A true stereo synth is doing cool things in the field by distributing oscillators etc. in ways you can’t add in afterwards by messing with the pan pot or sticking a chorus effect on it. If that’s what you’re doing then you’re missing a huge part of your synths sound capabilities.
Stereo is such an important element in music - it’s certainly hard to get right and balanced, like most aspects of a mix I guess, but big wide poly synths are a head trip, and work in concert with mono voices. Adding in stereo at the end of a mix as an afterthought seems crazy to me - but it’s clearly a workflow people favour. It’s a holistic consideration when I make music so I’m not sure I can even empathise with that approach. It would also mean avoiding most of my favourite effects.
That’s not in question… the point is about using multiple mono sources to benefit the stereo image and that stereo decisions are generally better made in context with other mix elements. If you use poly synths in stereo from the off, they might sound good in isolation, but you don’t have the flexibility/control to place them in the mix/stereo field later on.
It’s all about the context, and preference, but, I disagree, I’m not missing out on a ‘huge’ part of my synths capabilities, the core sound is mono, I generally don’t want the stereo imaging/hype/trickery from them at source, I’d rather have the control in the mix for the benefit of the mix.
I know what you’re saying though, and I keep coming back to the Polybrute… that thing sounds so impressive on it’s own with it’s ridiculous stereo capability, but I’ve found that it only translates in mixes if you leave it with the space… so it’s like it gives a maximum 2-3 track/voice count to a mix.
The minute you go over having 3 tracks in a mix, esp if there’s more synth parts, it’s stereo-ness doesn’t translate as well and it becomes messy.
It’s like having a piano recorded in full stereo… on it’s own, great. Put a vocal over it, it still works great. Add drums, bass, guitars and the stereo piano makes less sense and will sit better if it can be panned in place and have fx for it’s depth.
Generally speaking for me now;
Track sources are mono, stereo comes from pan position and fx.
An important point that probably aligns us all is that I perform/record/mix all at the same time, live. So conceptually that’s when decisions about stereo image are made and so inevitably it’s captured that way as part of the whole.
If you’re making music in a more traditional (for want of a better term) way, multitracking, working with stems and mastering things properly then what’s being said makes a lot more sense to me.
But if I’m working on a plinky plonky arp that’s all ping-pongy, I’d never have captured that in mono - I’d be interested what that workflow looks like to someone that works that way. What about when stereo is part of the sound design choice, and you’re capturing all your stems in mono?
That said with stereo poly synths I’d definitely at least want the option to capture them with a wide image - if it’s splitting voices, but that’s defintiely not going to make sense for every time you use it.
Yep, you’re right… I’m 80% playing, 20% programming/sequencing, so having to make these decisions early in the process is the norm.
I only use the occasional plinky plonky arp… but if I do, and it’s stereo, I’d probably record it stereo and sum it to mono later if needed, or keep it in stereo… I use the Utility plugin in Ableton a lot for these things.
To give context to this, here’s a demo of a track where I did use/record the Polybrute in stereo for the main keys part, and I’d rather have took it in mono. But, at least you’ll hopefully realise I’m not working in mono… the mixes are deffo stereo.
There’s quite a few techno tracks I’ve done where everything apart from the reverb is mono and centre panned. I find that the way I perform/record, it’s much better as I’m not constantly stressing about what’s where in the stereo field. Thing is, I’m trying to remove as many points of interest as possible from my music, to strip it to its absolute essentials, be that a beat for techno or the fundamental tone for the drones. I can’t have people (and when I say people, I mean me) on the verge of transcendental ecstasy only to be distracted thinking about that nice arp whizzing about the place.
I accept that this makes my music very much an edge case and my opinion all but useless to almost all musical endeavours, but there it is.
To be fair if you’re live performing your techno then it’ll be in mono on the PA anyway, probably - so there’s something to be said for that. I love stereo too much to accept that when I make techno but it’s probably the sensible way to mix it.
And even if it’s not, too much stereo shit is going to sound awful in most places anyway. Getting stereo to sound good in a live setting takes way more time and work than anyone is going to give a nobody like me at the local dive bars/open mics.
I mostly prefer mono for dance music, I can’t stand stuff like random panning personally, it is annoying and sounds amateur. Occasionally I might do a bit of panning on OT or other stereo devices, but anything that is prominent in the mix or a key element has to be dead centre.
