What instruments should be mono?

mild pump milk · Sep 7, 2018

No Avenger said: ↑

You are right, I should have written 'with 2.1 systems', sorry, my fault, I was too quick.
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You are not wrong too. Best rule, if it sounds good, it is good!)

lucymilan01 · Jul 17, 2024

Iggy said: ↑

Anything that would "really" be mono (mono mic'd) should, at least in theory, be mono. Bass guitar, kick, snare, hi-hats, lead vocals, tambourine, shaker, lead guitar, rhythm guitar (this one is tricky, as it's usually doubled, meaning, the left and right side guitars are actually each recorded in mono, then panned hard left and right to give the illusion of one wide stereo guitar part), acoustic guitar (which is sometimes recorded in stereo, depending), solo strings, brass and woodwinds. Stuff like toms are close mic'd, but then panned to their individual spots in the stereo field and sometimes just recorded to stereo. Lead synths can be recorded in mono, but it depends on the synth sound (see below).

Then, it gets tricky: piano is usually recorded in stereo (sometimes, with three or four mics), but there are a lot of classic songs where it's recorded in mono and panned to one side. Same goes for organs and synths (Van Halen's "Jump" is an example of all the synth parts being recorded in mono -- in that case, from a mic'd Marshall amp stack). Some backing vocals are recorded in mono, but if it's multiple singers at once, they often get recorded in stereo. Drum overheads are usually always recorded in stereo. Synths or drum samples with a lot of stereo action should obviously be in stereo -- recording them in mono can lead to phasing issues.

If you don't know whether a sound should be recorded and mixed in mono or stereo, just figure out whether or not the real life version (assuming you're recording and mixing samples and not the real thing to begin with) would be recorded that way.
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I agree that mono-mic'd instruments should generally be kept in mono for clarity and focus. Bass guitar, kick, snare, hi-hats, lead vocals, tambourine, hand shaker, and shakers all benefit from this approach. For rhythm guitar, doubling and panning hard left and right works well to create a wide stereo effect.

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What instruments should be mono?

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What instruments should be mono?

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