Mono or Stereo?

[Lee]

Is it more common to monitor in mono than in stereo at a show? What are the exceptions or circumstances where you would use stereo? Do certain venues have a preference they use? I'm interested to see what the common methods are.

[Lucas]

Do you monitors as in foldback?

If so....

99% of monitor wedges are in mono, while I'd say 99% IEM are in stereo.

I like providing stereo drum fill - texas headphone style. This involves a 18"' sub and a 12 or 15"top box on each side. Makes for happy drummers!

[Lee]

Sorry I was referring to the PA.

[Lucas]

I've only ever used stereo for FOH. There is a lot of efficiency in mono though and I should have given it a go by this point....

[Lucas]

I always run the PA in stereo however if the room is really wide (and people in front of 1 stack will not hear the other stack) then I will keep everything panned pretty close to the centre (ie. almost mono).

I always find the PA is in run in genuine mono (ie a single balanced out from FOH) that the centre image between the 2 stacks sounds weird.

It may be that comb filtering is becoming more apparent when every channel has equal energy out of both stacks? A narrower horn may fix it.

[Lucas]

I found this article really interesting:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/mixi ... erception/

[gigpiglet]

nearly always systems are set up in stereo. unless its a very small club

but i nearly always mix in mono (ie dont pan anything) except for actual stereo sources (like backing tracks or digital keyboards) that are panned hard left and right.
live shows are so different to sitting in a a studio, no punter (and often not even the mix position) is in the center/ ideal listening position - so by mixing mono i give more people the same mix

[ChrisW]

Sounds good.
Outfront, it's nice to hear keyboards and drums in stereo. From a drummer's monitoring perspective I really don't need stereo at all. Stereo keyboards maybe if this is a million dollar gig. If I was a keyboard player I'd need stereo if not using my own amp rig, otherwise mono throughout is probably best for monitoring IMHO.

[Chinagraf]

It's been a fair time since I was mixing live, but even with a stereo system I still ran mono because it gave me more options as far as setting up groups. I did still run the system and fx returns in stereo though, so by mono I mean panned centre. By that I mean subgroup faders, not VCA groups. If you only have 4 on some smaller desks mono makes it a bit easier. But as I say that was a long time ago when we used tin cans and string for microphones.

[Ben M]

But as I say that was a long time ago when we used tin cans and string for microphones.

Those mics can sound a bit tinny.



I'll leave now....

[Chris H]

Allways mono here with kick snr bass and vox. Drum OH, Fx and keys i usually pan hard L & R but the toms at 10 and 2. I often do the two different mics on the guitar cabs panned hard L & R or same if the guitarist plays through two amps. I sometimes also reamp the electric guitar through my little goldentone amp and pan with the original amp L & R. The end result is essentially a mono mix with a bit of spread. This works great with say a three peice blues band where there are not many competing sound sources.