For ambient or drone stuff panning can be essential though, where things tend to shift around the stereo image in a more subtle, glacial way.
I guess if your track is primarily going to be played in clubs or on speakers go easy on the panning, if it is going to be played mostly on headphones then listen to the mix on headphones, to see if the panning is annoying.
One final point to bear in mind, on stereo polysynths there can be quite noticeable variance in L/R level due to the tolerance of the volume pot, so worth checking that.
The only hw poly synth with true stereo capabilities I have is the Nord G2 and what @natehorn says definitely applies to it
Also putting separate filters on l and r with different modulation; slightly varying AM on each channel etc can produce wonderful, spatial results that hardly need any fx. But if I’m not sure how it’ll blend with other elements, usually mostly all mono but with stereo fx, I record the stereo outs to 2 mono tracks in a Daw to be able to widen or narrow its stereo field as required. I sometimes do the same with stereo fx returns.
I’ve got a stereo oscillator (Virt Iter Legio) that has stereo phase modulation which is a head trip, especially once you put it through a stereo filter.
To be honest I’m starting to realise that I might just be a total sucker for stereo.
This is it: stereo is for very specific situations.
The Super 6 excels in this sort of thing (filter modulation across the stereo field), and if it’s a featured element, or conversely a pad filling out the mix, it works great. However, if it’s one of a bunch of synths in a mix, letting it make stereo decisions for me before a mix may not be the best idea. (Ditto the Perfourmer.)
Also, whoever pointed out the inline effects should be stereo is the source is stereo, yes, if you want to preserve the stereo. I bought a stereo distortion for my S6 for this very reason.
I always used my Mopho x4 +Tetra in mono because I never cared for the random voice panning, but most importantly, it has always been easier to find a couple mono channels on my interfaces or mixers.
All my other hardware synths are mono. I really like the approach with Monomachine, adding stereo width intentionally through effects.
Typically I like one wide stereo sound in a mix, as it makes it easier to fit the mono sounds. Some of the more interesting sounds I’ve heard have come from clever use of panning, but I don’t think that was something the synth provided necessarily.
An update to this… I’ve found a really good use of my Digitone in this mono quest.
I’ve decided that my only 2 poly synths I’m using for the next few months are my Prophet 6 and Rev2.
I’m plugging these into the Digitone’s external inputs in mono, which makes it really easy to get recordings onto my computer from any of them with Overbridge.
And, the beauty is, as the Prophet’s live next to each other, if I do decide I want something from either the P6 or Rev2 in stereo, I can just grab the others’ cable and flip the DN’s input to stereo and I’m in.
I run my digitakt stereo into my digitone, and then into a stereo track on my mixer. This allows me to pan everything, which to my ear makes a big difference in the quality of the mix. But that’s just due to the lack of options- have to use the internal mixer on the digis; can’t run mono tracks into the board. So stereo is the only option to allow for separation in the main mix of the drums for instance, or the 4 synth tracks on the tone.
Nice. I just got my Sequential Take 5 and, as expected, it sounds great in mono. I wish you could store stereo/mono settings by patch, but luckily the way it’s set up on the T5, it’s very easy to switch between stereo/mono without much menu diving. The T5 has a lot of interesting modulation capabilities that get turned off when you run it in mono, so I probably won’t be running it exclusively in mono, but I can see myself parking it in mono a lot of the time.
For people that make stuff like ambient and are into big reverbs, I can see where they would be interested in really wide stereo effects and imaging, but very little of the stuff I listen to has that kind of imaging, so it just doesn’t sound right for the music I make. For instance, there is a cool old school reggae organ patch in the T5 factory presents that just sounds so wrong to my ears in stereo. Once you flip over to mono it sounds like it should.
Yes, I agree with you, I’m not going to banish stereo completely, my mentality is to use it sparingly when I think I need it, or there is a definite musical/production point to it.
My plan is to work in mono by default, whereas I have had everything (synth-wise) set up in stereo by default.
I’ve picked up an Oto Bam lately, and I love the sound of it being fed by a mono source and let the pan positioning and reverb handle the stereo aspect of the sound. I really like off-centre panned sounds with reverb covering the other side of the mix.
I always use the Moog Matriarch in stereo because that’s kind of the point of it, with its stereo filters and delay. But after reading this I will try simpler stuff, like fat Moog basslines, in mono.
A question: is the Elektron reverb (Digitone, Digitakt) mono or stereo?
