the FOH person and your audience a favor, go mono - meaning one input each to the board. Use pan to create a stereo image.
 
You see, hear, feel, and experience in stereo. Mono is great for classical music when there's 65 instruments needing to fit in the soundstage. A 5 piece rock band will always be better in stereo imo, the key is to not hard pan.
 
Severed said:
You see, hear, feel, and experience in stereo. Mono is great for classical music when there's 65 instruments needing to fit in the soundstage. A 5 piece rock band will always be better in stereo imo, the key is to not hard pan.
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In my experience a good 90% or more bands play mono. Heck, David Gilmour runs a mono rig.

Reason is you want the whole audience to hear the same thing. You don’t want people sitting/standing on the left to hear a different show than people sitting on the far right, and neither of them to not get the same sound as people right in the center of the venue.

Stereo sounds great at home listening, and exceptional with headphones, but just doesn’t work live. Same with stereo effects like ping pong delay. Half the audience isn’t hearing the “pong”, just the “ping”

Unless you can sit all your audience in a small area with a good stereo image setup with the PA it just doesn’t work well
 
Mono here. Simplicity is key where i am. Stereo can sound great, but adds complexity. Complexity, for us, is best minimized.

But that’s just us. If you have rigs that support it, a FOH guy that can manage it well, and a venue where it works... knock yourself out!
 
I mainly do studio work (since I own a studio), and I can tell you even for recording projects, making all your sources "stereo" does NOT make the mix sound big, in fact it can do the opposite. Sure, if you only have one guitar, or say a guitar and a vocal (singer songwriter stuff), then a stereo guitar really fills it out. But with a typical rock band - 2 guitars, bass, drums, vocal, maybe keys or a horn, percussion, etc, the guitars are almost always mono. Go listen to classic recordings that sound "big" - and you will find most of them used mono sources, hard panned L, R, or center.

Live is a different animal, and as others have pointed out, most of your audience is not in the sweet spot, so most sound guys use a mono mix, but in the right venue some stereo panning can be beneficial.
 
Alright how about this one:
What do you guys think about a metal band with just one guitarist, would it be beneficial to run stereo with just different IRs on each side? Enhancer?
 
To quote the great Anand: Stereo. Always stereo :)

Axe FX II in stereo to FOH, also with stereo cabs for stage fill. One guitar, U2 cover band.
 
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