Is stereo important to you?

[HomespunEffects]

I used to always run a stereo rig. This past year I’ve been really getting into amps instead of effects. So for the first time I’m running mono. I think I still prefer stereo. I experimented with wet-dry-wet and found that it offers nothing compared to a much simpler stereo setup. In fact, it introduces a couple of problems.

In a live setting it depends on if there are one or two guitar players. Stereo is better if you’re the only guitarist in the band.

 

[Byrdman]

I think guitarists have to make a pact to find the parents that abused sound people as children and have them apologize so the sound people will stop projecting their drama onto us.

“Son, I’m sorry I neglected you. Now please stop neglecting the audience and the band trying to entertain them. I know my relationship with the kick drum started off as an affair, but we’re in love with each other and you need to accept your new brother.”

Sorry, what were we taking about?

So are you saying Sound Guys are the dude versions of women with daddy issues???

 

[ragingplatypi]

So are you saying Sound Guys are the dude versions of women with daddy issues???

Nope. I’m saying sound guys are like @Byrdman with his daddy issues.

 

[woody]

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.

Stereo can easily make you sound sound twice as bad as mono.
If you are putting cabs on stage there's double the amount of mic stands that can get kicked, or sag, and your "meticulously" dialed in phase coherence ("Yeah, looks about the same") between the left and right mic is gone.
Comb filtering from multiple speakers will probably make your stage volume vary a lot if you move on stage.
With modellers, I've yet to hear a band of weekend warriors sound great playing all direct.

Choruses that just modulate one channel (a la JC120) will have a pitchy warble on one side and dry guitar sound for another part of the audience.
Phase inverting stereo choruses will make your guitar disappear in the center and probably be screamingly loud far off to the sides of the mix position.
Panned delays and all that "spread" will obviously make it harder for your bandmates to locate your guitar.

If you had a good streak of gigs and got repeatedly told that your band sounded great and monitoring on stage was great for all of you time after time, that's when I'd start thinking about stereo guitars on stage...

 

[Cirrus]

Any time I've used stereo live I've felt guilty of a crime, and realised on reflection that it was a horrible mistake.

"Stereo" is a stupid, artificial construct anyway. It was invented 50+ years ago to record players to people that already owned them. I'll accept it as a paradigm for recording.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

You guys are reading my posts ?

Haven't seen you around before. Welcome to the forum Newbie!!!

 

[Orvillain]

Nah, not really. Even when I use multiple amps, I'd describe it as dual-mono. I don't do that live, only in recording scenarios.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

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

It's not always the hard things that annoy us the most. If I was given two XLRs, each with the exact same information, as described in the scenario you are quoting, I would just plug one in and only use one channel.

 

[Byrdman]

Nope. I’m saying sound guys are like @Byrdman with his daddy issues.

 

[mavrick102000]

Headphones or mixing - stereo. If I were playing live it would be mono.

Mono in headphones sounds weak/odd through a modeler/capture device to me.

There are times when I will practice with a completely dry signal when it's a technique I'm trying to learn/improve. I need to hear what's happening without the smear of reverb or faux reverb/delay - but it's shocking at first listen.

 

[PLX]

Haven't seen you around before. Welcome to the forum Newbie!!!

Seems like a nice place !

 

[laxu]

Seems like a nice place !

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Seems like a nice place !

 

[PLX]

 

[FuzzyAce]

You guys are reading my posts ?

I read your gifs.

 

[PLX]

I read your gifs.

Ace, some of these guys have never seen the inside of a UFO.. and it shows.

 

[la szum]

It's not always the hard things that annoy us the most. If I was given two XLRs, each with the exact same information, as described in the scenario you are quoting, I would just plug one in and only use one channel.

Yup. FOH Engineers that are excellent and worth their weight in gold will play
all sorts of sly tricks behind the backs of those know-it-alls up on stage.

I have seen Bass Players muted at the Board, because their stage volume is sufficient,
and they never know it. Same for those pumping out the Background vocals off pitch.
Them Mute buttons come in handy, because when someone comes and checks on the
board in between sets, or bands, you can show them, "See.... we're all good!"

 

[fuyume]

Been going back and forth on this. I mostly play stereo through monitors or headphones at this point as I’m just playing at home.

Sometimes I like to run into an actual cab and I’m trying to figure out if I need a second for stereo cabs in the place. Or is it just a distraction?

So curious for the rest of the group, all around playing is stereo critical to you, a nice to have, or do you actually prefer mono? And what’s your reasoning?

Bonus points if you want to throw in your gear/chain!

I have been playing a stereo rig since 1990, and I have no intentions of stopping now.

 

[fuyume]

In a live setting it depends on if there are one or two guitar players. Stereo is better if you’re the only guitarist in the band.

Stereo works just fine with more than one guitarist.

 

[fuyume]

FTR, I've been in pro audio doing live sound reinforcement since the late 1980s. I have never once in my career encountered a mono PA. They existed, of course, back in the 1970s and 1980s, but they are a thing of the distant past. All the warnings you've heard about using stereo live are mostly nonsense. Been there, done that, both behind the console, and on stage in a band with two stereo guitar rigs since when.

That being said, don't feel like you need to run stereo to sound better. Mono guitar rigs sound just fine through a stereo PA, too, and are certainly easier and cheaper to build and manage.