Is stereo important to you?

[la szum]

I only played live once using stereo. Had my shiny new ART SGE and played a house party with it with a 1x12 on each side of our 'stage'.
Drummer told me if I ever use stereo again he would kill me. We played a lot of fast and really tight stuff and he said the stereo
spread was totally messing him up. Bass player didn't dig so much of my stuff coming out of his side of the stage either.

I remember those not so fondly. Played in a band with a guy who did that in like circa 1991-2 or
thereabouts. ART SGX, Mosvalve, and then dual 2 x 12 cabs and both sides of the stage including
mine.

He was old(ish). I was young (ish).

He was a C*ck. I was too desperate to tell him to his face, so let me rectify that now, "Fuck off
crappy-ass sounding stereo gig with the massive footprint. This is not all about you."

Sadly, looking back I think it was all about him. In his mind.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I only played live once using stereo. Had my shiny new ART SGE and played a house party with it and a 1x12 on each side of our 'stage'.
Drummer told me if I ever use stereo again he would kill me. We played a lot of fast and really tight stuff and he said the stereo
spread was totally messing him up. Bass player didn't dig so much of my stuff coming out of his side of the stage either.

To be fair, that’s got more to do with bad speaker placement than stereo - had you been running mono and put your cabs in those spots, the drummer would have had just as much trouble.

 

[Achilles]

had you been running mono and put your cabs in that spot, the drummer would have had just as much trouble.

Utter nonsense.

Look, I'm not wanting to debate this any more with you.
We both are dug in so what's the point?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Utter nonsense.
Not looking to debate this any more.
You got your ideas and I got mine and we're not going to budge on them - so it's a total waste of time.

I mean, if someone took a full stack and put each 4x12 cab way out on stage right and stage left with drummer in the middle…of course your drummer couldn’t hear anything.

 

[Byrdman]

I was just talking to a FOH engineer about this yesterday at sound check. It was a good size venue that gets well known national touring acts come through.

He told me the thing that annoys him most is when guitarists tell him they want stereo, but then they don’t do anything that actually uses stereo.

If you’re gonna make me set up stereo sends for you, you’d better use it

The nerve of that guy...

 

[Achilles]

of course your drummer couldn’t hear anything.

I'll provide an example for more context. Check out this section of the song 2112:



When it broke down to just the guitar I was using stereo chorus and delay panning between stage left and right.
Drummer said it made it harder nailing his marks. Bassist complained too.

Sure I could have toned down the spread and panning but it didn't go over as well to my ears either so it was a
waste of time.

 

[timbuck3]

Fixed. Not that you'll ever buy anything to plug into a stereo effects poop

 

[holoholo]

Yall thinking about stereo? I’m more worried about the sound engineer giving a decent mix before even thinking bout stereo

 

[PLX]

This was their best album, in my humble opinion.

 

[Achilles]

This was their best album, in my humble opinion.

The next one was better. More cohesive.

 

[PLX]

The next one was better. More cohesive.

I'd put "Permanent Waves" above this one, but only for sentimental reasons (soundtrack of my youth).

 

[Byrdman]

Fixed. Not that you'll ever buy anything to plug into a stereo effects poop

 

[Achilles]

 

[ian_dissonance]

Live mono always. At home it’s about 50/50 and really only care for effects, but if I’m actually recording something most of the stereo FX are going to be after a mono tone anyways. If I was in a band that was getting full sound checks hours before a show I might run two totally different tones, but even 99% of the time they’ll come out of the PA in mono anyways.

 

[la szum]

This was their best album, in my humble opinion.

Why is that not even remotely close to what you said yesterday?

 

[Jarick]

I only played live once using stereo. Had my shiny new ART SGE and played a house party with it and a 1x12 on each side of our 'stage'.
Drummer told me if I ever use stereo again he would kill me. We played a lot of fast and really tight stuff and he said the stereo
spread was totally messing him up. Bass player didn't dig so much of my stuff coming out of his side of the stage either.

I could totally see a guitarist showing up for a gig with the meticulous stereo rig setup, and then every other band member and the FOH dumbs it down into mono

 

[Jarick]

This has ben a fantastic thread by the way, love all the feedback. Going to read it through a couple times and let it sink in.

 

[PLX]

Why is that not even remotely close to what you said yesterday?

You guys are reading my posts ?

 

[TSJMajesty]

He told me the thing that annoys him most is when guitarists tell him they want stereo, but then they don’t do anything that actually uses stereo.

If you’re gonna make me set up stereo sends for you, you’d better use it

What is so hard? Put the guitar on adjacent channels so you can raise/lower both faders together, pan one left, the other right.

 

[metropolis_4]

What is so hard? Put the guitar on adjacent channels so you can raise/lower both faders together, pan one left, the other right.

Want me to give you his phone number so you can ask him?

More work is more work would be my guess.