The importance of Mono for live guitar playing

Paul Bradshaw

Paul Bradshaw

Inspired


Hello,

I've been racking my brain over this one for a while, been reading various posts and online, but I haven't come to a proper conclusion , made a quick video asking the same sort of questions and some takeaways of being prepared for situations (having mono and stereo presets for example)

when playing out live are you running a Stereo rig/presets ? or you have a Mono rig and mono presets that are going to your monitors/FOH ?

a lot of presets sound amazing in stereo when playing at home in an ideal spot, but i'm unsure on how that translates to real world scenarios where you might just get a mono feed for example for a gig, mono IEMs etc.. and also how things sound to someone that's say way over on the left or right side of the venue vs someone who's in the 'sweet spot' , is mono the safer choice?

love to hear your feedback on this, thanks
 
The tones are mainly mono or just cabs at -15/+15 but the effects like delay or chorus are stereo.
 
There's no definitive answer...it's a polarizing issue. Try it and see what works for you. The one thing I'll say is DON'T pan 1 guitar player hard left and another hard right. I prefer stereo live, albeit I don't have ping ponging, etc. going on all night. When I have to play a mono PA, I simply hand them my left XLR and call it good. I enjoy my home stereo regardless of where I sit in the room and even from other rooms in the house, why would a gig be any different. Dave Rat has a series of videos where he shows how running stereo PA live actually causes far less phase cancellations than running mono PA.
 
I run stereo live. I make sure my presets sound find in either mono or stereo, and while I suggest panning them apart, the sound guys do what they want in FOH. I don't think any have left things in mono, and every tech thinks the Fractal sounds amazing and is happy to work with them, so there's that.

I've also gone back to using a mixer block to blend my (mono) monitor feed with the Fractal's stereo output and send that to my IEM xmtr. It works quite well. The only quirk arises if I have to change the mix level for the monitor input, I'll have to repeat the adjustement if I change presets, and do a quick save. Being able to save a parameter change across multiple presets without the s/w editor would be helpful for this scenario, but not necessary.
 
I play stereo at home because I can and in mono at my every Sunday gig (mono house)! I do have the occasional gig that I do that will be in stereo but that happens maybe 3-5 times a year. I have my 8 main presets duplicated for this reason.
 
warlockII said:
There's no definitive answer...it's a polarizing issue. Try it and see what works for you. The one thing I'll say is DON'T pan 1 guitar player hard left and another hard right. I prefer stereo live, albeit I don't have ping ponging, etc. going on all night. When I have to play a mono PA, I simply hand them my left XLR and call it good. I enjoy my home stereo regardless of where I sit in the room and even from other rooms in the house, why would a gig be any different. Dave Rat has a series of videos where he shows how running stereo PA live actually causes far less phase cancellations than running mono PA.
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that's why it's been affecting my sleep =)
i've played in two guitar bands in the past, we usually ended up being pretty hard panned L + R , which i'm not sure was always best for the audience, depending on what was being played

as we're running Mono IEMs, Mono has been the best choice, but i do run two outputs (dual mono per say, both have the same signal) , if FOH wants both they can take both and slightly pan them as they see fit

due to our monitoring situation i guess Stereo is not really realistic, but things can change
 
Sixstring said:
I play stereo at home because I can and in mono at my every Sunday gig (mono house)! I do have the occasional gig that I do that will be in stereo but that happens maybe 3-5 times a year. I have my 8 main presets duplicated for this reason.
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yeah, that sounds like what usually is out there (mono PAs), although there are venues where they'll 'accept stereo' (sounds like mastercard vs visa =)

i'm also not sure how much the audience will really benefit depending on the size of the venue in those situations, or if its better to run mono to keep things consisten
 
RLD said:
I'm about to switch to a stereo cab for live shows after being mono for ever.
If FOH wants to sum to mono for mains, that's fine...I just want the stereo goodness at my stage spot.
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ah nice, curious to hear how that pans out


i can't really switch out from Mono IEMS , i could theoretically have stereo for myself, but the other 3 band members will have Mono, and depending on the FOH and where we're playing i'm not sure how much benefit myself and the audience will really get
 
I'd say it is best to plan for running mono live unless you're playing a venue that you know will run the guitars in stereo. Collapsing stereo effects to mono doesn't always work well. Ideally, you would have duplicates of your live presets configured for either mono or stereo so you can accommodate both scenarios.
 
