This sort of strikes me as a dumb question, but I’m curious. I transferred some songs to 1/2" 8 track (via 4 stereo buss/outputs) and was wondering if there is any difference between recording them back into Cubase as 4 stereo tracks or 8 mono tracks (of course panned hard L: 1,3,5,7 and R:2,4,6,8). Like I said, I’m just curious if there’s any possible difference…other than the ability to process differently or play with the panning?
I would have thought if you started with 4 stereo you’d want to end up with 4 stereo.
No worries - half the threads on this forum contain what would strike me as a dumb questions. 
If you are talking about qualty, no - there is no difference. Assuming of course, that all of the audio is coming through the same converter, audio card, etc.
Cheers.
Yes, but there is a benefit of being able to balance each channel of a stereo bus seperately, because one channel even when seeming set the same can end up hitting the tape a little harder.
Why not convert both ways then see if you hear any difference. If you report back, I’d love to hear your opinion 
nexis
will do.