Using 2 mono tracks to create a stereo signal

Elektron Gear Other Elektron Gear
#12

Alright guys I’m kind of baffled that you don’t understand this.
Say I have a stereo sample with a kick drum on the left and a snare on the right.
Plug the left side into a sampler and sample it, you should get just the kick.
Plug the right side into a sampler and sample it, you should get just the snare.
Now using one track play back your kick sample, panned all the way left.
Using another track, playback your snare sample, panned all the way right.

When you play back you here kick on left, snare on right, just like the stereo sample.

The same would go for right/left information for any stereo signal be it a chorus or spatializer on a synth or the two different streams of bird sample audio that when played back would sound like the birds are chirping all around you…

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#13

^ yeah this guy knows. Do some experiments. Stereo is literally just two mono signals, hard panned left and right. There’s no magical “space” that can’t be replicated with two mono sample tracks.

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#14

Play a kick on left is not right.
Should be middle panned.
:banana::banana:

1 Like
#15

I see a new thread being carved out of this monostereo chat…
Oreo Monster

Be nice to have a couple of flavours for the fx, types of delay/reverb with appropriate parameters.

#16

This stereo discussion is interesting, the difference between two exact mono signals hard panned and two microphones stereo positioned in a real environment is pretty night and day to my brain!

#17

I hard pan all my kicks left, bass right, 60s style

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#18

but they’re not exact? If you have a stereo signal (say, from a stereo chorus) and separate the left and right channel into two individual files (say, chorus-L.wav and chorus-R.wav) and then use them in two tracks, the first hard panned left (chorus-L.wav), and the second hard panned right (chorus-R.wav), then you’re doing the same as what the original stereo wav file contained…

#19

Exactly, and your two positioned microphones each record a mono signal, one for the left and one for the right…

#20

Apologies, I thought you were talking about using two identical signals.

#21

Stereoizers, and a lot of analog chorus pedals take that idea of using one mono signal, and using slight delay or varying modulation to create two slightly different versions of the same mono signal to give that impression of space. Some prefer this due to the control, but it will not replicate all the subtle properties of a true stereo signal.

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#22

I think everyone needs to read the thread from the beginning as we are talking about two different mono audio streams panned to make a stereo stream.
Not talking about mono summing of any kind or pseudo stereo effects made from identical signals…

#23

What you say is true, but a separate bit of info not affecting the methods described above.
I just don’t want people to get confused.
True stereo can be achieved using two non identical hard panned audio streams…

#24

the stereo field contains more information than just left and right… mono means all to the centre.

Panned mono is literaly just left and right.

You can not replicate natural movement in this field by simply panning 2 mono versions left and right … what you have there are 2 static mono versions…

Same goes for depth perception … it’s not magic, it’s all around you… and it not mono.

#25

To be fair when you commented on my comment originally (before you removed it) It was about just that.

The DT sums anything you put into it. Sampling L only sums LR into mono thus removing any stereo information and putting it in the centre.

LR panned mono is for all intents and purposes stereo but it can’t preserve any natural stereo movement from a sample

That was what my post was about. Not sure now what yours was about if it wasn’t what you just described above.

#26

From Wikipedia:
Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of multi-directional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two or more independent audio channels through a configuration of two or more loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.

This is a stereo recording of a car passing, as you can see it is two different mono audio streams. The top is for left, the bottom right. They have different time of arrival and pressure levels… When played back together they recreate the car passing by… By looking at the audio you can tell that the car must have come from the right to the left as the audio appears louder first on the right(bottom) and then the left(top) becomes louder as the right fades out first…

And some more from Wikipedia:
During two-channel stereo recording, two microphones are placed in strategically chosen locations relative to the sound source, with both recording simultaneously. The two recorded channels will be similar, but each will have distinct time-of-arrival and sound-pressure-level information. During playback, the listener’s brain uses those subtle differences in timing and sound level to triangulate the positions of the recorded objects

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#27

Seriously ? In the 60s they were discovering stereo, hard panning was to be sure people can hear stereo. :grin:
For me low register sounds should be more middle panned than hard panned.
Anyway, you can’t play bass sounds on DT.
ONLY Drums computer. Written on it.

#28

What do you think: Will it be possible to at least process Realtime Input in Stereo with the Effects on the DT? I mean, it has a Stereo-Input Pair, so that would make sense. Would be interesting to see the OB Side of things here too.

I guess that it will just record in Mono, but other than that it will process incoming Audio in Stereo. And if its only routing it to the Main Outs in the simplest scenario. That would be totally fine for me, because i see the Digitakt as the perfect Drum companion to the Octatrack which finally allows me to separate everything Drums onto another machine and do neat stuff on the OT i couldnt do before - because i ran out of tracks :smiley:

Standalone the DT might be a bit too limited as it seems. But then combined with our existing machines it can take several Roles; depending on the Machines you hook it up with.

#29

I don’t think we have any real information to go on about that. We’re gonna have to wait to find out…

#30

wiki eh ? smooth ; )

I think everything that needs be said has been, we’re starting to chase tales… I’m sure DT will be everything you think it is.

What we all know for sure tho is The DT IS a mono playback device … stereo sampling is unlikely at this stage, as it’s pointless without proper stereo handling of those samples… whatever Wikipedia says about it, that is the truth of the matter, and what my original point was about. : )

Edit - This is all based on the current state of affairs tho. Not withstanding the fact there may well be ingenious as yet undisclosed work arounds for the “mono sample” playback “in stereo” limitation.

Cheers :beers:

#31

I’d say it’d probably work in a similar way to the RAM machines on the MD…

IBAL – The recording is made monophonic. This parameter
decides how the recording from the external inputs
should be balanced.

You can decide how much of the L and R signal you want in your monophonic sample. If you turn it all the way to the left, you record the left channel only. Turn it all the way to the right, and it’s the right channel only. In the center, it sums both channels to mono. So, to record stereo, use two tracks—one with ILEV setting all the way to the left, and the other with ILEV all the way to the right. Then, when playing back (on the MD, using RAM machines), pan the track containing the recording of the left channel to the left, and the right channel recording’s track to the right.

I have no experience with the Octatrack so maybe they’ve improved this method, but it’s still pretty straightforward IMO