FOH engineer says: send me whatever you wish, but for the love of Pete PLEASE check your stereo presets collapsed into mono so you are aware of any issues there may be when I sum the two channels to mono in my mix – which, for clarity's sake in the overall FOH environment, is something that happens quite often.

One enterprising artist sent me THREE channels (basically a WDW layout) so that I could have the clarity of his dry amp/IR in mono and his post-amp/IR effects in stereo to blend into the house mix as I wish. THAT was a glorious solution for me, and I believe the monitor engineer was quite happy as well b/c they used stereo IEMs and everyone could have whatever they needed to hear in their ears.
 
In my last band I had his FM3 running through my III. I set up presets with panning controls so I could pan him left and me right when we were playing the same parts, then both back to stereo when we were playing different parts. It was fun for me at least - not sure anybody in the crowd noticed.
 
strabes said:
It really depends on the type of gig. If you're busking, playing at your local bar, bringing your own PA speaker, etc, then just run mono. But for anything beyond those types of gigs you're probably going to be on IEMs so it's worth it to run stereo because of the far better IEM experience.

Regarding the stereo imaging you mentioned: when building a live preset my goal is always to have a roughly similar tone in the left and right. When recording it's a different story, but live I would never hard pan a dynamic mic to one side and a condenser/ribbon to the other just to create a stereo image. Usually I will use one of each on both sides to get a good mono tone on each side. I also usually have slightly different amps hard panned L/R as well.

Whether or not the audience can hear the stereo imaging is irrelevant to me. I'm building a wide stereo image for my IEM experience. If FOH wants to only use one side in mono that's his prerogative.
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yeah, i think i showed quite an extreme example with the condenser on one side and a 57 on the other, i think an ideal would be as you say a similar blend with some differences


OrganicZed said:
I'd say it is best to plan for running mono live unless you're playing a venue that you know will run the guitars in stereo. Collapsing stereo effects to mono doesn't always work well. Ideally, you would have duplicates of your live presets configured for either mono or stereo so you can accommodate both scenarios.
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yeah, i had stereo and mono versions of my main preset, i've ended up using mono ultimately, given our IEMs are mono and i haven't heard FOH ever ask for a stereo guitar feed, i guess if we had our own sound engineer (i can dream) that'd make things easier

touch33 said:
FOH engineer says: send me whatever you wish, but for the love of Pete PLEASE check your stereo presets collapsed into mono so you are aware of any issues there may be when I sum the two channels to mono in my mix – which, for clarity's sake in the overall FOH environment, is something that happens quite often.

One enterprising artist sent me THREE channels (basically a WDW layout) so that I could have the clarity of his dry amp/IR in mono and his post-amp/IR effects in stereo to blend into the house mix as I wish. THAT was a glorious solution for me, and I believe the monitor engineer was quite happy as well b/c they used stereo IEMs and everyone could have whatever they needed to hear in their ears.
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exactly that with the stereo/collapsing
that WDW layout sounds amazing, but i guess really need an engineer that's tuned in or up to the task as it were for that kind of setup, i usually just see single 57s on cabs at a lot of gigs

TravisG406 said:
In my last band I had his FM3 running through my III. I set up presets with panning controls so I could pan him left and me right when we were playing the same parts, then both back to stereo when we were playing different parts. It was fun for me at least - not sure anybody in the crowd noticed.
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that's very cool , i'm sure some people noticed, but it's usually the more extreme stereo 'ping pong' style effects that people notice
i've seen some bands where the FOH engineer was quickly panning a guitar solo or licks in parts to add some excitement to the overall mix, fun to see and hear
 
My rhythm sounds are the close-miced on the left and on the right, a room IR. For lead sounds, I tend to bring the sound a bit closer to the center if the lead is not the main part (dual leads or embellishments) and for solos, the dry sound is in the center and the effects are stereo.
 
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