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Re: mono vs stereo for studio mixing

Subject: Re: mono vs stereo for studio mixing
From: Klas Strandberg <>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 12:52:31 +0200
Stereo triggers your fantasy.
Mono only triggers your sonogram.

Klas.

At 11:56 2005-07-10, you wrote:
>Hi Walt,
>
>your explanation makes absolutely sense!
>
>It explains why people are always impressed when you play them "real"
>stereo recordings, no matter if they are nature or music recordings.
>The feeling of actually being there is hardly ever achieved by studio
>recordings. (The only exception I know, are Mikey Hart's CDs)
>My personal preference apart from the SASS (I have an original one,
>maybe one day I'll have a modified onre) is the Jecklin disk. The
>advantages I see with it is that it can be easily transported in a
>dissambled state including the tripod in a backpack to almost everywhere.
>
>Cheers
>
>
>Volker
>
>
>
>Walter Knapp schrieb:
>
> > From: "David Kuhn" <>
> >
> > >
> > > Hi Bernie and all,
> > > Thanks Bernie, I'll try the h-phones-attached-to-log method next
> > > time, as recent developments indicate I may need to do it
> > > differently:
> > > I hear from the studio engineer in Hilo that "All sources [of log-
> > > moving audio] should be done raw mono 48 khz; in the mix, we can
> > > determine pan scenerios, levels, effects, and so on..."
> > >
> > > I'm up against my lack of studio experience here, whereas this
> > > engineer has wide experience in studio mixing, but only for music.
> > > I'll likely give it over to him to make the most of it his way, but
> > > also do the mixing here in my studio and compare the results to his.
> > > I guess one question is: If I record in stereo as planned and save
> > > the file in mono to send to the engineer, is the result the same (to
> > > him) as recording in mono originally?
> > >
> > > Wouldn't a studio engineer have more flexibility if he starts with
> > > stereo? Isn't the use of extensive panning to create "fake" stereo?
> > >
> > > Thanks for any guidance that would put me on a better footing in
> > > these "negotiations"--most important to me is to create the best,
> > > most credible illusion for the exhibit, and to represent my work in
> > > the best light. Manipulating mono to sound like stereo aint it.
> >
> > Virtually all music is now recorded as multichannel mono, then mixed to
> > fake stereo. The label may say stereo, but it's not. Your studio
> > engineer is obviously steeped in this method. He may not be able to
> > handle natural stereo well.
> >
> > To be fair, mixing a bunch of stereo fields together to form one
> > accurate field would be quite a task. Stereo is best recorded with a
> > single stereo mic setup in one pass. If a sound must be recorded
> > separately, it should be just the sound and that panned through the
> > complete stereo field. Get your ambiance from one stereo mic setup, eve=
n
> > if you record in several passes from the same spot.
> >
> > The multi-mono stereo lacks a proper ambiance field, each mono mic will
> > pick up some resonance, some ambiance, but it does not mix to a single
> > field, just a jumble all pointing odd directions. At least not without =
a
> > huge amount of computing power, far more than is used. You'd have to
> > extract the ambiance from each mono mic separately and join that into a
> > single volume of ambiance. Then extract just the main players from each
> > mic and pan them into that field. That's why engineers try to not pick
> > up ambiance.
> >
> > Your engineer will simply pan the log sound where he wants it located.
> > Regardless of any ambiance the recording contains. In fact he'd probabl=
y
> > prefer no ambiance. I don't know how much is to be mixed in this
> > soundfield, so hard to comment more.
> >
> > For most folks this multi-mono mix is what they think stereo is. No
> > wonder even very crude mic arrangements are thought to be stereo setups=
.
> > People are simply not used to more than the main sounds having
> > believable directionality, if even that. It took me a while to learn to
> > listen to the ambiance in a stereo field as well as the main players. T=
o
> > evaluate the structure of the field as a whole. The echoes of the main
> > callers should be believable, for instance. And the main echo sources
> > for all callers should be the same. Like, for instance, there's a rock
> > that's a echo source, it's direction should be as firm as the direct
> > calls, pointed out consistently by all the echoes. Only happens with
> > real stereo.
> >
> > The SASS, for instance, I might be recording frogs calling in and aroun=
d
> > a pond in the woods. The reflections of the calls from the tree trunks
> > will form a audio image of the forest, which is a result of the echoes.
> > On good days even each tree will image. Just as I would hear it at the
> > site with my eyes closed. It does not require a SASS for this, other
> > well designed stereo setups can do this to a varying degree.
> >
> > Or listen to the Death Valley recording I put up. Hear the image of the
> > back pit wall in the echoes? Encoding to mp3 blurred it a bit, but it's
> > still there. It's faint and takes some listening to hear separately, bu=
t
> > it's part of what makes the recording stereo. Or just how most of the
> > flying birds are headed toward the water? That's in faint wing noises
> > mostly.
> >
> > Multi-mono is like a picture album on one subject, the pictures only
> > somewhat related. Stereo is like a single picture.
> >
> > Walt
> > 
> >
> >
> >
> > "Microphones are not ears,
> > Loudspeakers are not birds,
> > A listening room is not nature."
> > Klas Strandberg
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
email: 
        




________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________


"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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