dual mono vs stereo

[mikegee]

dual mono vs stereo

i sure hope this isnt a silly question...

i hear this a lot from other musicians when we are mixing tracks; technically speaking, is there a difference between stereo and dual mono outs? is it that dual mono is just the exact same signal sent to two different outputs sources, as opposed to stereo, which would be two or more different signals going to two different sources?

thnx

[dagosto]

Definitely not a silly question. This is something that I belive can be overlooked fairly often.

Essentially dual mono will yield the same result as what is called a stereo interleaved file as long as you pan them hard left and right. Interleaved files are called so because the left and right data streams are alternated between. In this case the first binary word belongs to the left channel, second to the right, and so on. From what I have read the interleaved files take up approximately 3/4 the disc I/O of dual mono files.

The one drawback of stereo interleaved files is that you are often left without an independant pan for the left and right channels. Instead you are given only a balance control which can be limited.

[mikegee]

ok, yea, i somewhat understand that, but its a pretty technical answer. can ya break it down a bit simpler, if possible? if not, that's cool. i'm glad ya answered. it's definitely worth learning about. do you know any good links that explain this in more detail? i wanna edumacate myself more on this subject...

generally speaking, does mono vs stereo basically differenciate from the source of the sound? like, for instance;

if you have an audio interface with stereo out and your running two ins of two different signals into two seperate tracks of the daw, that would truly be stereo. but if you say, run one mono signal into a daw with a splitter into 2 inputs, recording on two tracks, that would be dual mono? does that sound right?

thanks again. i'm just trying to understand the differences for future reference...

[Nubus]

Originally Posted by mikegee

but if you say, run one mono signal into a daw with a splitter into 2 inputs, recording on two tracks, that would be dual mono? does that sound right?

This always seems to come up for some reason. My answer is "Don't do that!" It doesn't make any sense to record the exact same stuff to two tracks and pan them left and right. Just record one track and pan it in the middle. Your hard drive will thank you for it.
Unless you are recording to a non-linear medium this will be two mono tracks and you will have two pan controls which confuse each other. Does that make sense?

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by mikegee

ok, yea, i somewhat understand that, but its a pretty technical answer. can ya break it down a bit simpler, if possible? if not, that's cool. i'm glad ya answered. it's definitely worth learning about. do you know any good links that explain this in more detail? i wanna edumacate myself more on this subject...

generally speaking, does mono vs stereo basically differenciate from the source of the sound? like, for instance;

if you have an audio interface with stereo out and your running two ins of two different signals into two seperate tracks of the daw, that would truly be stereo. but if you say, run one mono signal into a daw with a splitter into 2 inputs, recording on two tracks, that would be dual mono? does that sound right?

thanks again. i'm just trying to understand the differences for future reference...

I see what you're saying. Splitting an input signal into two and recording to two tracks is dual mono but it is redundant. The point of stereo is to have two different signals. Dual mono is stereo, just stored as two separate files. Stereo interleaved is a singal file. They will use the same number of outs.

Here's an example that might help you understand. Lets say you set up two mics in an XY pattern to record some congas. You route one mic to input one and then the other to input 2. Each of those go to a separate mono track in your DAW with corresponding inputs. After recording a take you have two separate mono tracks that you can then pan to create a stereo effect. This is dual mono.

Lets say after recording some other tracks your hard-drive starts to get bogged down and you experience drop-outs and glitches. You can then take those two tracks of conga and bounce them down to a stereo interleaved track. Some DAWs will give you an option to keep them as dual mono but in your case you are trying to give your hard drive a break. So you choose stereo interleaved and the program bounces the two files down to one file and it is still stereo.

[dolivas]

Originally Posted by dagosto

I see what you're saying. Splitting an input signal into two and recording to two tracks is dual mono but it is redundant. The point of stereo is to have two different signals. Dual mono is stereo, just stored as two separate files. Stereo interleaved is a singal file. They will use the same number of outs.

Here's an example that might help you understand. Lets say you set up two mics in an XY pattern to record some congas. You route one mic to input one and then the other to input 2. Each of those go to a separate mono track in your DAW with corresponding inputs. After recording a take you have two separate mono tracks that you can then pan to create a stereo effect. This is dual mono.

Lets say after recording some other tracks your hard-drive starts to get bogged down and you experience drop-outs and glitches. You can then take those two tracks of conga and bounce them down to a stereo interleaved track. Some DAWs will give you an option to keep them as dual mono but in your case you are trying to give your hard drive a break. So you choose stereo interleaved and the program bounces the two files down to one file and it is still stereo.

nice that's a good description. It's just trying to treat mono recordings as you would like to hear them in the stereo realm. I do that with acoustic instruments just to simulate widening their sound to sound fuller without having to add volume panned to one side or not. It makes making one lead instrument stand out a bit more naturally in my opinion.

On a sidenote does anyone know the difference between Joint Stereo and Stereo? I use Joint Stereo when doing CD-rips and encoding to lossy formats because people into lossy formats say Joint Stereo creates smaller file sizes and sounds a bit clearer the regular stereo. I'm not that big of an audiophile to answer my own question.

[dagosto]

Originally Posted by dolivas

On a sidenote does anyone know the difference between Joint Stereo and Stereo? I use Joint Stereo when doing CD-rips and encoding to lossy formats because people into lossy formats say Joint Stereo creates smaller file sizes and sounds a bit clearer the regular stereo. I'm not that big of an audiophile to answer my own question.

This is the exact same difference but phrased differently. Joint stereo is stereo interleaved whereas in this case stereo would mean dual mono or two different files. With joint stereo you would have one file "MyTrack.wav" but if you did stereo you would have "MyTrack L.wav" and MyTrack R.wav" in your finder or explorer or whatever you use. Often times DAW's will recognize this naming standardization and show the two files as one in the import or audio region window.

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by dagosto

Lets say after recording some other tracks your hard-drive starts to get bogged down and you experience drop-outs and glitches. You can then take those two tracks of conga and bounce them down to a stereo interleaved track. Some DAWs will give you an option to keep them as dual mono but in your case you are trying to give your hard drive a break. So you choose stereo interleaved and the program bounces the two files down to one file and it is still stereo.

I'm so glad you mentioned this, because, for the most part, i have a pretty robust computer, but this may be the very reason why my puter drops out ocassionally in cubase. i'm gonna try some bounce downs to stereo interleaved and see if that may remedy the glitches.

thanks again for this info! i've thought bout this question for a while. great answers...