How to Tell if a Sound is Mono or Stereo in REAPER

How to Tell if a Sound is Mono or Stereo in REAPER

[@EtalonBeats]

1: Dock the master track to the left or right side of the monitor 2: Add the Goniometer plugin to the master track 3: Right click the header of the Goniometer plugin and choose "Show embedded UI in MCP" Way more efficient in my opinion.

[@iliatilev]

Yeah i also just use iZotope Imager for this.. It's far easier. ;)

[@stevenhaver]

Exactly. Super surprised he didn’t start the video with that. I keep one embedded in my master track a lot of the time.

[@rich3355]

He showed that method last year: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp7KnJ5mq5mEi8U

[@metaldreams3595]

dumb question but, why are we checking to see if its in stereo or mono? I just record how it was default

[@EtalonBeats]

@@metaldreams3595 Recording a mono mic in stereo takes up more storage space and when considering what kind of stereo plugins you are willing to put on a track can vary depending on the material.

[@musergio1]

MAN REALLY THANKS FOR ALL THE TUTORIALS IT IS UNBELIEVABLE. All i ever want to know about Reaper you got it covered, greetings from Colombia.

[@dickrhintern2033]

Another quick way is by locking at the VU meters and check if the left and right channels move together or independently. You can also visualize it by turning on spectral Peaks, if the left and right channels have the exact same color mapping then the track is mono

[@JV_Arg]

I think i have an easiest way, but someone can correct me if im wrong. I say, If the peak meter lines "Dance" in the same way is Mono, If they "Dance" diferently is Stereo. Great Tutorial Kenny, you always appear in the perfect moment. greetings!!!!

[@DonBernhard]

Yeah, that's how I usually do it. If it's obviously stereo, no need to spend time analyzing it with Kenny's method. I think his method is good, though, if you're not sure. Sometimes tracks are "barely" stereo and the meters might not reveal that clearly. Anyway, if you want to be absolutely certain, use Kenny's method.

[@JonHarris77]

That works in most cases, but sometimes a highly compressed stereo mix will "dance" the same. (Or it won't dance at all because it has been squashed to within an inch of its life!) Listening on headphones combined with looking at the waveform zoomed way in usually does the trick.

[@williamsimpson5507]

It's like you read my mind! I was wondering this exact thing last weekend while I was rending tracks. Thanks for the video!

[@dessiplaer]

Useful plugin! Useful video!

[@JonHarris77]

A lot of times, it is very easy to tell over headphones just listening. If I'm not sure, I listen to the track and toggle the master Mono button. If there is no difference as I toggle it rapidly, it's mono. Again, headphones are easier to hear than speakers. Visually comparing also works well, especially if you zoom WAY in. If you do need to do the invert trick, put the plug-in on the master track so you don't have to move it between tracks. You can even test multiple tracks at the same time with this - the ones that play are true stereo, the ones that don't are not. Although I guess this method using the master FX would have a flaw if the tracks were panned. As would by toggling the master Mono button. Hey, maybe that Kenny guy knows what he's talking about! :-)

[@MCAlvesPortugal]

Great information. Thanks.

[@Dang...]

Reaper is unbelievably useful...But, you NEED Kenny Gioia!!! (Features aside) Kenny's tutorials are why Reaper is the best DAW available.

[@fredhystair5789]

Very useful thanks

[@AlexeyFayzulin]

Isn't that easier to just use a button on master channel and switch it to mono L-R setting?

[@cdfilmzz9006]

Is stereo recording better for phone speaker quality

[@GTSongwriter]

so, there's not a plug-in that would auto detect for the difference?

[@allexfenty]

Kenny I cannot seem to get this problem I have sorted. HOW do I stop latency or lag when using video player in reaper? It always has a small lag when I seek to a new spot on the timeline. I want to transition fully to reaper for post but if I cannot get this resolved I cannot use reaper unfortunately.

[@jimbeaux4988]

Cool plugin for this.

[@altegovibes]

Is there option to set track to mono and get what is render on the fly as mono?

[@olofolofsson8544]

What about vst(3) plugins Kenny? Can you save resources by processing mono sounds AS mono, or it doesn't matter? And how would you do that? Thanks, love your videos!

[@Gang-25j]

It doesn’t matter

[@SagarSagar-ew2nt]

Before I'm using FL studio 20 .now I shifted to reaper because of my system configuration.im happy with melody but getting hard in beat making .any suggestions

[@SecretAgentPaul]

This is the plugin to use when you want to hear all the cool stuff buried in Beatles songs.

[@marfaxa]

I usually just route it through my victorola

[@antonioc-s7753]

👍👍👏👏

[@MrMockigton]

you could also just look at the waveform.. are they different? thats a stereo track then. honest question though, if the media played is mono, why does it matter if it is displayed as stereo? does it really affect the sound in any way?

[@Wergiftfresch]

No, the display does not affect the sound. Could as well not display it in the TCP and it'd still sound the same. "Stereo" handling of mono information in reaper is a pet peeve of mine though (once you go into processing with plugins, and the plugin in question has variance between different channels, often introducing a phasing effect -- suddenly your mono signal no longer is true mono which is all sorts of annoying).

[@mytchel]

It also takes double of storage for a stereo file.

[@JonHarris77]

One advantage to displaying it mono is that you get twice as much space to display the waveform, hence twice as much visual detail. Especially becomes an issue with multiple media items or takes in separate lanes.

[@mjklein]

I use my ears.