Moving Back from Stereo to Mono

ValentinC

Member
Hi, i've been playing in Stereo since last year, and it is truly amazing, but thi weekend i had to play at a wedding and i have many trouble with the sound guy. First he told me that he has no space for a second channel, we reorganize and free some mics. And then they told me that their system mixes everything and had a general mono output.
So i decided -for mental sanity and simplicity- to get back to mono.
Question: what effects and block you MUST tweak from a stereo setup to convert it to a mono setup? I mean, i already change the Stereo Delays, Flangers and Chorus to Mono Delay, Flanger and Chorus, but it is really necesary to "un-pan" the pitch, cab, tremolo, etc blocks?

THanks
 
It's only necessary to "de-stereo" a patch if you have panned cabs, ping-pong delays or anything that has a noticeable difference in the two channels. The default stereo mode on most delays, reverbs, etc, sound fine in mono if you only take just the L or R output (not summing to mono). Most of the gigs I play are in mono but all I do is take my stereo patches and only plug in one XLR. Then when I'm home practicing or recording, I still have stereo without having to change anything in the patches or settings.
 
P. 6 in the manual talks about mono vs. stereo. Letting the system handle the channel blend might give you the best of both.

I’d experiment with that first before adjusting presets. Record some things, changing the settings, and listen to them with speakers and headphones and see which ones you like.
 
While I understand your reason, I would not base my sound on a random sound guy who doesn’t have the equipment , the experience and the willing to run stereo.

These guys don’t care about making you sound good, regardless of your source being stereo or mono.
It’s about making their life easier.
 
Regarding live sound, many, many venues only have mono setups and even if they do have stereo, unless the audience member is standing directly centered between the two speakers, due to the way our brains process sound, it will be perceived as mono in almost every situation. Just a few dB of volume difference from standing more to the left or the right collapses the perception of stereo. When I first got my Fractal gear, I was excited to run a stereo setup but I quickly came to the realization that live it just doesn't end up happening that way most of the time.
 
Regarding live sound, many, many venues only have mono setups and even if they do have stereo, unless the audience member is standing directly centered between the two speakers, due to the way our brains process sound, it will be perceived as mono in almost every situation. Just a few dB of volume difference from standing more to the left or the right collapses the perception of stereo. When I first got my Fractal gear, I was excited to run a stereo setup but I quickly came to the realization that live it just doesn't end up happening that way most of the time.

I understand this theory and it makes sense. However, I have been at shows in the audience, that ran stereo and they were awesome! I feel sad that you guys missed out on that experience.
 
That's quite a bitter-sounding blanket statement.

SOME are that way and shouldn't be running sound because their attitude is wrong, but most I've run into have cared a lot.
I can see how it sounds bitter and blanket statement if you only pick out the "mono-guy" part.
 
Not sure if this is perfect but my thinking is to send my L-R XLR outputs to my FRFR speaker (Headrush) in stereo and send the sum out to FOH from there.
If I am correct, my Headrush speakers (either 8" or 12") should sum properly. I try it sometimes at rehearsal (no FOH) and the single Headrush sounds OK despite the loss of stereo effect on some presets. Both channels are there.
 
Regarding live sound, many, many venues only have mono setups and even if they do have stereo, unless the audience member is standing directly centered between the two speakers, due to the way our brains process sound, it will be perceived as mono in almost every situation. Just a few dB of volume difference from standing more to the left or the right collapses the perception of stereo.
Does it, though? More than once when I was a staff engineer at a music venue, I got bored enough (some bands would bring their own monitor rigs so that night my job would be to stand there and look important) to do experiments on LCR vs Stereo, and the extra directionality of the center channel was easily worth 3-4 dB of "ease of hearing something" compared to the same signals run to a stereo mix.
 
I always played stereo at gigs before but I am back to mono as well now. Main reason is the stage monitoring which is a problem most of the time. Especially at festivals where there is little soundcheck time. Not all the time they have stereo monitors. Or they say they have but still send only one channel to the monitor. Especially if you rely on stereo rhythmic delays with a different timing on each side that can knock you off if you only hear one channel. So for the sake of convenience I am back to mono. Also mono signals cut better through in most cases.
 
Even when they get a stereo signal they often don't turn the pan controls fully left and right. Yours sound should be mono compatible always.
 
I love the sound of stereo but always go mono when playing somewhere besides home. Just sum to L+R on your output and never had issues (output 1 for stereo at home, output 2 sum l+r).
Satriani said in a magazine interview years ago, the best thing he ever done for his sound and audience at live shows was to quit trying to get a stereo image to them, going to mono.
 
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