Should You Record VOICE In Mono or Stereo??

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[@Podcastage]

I record podcasts in 7.1 surround.

[@Hero.J]

I record mine in Dolby Atmos

[@banba69]

I record mine in thirdeo

[@galladebutcooler8645]

I record mine in MIDI

[@BlackGhostAudio]

If I can’t hear Podcastage whispering behind me, I don’t want it.

[@Platinum_XYZ]

these replies are too good!!! lol

[@MarkandSandieInMotion]

Been watching a lot of vids on learning about VO for some upcoming projects. Different mics, recording VO's in Premiere etc. only one person suggested recording in Mono so I figured it wasn't a popular way of recording. Then you explained it so wonderfully that I know now it's the proper way. Thanks!! Knowledge is Power, lol. Just subbed:)

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Cheers and I am happy to have helped. Also...thank you for the support!

[@davidwolfe7145]

One thing to mention on this. If you have a warm room, it might be better to record in stereo to add the room echo. To me, this gives a more immersive sound to the overall production. I work for a radio station and we record a interview show at a restaurant. There's 3 coaches and a panel of about 12 people asking questions about the football games. The last few years, I recorded everything in split tracks so I can isolate microphones in post production. I then mix down to "pseudo-stereo" in post. This year, I added a stereo "room ambience" recording and mixed to true stereo. The voices are all still straight down the middle, but adding the room ambience gives it more of a "being there" presence for our listeners.

[@nathanbailey4747]

That’s super helpful and encouraging, thanks Andrew.

[@TheINFJChannel]

Thanks for this. As an audiobook producer, mono is the recommendation. I was wondering what I was missing out on with stereo, so I appreciate the spiel. P.S- ASMR eating is so weird. Hearing people chew gives me a punch reflex 😆

[@michaelmurphy7241]

Lop]90

[@user-uz8bv2cd8k]

Great video, thanks for making man!

[@AlkuntarGaming]

Thanks for this information! I appreciate your insight! I will record my voiceovers in mono from now on!

[@ariathyf144]

So for duets it can make sense to have 2mics positioned in one spot since what's simulate the situation of the listener being in the room and hearing each vocal slightly in different spots. The distance between the mouth and the mic plays a lot on the recording results so this can also bring a different amount of bass on each side.

[@WayneHIxson]

I agree with recording a single voice, but if you have two or more people talking placing the voices across a soundstage makes a dramatic difference. I listen a ton in my car and natural placement of voices as well as musical instruments across the soundstage is much more immersive.

[@nickgoogle4525]

Record in mono and then use BX Stereomaker or Schoeps Mono Upmix, to tastefully create a stereo signal, so that you barely notice that it is in stereo. Still gives the needed extra dimension to not sound flat!

[@Koasensei]

I want to know how to make it stereo naturally

[@Terry-nx8kg]

​@@KoasenseiUse two matched microphones and place them at equal distance from your mouth. Pan one mic full left when recording and the other full right.

[@FloridaDad]

Wow... great insight that I hadn't really thought of! Although taking it one step further, one source is really going to two outputs (stereo speakers), so the weirdness is still technically there. I agree that the voice probably doesn't benefit much, but the background noises would greatly benefit if that's part of the story.

[@MusaRecordings]

I hear a difference when I throw my DAW in mono on specifically my mixing track, is this because of sudo stereo? If so if it’s just one vocal I should still make my daw mono the vocal correct?

[@kennyfleming1599]

I was asked to take over our sound room at church, I don't know a lot, but I try. I have people bring in songs for me to play and our CD player runs thru the mixer, but it will just play one side of the music either voice or music. Can you tell me if I doing something wrong?

[@TheGengenkila]

Hello, I want to record what I am playing live on Ableton from the speaker to an external microphone , so I guess I need to buy a stereo microphone but can I still use this stereo microphone to record sound and vocals ? Thank you

[@NixataBG]

Sweet! Right what I needed!

[@kellmarktv]

Thanks for the clarification 👍🏽

[@voborny]

I like to record everything in pseudo stereo (Never heard it called that before. Glad I understand that concept now!) Basically all I'm doing is spitting one signal into two so I can dial deeper into the panning for a better pre-DAW mix than what I could accomplish in pure one-channel mono. I still get to add compression, lows, mids, and highs too but I can tweak things slightly different on each side which I think results in a more natural vibe than going pure mono.

[@px7219]

Hey by mistake i recorded a whole song's vocals in stereo is there any negative effects?.....also am i missing out on anything that i would be if i went mono?

