Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes
Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
Basically, most instruments do not benefit from having two microphones put in front of them, unless they are either very large sound sources or they are actually collections of multiple smaller instruments. Typically this means that most instruments are best recorded in mono.

Doesn't it matter, though, if the listener is using headphones or not? A stereo mix of a singer on phones can sound very different from a mono recording even if the mics are only inches apart (and I'm not even thinking of "binaural" or "spatial" audio.)

I can see, though, why it might be preferable to "stereoify" such recordings during post-production rather than actually using two microphones (which I believe a tool like Logic's Direction Mixer does, as opposed to simple panning.)

You're talking about the mixing stage now, forget about that for a second. Grab a microphone and sing into it and record that - no effects, no mixing, nothing. Now grab two microphones and sing into them and record it. The two-mic recording will not sound "stereo" because the origin of your voice is one single point (your mouth). Any difference between the two mics will simply be due to proximity from each mic, or slight differences in the reverb in the room due to that mic's placement, or simply the fact that you have two microphones and therefore double the signal, which will make it louder (and we all know that louder sounds better).

Once you're in the mixing stage and you're adding stereo reverbs or stereo chorus or effects like that, then certainly it'll sound different if you flip it to mono.


Nice response. More clear than my reply a couple pages back.

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