Ok at the risk of exposing myself to ridicule lol, I really don't understand the difference between effects which are labeled as "stereo" or "mono" or "stereo/mono"... I mean obviously I understand the difference between stereo and mono, but when it comes to the use of plugins, what's the difference and what are the specific intended uses for each?

 

Good question, been thinking about this myself, I mean, how does one use a stereo effect on a mono vocal track, as I go down thru my plugs I always feel somehow ripped off as I chose the mono version

 

Hi,

Using a stereo plugin on a mono track won't work.
Using a stereo plugin on a stereo track with a mono wav file does work.

So if you want to apply a stereo plugin on a mono file you have to create a stereo track,
put the mono wave file in it and that's it.

StevieJee

 

Ei Man that made me think too..

Nice Question

 

So I'm not the only caveman banging away on my DAW with my knuckles? Good to know guys, thanks lol

 

u should download nirvana's bloom multi track, butch vig added modulation(mono)effects on both dave's and kurt's vocals, they sound as good in mono as in stereo, mono will always win over stereo on vocals!!! (just my opinion)

 

Nice, practical real world examples always appreciated, thanks bro

 

Stereo effects are not limited to single channel in their output. They will have wider output most of the time and in general will try to use the stereo space (usually delay, reverb, modulation). Mono plugins will concentrate on just the effect and won't spread it around at all (distortion, modulation, amp sims, etc).

Some effects come in both versions, both work slightly different than each other. I guess its their method of simplifying things by not including the functionality of detecting or selecting between mono or stereo mode in the interface.

 

You can bus a mono channel to a stereo channel and then put a stereo effect on that channel as one of many possible workarounds...

 

There are some instruments that are usually recorded in mono, like Bass guitars. kick drums and vocals. If we record them on 1 mono track instead of stereo and use mono plugins we save lots of CPU cycles. If you are on a low powered machine for example, It might come down to deciding if you want 12 stereo tracks or 24 different mono instrument tracks.

 

You can send a mono track into a stereo effect or a stereo track into a mono effect - i do it everyday in Cubase.

Generally you figure the output from the plugin will be mono or stereo based on the the type of plugin.

 

So if I'm getting it correctly, sending a mono effect to a stereo effect would be fine, sending a mono channel to a stereo effect buss would be fine, but then probably sending a stereo channel through a mono effect could be an issue because of the summing and phase issues? But probably not worth worrying about most of the time? So basically just do whatever the hell you want as long as it sounds good to you and your listener? (with the point about mono effects possibly being less CPU intensive well taken)

 

all that will happen with a stereo into a mono effect is the output is mono'd. IE the stereo channels are combined to the single mono output - even if your output channel is playing the mono signal through both L and R.

The rule is don't let your music phase or clip - keep super low ends mono - IE sub bass. Anything outside that is fair game.