Mono or stereo?

Niall Munnelly niall.munnelly at gmail.com
Wed Mar 30 11:00:05 CEST 2022


Stereo’s good if you’re using synths with onboard effects or pad machines
like your Proteus - or if you like the way your synth handles stereo
(sequenced or otherwise modulated panning effects, eg). But so many sounds
just aren’t suited to stereo “sourcing,” and is better handled as mono and
managed downstream in whatever’s doing the mixing. There also a lot to be
said for having one thing do the job of mixing and positioning in the
stereo field, rather than tweaking each individual device.

Of course a lot of this also has a lot to do with where your audio is going
and what you do with it - are you automating your mix with a DAW, or
playing a mixer (hardware or software interface), or who knows what else.
If you’re doing the heavy lifting of mixing on your computer, it seems to
me that mono channels are your best bet, certainly the best use of your
money.

I reckon I’m in the same camp as Jay now and when we talked about this here
some fifteen years ago: most sources are mono, and there’s a reason mixers
typically have lots of mono channels and maybe two or three stereo pairs.
There are, of course, exceptions, and for that, we have stuff like the
Speck Xtramix and other expensive stuff, or stereo line mixers like the
Rane SM series that can be linked via Ethernet cables.

I’ve seen a lot of marketing buzz about the UDO Super Six’s binaural mode,
and, while I’m sure it sounds pretty amazing in the right context, I’m not
sure it justifies any additional price it may introduce.

On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:38 AM Peter Korsten <peter at severity-one.com>
wrote:

> As you may know, I've been struggling to find the perfect audio
> interface for years now. The good news is that I've made progress, in
> the sense that I realised it doesn't actually exist.
>
> Long story short, I'd need easily 12 stereo inputs, or 24 in total, and
> there aren't that many options. But considering that the primary reason
> for an audio interface is to be able to run all sorts of effects on my
> PC, do I really need the stereo connections? Or to put it differently:
> if I'm likely to use only one voice from certain synths (not including
> power houses such as the Proteus 2000s), does it actually make sense to
> use the stereo outputs?
>
> What do you guys use?
>
> - Peter
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-- 
Yours,
Niall.
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