[@NaveKasaProductions]

Very helpful video thank you🙏🏽

[@camillemararac1570]

what to use if you want to use noise cancelling? mono or stereo

[@DavidTran-hf3hn]

what do you record your voicer overs in MONO or Stereo ?

[@AquarianDiary]

I was asking myself this very question yesterday, good timing. Thanks!

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Cheers and thanks for watching!!

[@AquarianDiary]

@@DarkCornerStudios which DAW do you use?

[@DarkCornerStudios]

@@AquarianDiary I use Adobe Audition CC

[@AquarianDiary]

@@DarkCornerStudios Interesting thanks. I am new to recording. I started with Garageband but have moved on to Reaper as it is fairly lightweight on my somewhat older Macbook Pro and the price is right. Big learning curve though.

[@DarkCornerStudios]

@@AquarianDiary yeah...less of a curve with AA...though once you get over the curve and find your rhythm...you will be just fine with Reaper

[@theaudioasylum4328]

Awesome! Makes a whole lotta sense. My view is you don't speak in stereo. Still a lot of my clients want the VOs in stereo. Be that as it may, starting today, I will record my VOs in mono. I love you, man! you are the biz-omb. Henceforth, you shall be dubbed "The Audio Recording Guru". So shall it be written. So shall it be done!!!

[@roblianoofficial]

Great job on this. Too many people these days only think they know what they're talking about.

[@alex84034]

I record vocals with a vanguard v44s, it’s a mic with two separate large diaphragm condensers and you’re just about right, it comes out sounding normal basically. Sometimes it captures a beautiful sound that is only achieved with a mic like that though.

[@johnnymiller3684]

I have a question that's sort of tied to this topic. I use Reaper (if that matters). When I render a (pseudo) stereo file to, say, -18 LUFS, the file will register at -18 LUFS, but a rendered mono file will register at -21 LUFS. Why is that?

[@DarkCornerStudios]

There is a gain boost when combining the signal

[@melodyn6419]

Question: when you do voice-over using blue yeti and audacity, should you record your voice in mono or stereo track?

[@peterhajba1318]

Set the Blue Yeti in cardioid mono mode, and record on a mono track. Cardioid pickup pattern rejects noise around the room (echo, computer noise) and only picks up what's in front of the mic (voice).

[@SimonMorelguitar]

Great video - I love your stuff!

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Thanks Simon! Cheers!!

[@SimonMorelguitar]

@@DarkCornerStudios No worries. All the best

[@flamexofficial4620]

Thank you so much. So that means recording on a vocal on pseudo stereo is okay and no different from mono! Thank you so much ! I’v

[@voborny]

I still think you can accomplish more in a mix by going pseudo stereo

[@NolansVision]

On FL they have a nob to turn to make your recording track mono/and i think everyone records in stereo without knowing it. I get a decent sound from what I do it’s just confusing

[@seanwebb605]

How many microphones do you need to record Penn & Teller in stereo?

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Nice. See if anyone gets this

[@MichaelWilliams-lo3ix]

Brilliant

[@NikitaUnique]

Okay, so I record voice over in mono (one mic). I need to give clients (usually) either an MP3 or WAV file. Should I export in mono or stereo? (I was providing exported stereo files until a client asked specifically for mono, and I couldn’t figure out how to do that without audio being in only the left or right channel.) And if the answer IS mono, how on earth do I do that in Logic Pro 10.7.3 so I hear it in both channels? Nothing I have tried works. If anyone has any advice, I’d be grateful to read it!

[@TheTAXMAN-]

@NikitaUnique Did you end up finding the solution?

[@NikitaUnique]

@@TheTAXMAN- I did! I export in mono now in Logic Pro (one waveform, heard in both channels), but I figured it out last year and I don’t think I could explain WHAT I did… I remember finding tutorials / blogs, and it had something to do with making sure any plugins were using mono and not stereo, and I have to bounce from a certain chain…or something. Once I got it working, I set up a template so I never have to think about it again. 😂

[@TheTAXMAN-]

@@NikitaUnique Alright cool 😂👍

[@filmmaker5457]

@@NikitaUnique Ha ha ha! Good one!🤣🤣

[@sarahtu9923]

Quick question, for a video podcast that consists of 3-4 people speaking would you recommend mono or stereo?

[@peterhajba1318]

Ideally you would have a lavalier mic on each person and would record each on their own channel. If a single mic is used for all people, they will all sound a bit distant and echo-y because they can't all be close to the mic unless they really huddle together.

[@RocknRollkat]

Excellent presentation !

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Thank you!

