Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes


I will say this:

If you have a singer onstage performing in a soundproof booth, and an audience is watching while listening to the audio feed through headphones, and you don't get to add any artificial stereo effects... it will sound better with two mics! =8^)




This is actually not true. There are many reasons for this fact, not the least that this is a completely artificial situation that does not exist in nature.

As someone who has worked extensively in anechoic chambers, it is highly disturbing to be in one for any length of time. Many describe it as an oppressive and heavy feeling. Because you receive back zero reflections of your own voice. It makes one feel like it is difficult to breathe.

One of the key factors here is how the singer works the mic in studio and live. This would sound very strange recorded in stereo and played back over phones with the voice moving all over the stereo field. A highly unnatural experience.

Think of any 70’s recording where everything is pretty dang dry. Steely Dan Aja comes to mind. Those recordings are about as close to the scenario you presented above. Listen all you like and you will not hear stereo field motion in any of the singing. Because they were recorded mono, as probably 99.9999% of any singer recorded in a studio or vocal booth has been recorded in the history of recording. Now the BGVs are spread over the stereo field, but the solo sections are absolutely mono and then effected.

Bottom line: be very thankful most solo instrument RTs were recorded with single microphones in mono as they are typically done in studio. This lets the user mix them just as they would be mixed by a professional mixing engineer into a stereo mix.

Last edited by rockstar_not; 01/13/22 04:51 AM.
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