Hi everyone,
Just wondering if it makes a difference to have a mono recording/track on a stereo channel, compared to a mono recording/track on a mono channel.
I recorded a lot of vocal tracks only to realise that the channels are stereo, but the vocals were recorded in mono. Is it worth changing the channels to mono?
Hi,
If you record Mono signal to the Stereo Track, the signal comes from the left channel only.
Hi, Martin
Maybe I didn’t get what you have stated, but I get this, here, when recording an acoustic guitar with a mono source (a condenser mic - all inserts and sends having been disabled) in a stereo track, something I often do :
For some time, it had been as @Martin.Jirsak said. If your Audio Connections Input bus did not agree with what was actually connected to the interface, a mono source (that hadn’t been declared as a Mono Input bus over at Audio Connections) would be recorded on the Left (or Right) side of a track when the Stereo Input Bus was selected.
But (and again Buildela effect for me), at some point we were given the option to select a Hardware Bus as an audio track’s input. And then a mono source will happily record itself on a stereo track, centered and all.
(By the way, I’m mostly using stereo tracks these days, even for mono material. In absense of a quick mono/stereo track switch, I prefer to start with a stereo track so that on a whim I can try a reverb or a chorus as an insert effect and have it sound much better. If I want to make it mono later on, I can always create a mono bus, or narrow the pan down to a point. But to “stereo-fy” a mono track, I would always need to create a stereo bus and copy over the inserts.)
Yep, same here, and I often use the bundled MonoToStereo plug-in as insert : works beautifully on an acoustic guitar. 
Convert your stereo tracks to mono, that’s it.
Media Menu -» Open Pool Window
Select your stereo tracks, click the right mouse button
Select Convert Files…
In the Convert Options window:
Keep Sample Rate
Keep Bit Depth
Mono Channels
Keep Format
Choose the desired option
You now have a mono track and it will be easier to manage.
No, as far as I can see there is no benefit.
In case you want to make your signal mono you can switch the panner to stereo combined and narrow it to a C C setting
If you want to use a plugin that is a dedicated mono plugin (e.g. some compressor emulations), use the same technique but set it to L L or R R instead. You can assign any necessary routing in the Routing tab of the Inserts section in Channel Settings:
Good to know.
I checked on supervision is there was any difference comparing the same mono event on a stereo channel and on a mono channel, but it seems to be the same, so I’ll probably keep the tracks that way then!
Nice one! I’ll try the combined planner then next time!
Thanks for that!