[@RocknRollkat]

@@DarkCornerStudios You're welcome !

[@thepropolys]

Not sure I agree with this. Nothing is really a single point audio source unless it’s tiny relative to the microphone and in an anechoic chamber. Large parts of the human body resonate when speaking and usually cause reflections in the room or stage.

[@RemLab-kt5dq]

Me neither, fortunately there are still people with common sense in this domain... Nothing but the oral cavity and the lips deform asymmetrically according to the sounds produced by the singer, which generates variations in phase in the audio signal generated. Moreover, the most important thing for a good recording is to reproduce to the brain the same sensation as when listening in "live", this is certainly not achieved by recording in mono! The reproduction in headphones of a voice recorded in mono, gives the listener the sensation that it comes from the center of his skull, nothing is more unpleasant because it is absolutely unnatural. When there are technical obstacles, they must be faced, not circumvented with pathetic tricks...

[@bassinblue]

I will always prefer the option of default being mono, then I can have the choice of recording in stereo and adding exciting elements. Mono is the way folks.

[@guitarguy4334]

So why not record with 2 mics on vocals or just copy left and right than you can mix each a little different eqs pan one left pan one right stereo bamm

[@alhussainbessam2465]

So how did you record this video with the spatial sound effect? I'm new to audio

[@DarkCornerStudios]

I am using the dual mic setup on the Zoom H5. Dual mics is the only way to get actual spatial sound

[@alhussainbessam2465]

@@DarkCornerStudios can I achieve same effect with Shure SM7B, DJI Mic, and Motu M2 interface? Or does it have to be 2 of the exact same mic?

[@DarkCornerStudios]

@@alhussainbessam2465 2 of the same mic. True stereo is only achieved with 2 capsules

[@alhussainbessam2465]

@@DarkCornerStudios got it. Thanks a lot brother

[@TheeSeer]

Try to remember that the quality is dependent on a Vocalist with a decent Voice a great song and an engineer and producer that allows the Singer to be paramount and not blurred by over use of echo effects or the band.

[@gonootropics2.065]

Both stereo and mono sound the exact same on a phone, I would probably opt for mono for the simplicity of one mic unless talking with others, then you could give the effect of space in the room with stereo

[@nickkendall3764]

iv always knows pseudo stereo as duel mono this is the first time iv heard the term pseudo stereo

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Basically the same thing...different name

[@davidsillars3181]

Still wrestling with the Rode M5s I got as a warranty replacement for the duff Dbx 286s. I could imagine using stereo for a drama type thing but not for vo. or general narrative.

[@redcabinacoustic-official]

A mentor of mine would often say - "Never say never; Never say always." I think the the answer to, "Should You Record VOICE In Mono or Stereo??" is - it depends. If you find yourself asking this question then you may not know what you want? I'll explain - or try to . . . If you are recording VO for audio books, or commercial use, the standard is 48K/24bit mono. If you are doing something more creative - it depends. Almost everyone agrees that you should treat your room effectively before you worry about much else. WHY? your room has much to do with your sound. When you record your voice, you are actually recording your voice in your room. Which means you are recording your voice as it is being effected by your room. SO, if you are creating a character voice for example - the stereo recording of your room may impart an interesting quality. I sometimes record stereo vocals for sound design or foley and sometimes ADR, for projects I am producing. In this day and age producers want, (generally), clean unprocessed audio with a good S/N ration, and a low noise floor so they can manipulate it as they see fit. I'm not trolling you I promise - I just wanted to add to the discussion. I also realize that you need to put parameters around the videos you create otherwise you could wander off into the weeds and the vid would be hours long. I think the comments are a good place to get into the weeds. LOL From a VO perspective MONO, for other things it depends. Love what you guys do - Thank You! - peace

[@redcabinacoustic-official]

I stand corrected! I just applied to a job that asks the applicant to be, "able to deliver pristine WAV/Stereo" and saw another asking for "48kHz, 32-bit (floating)." Read the fine print when auditioning. peace

[@DarkCornerStudios]

I never consider it a troll job unless I am being insulted...lol Always willing to listen, and the best part of this channel is the discussion that arises from it. Cheers!

[@dylanlalondemusic]

Ohh god... this video. Let the comment hunger games begin!! 😂 I love how you started off the video with the H5 recording in stereo... moving your head "from left to right" to demonstrate that street stereo width... when the recorder was oriented along the Y-axis 🤣. To demonstrate stereo in that instance... shouldn't you move your head up and down?? maybe I'm just poking the bear on this one, lol The concept of pseudo-stereo is just wild to me. It is mathematically the same as recording in true-mono... the only difference being, depending on how your DAW is setup, you will get a 6 dB level increase if your mix gets collapsed to mono. Other than that, it's pointless. Not bashing this unnamed fellow's "Legendary Producer of Podcasts" status... but just because they may have legendary status... does not mean that the reason for that alleged status is their "trick" of recording in pseudo-stereo. Now... to the flip side of the pseudo-stereo point... phantom mono (when you have two sound sources stereophonically playing the same sound thus creating the illusion of one sound coming from the center of the stereo spread (the middle, equidistant from the two speaker cones) is very much real. if you have any mono elements in your mix that are panned center... when you mixdown your project to a stereo file, all your "mono" elements become phantom mono. In-fact, if you are mixing your mono elements using 2-speakers... you're actually monitoring them as phantom mono as well. 100% agree with the points here though. Unless your sound source is inherently stereo for one reason or another, recording stereo is pointless. The human voice is not a stereo sound source, the vague symmetry of the face and resonant cavities in the body kinda squashes that dream. That said, you can record a voice in a lush sounding room in stereo, to capture the sonic width of the space... but if you're in an anechoic vocal booth... recording a voice in stereo is useless. Also, generally you shouldn't record in true stereo unless you have a good understanding of acoustics and audio engineering. The moment you slap 2 mics on a single source, you introduce face relationships and also, most likely, phase distortions to the source sound. There are many stereo miking techniques that help to mitigate these phase issues and some that can even use them to your advantage. But throwing up two random mics in random places for any random source is NOT advisable. FYI... at the beginning of this vid, I heard a two-beep that sounded very familiar 😋. Then that Newstalk demo we made together came in later in the video and I was like "I knew that slate beep came from me at some point!" 😂😂

[@andrewkwhitecustomfilms]

How do you define a single source? Is a guitar a single source?

[@MadDog-dn5st]

I recording everything in stereo

[@RemLab-kt5dq]

Absolutely logical, no signal should ever reach the eardrums in mono!

[@bobbyxsteevbeats]

I record in mono

[@peterhajba1318]

One handy way to record voice is Mid/Side stereo. The voice itself is solidly in the center, but any room echo, reflections and ambience are in the edges of the stereo field. This gives the sound a sense of spatiality with a solid center. And if it gets played back on a mono device, the reflections and ambience are cancelled out (side cancels out in Mid/Side stereo when it gets folded down to mono). Mid/Side stereo shotgun mics are quite popular in broadcast and videography.

[@sdashrocktv11]

Common sense but I guess in this day and time lost hehe

[@hellomeatrobots]

Pseudo stereo? Sounds like mono.

[@jgscatsandthings5208]

Yes stereo makes the sound stand out more for sure.

[@RemLab-kt5dq]

For a pleasant listening, NEVER an audio signal should ever reach the eardrums in mono! Nothing but the oral cavity and the lips deform asymmetrically according to the sounds produced by the singer, which creates variations in phase in the audio signal generated. Moreover, the most important thing for a good recording is to reproduce to the brain the same sensation as when listening in "live", this is certainly not achieved by recording in mono! The reproduction in headphones of a voice recorded in mono, gives the listener the sensation that it comes from the center of his skull, nothing is more unpleasant because it is absolutely unnatural. When there are technical obstacles, they must be faced, not circumvented with pathetic tricks...

[@makimakipapura7543]

What the hell happened to music production 💀

[@andrewr4792]

I like Mono and -24 LUFTS. The Beatles recorded in Mono.

[@jackspring7709]

"Only someone with 2 voices should record in stereo". Excellent summary.

[@mindofsinclair]

“There is absolutely no value in recording a single source in stereo.” Can you break this down..seams like a vast over generalization.. Overall I love the video and appreciate the break down and the different examples you provided.But I feel like that’s a little extra...A lot of greats in the industry like David Miles Huber, Bruce Sweden and Allen Sides might disagree. Source: Modern Recording Techniques by D.M. Huber

[@DarkCornerStudios]

Single source is not stereo. It is mono. There are many things you can do with a mono file after the fact...including converting it to pseudostereo. For spoken word...pseudo stereo adds zero depth. It only takes a mono signal and places it left and right. As mentioned in the video...there are reasons to use pseudostereo. As for the greats disagreeing...send them my way. There are no limitations on what you can do when recording...and producing...and this video made no effort to stomp on any of that.

[@makimakipapura7543]

Neither, you should record in three track 🤓

[@sohagforu]

Your audio sucks. Too much hisss noise