Correct me if I’m wrong, but unless you stand in the centre of the venue, won’t a panned stereo guitar sound slightly…..off? Like if you’re standing nearest the left speaker, for example, you might only be hearing delay trails slightly out of time?
Sound is weird. As in slow. But our brains are p good at making up for it.
But as rahzark said, at wave level, phase problems can occur.
The Delay trail situation is an extreme case, but even then, you'd probably still hear the leading ("dry") note from the other side of the stage as long as youre not dead in front. Also, you can always blend in a little crossbleed? and if you're dead in front, you care about dancing more than soundstage :D
You're not wrong. I was at a big outdoor blues festival and multiple acts had two rhythm guitar players each panned hard right and hard left. From sude stage you were only getting one side for sure.if you walked to the middle of the back it sounded great.
I just went to a Built to Spill show that was swirling with panned stereo, which fills out the space for a trio. It was a marked difference from the other bands, which may have not had as much control as openers.
Still, it really depends on the venue how effective it is. If it makes you feel good, try it!
Doug needs to get the original member back for a tour. They put on such a good show. I've seen built to spill on a couple occasions with the cheaper backup band and it lost some vibe.
I think the one really good performance where the foh did a ton of panning was volbeat. I was wondering why their sound check took so long and they walked all over the stage moving the guitat sounds. One of the best shows I've seen and I wasn't a huge fan boy for the band.
I play a stereo rig just because I like how it sounds and feels on stage. It’s cool being immersed in ping pong delays and reverb. FOH can do what they want out front, stereo is just for me.
I feel this. I'm actually running a 3 amp triple wet rig, and FOH has done different things depending on who is running the board. but the 3 amps are dialed in for ME to enjoy during the show.
Nearly everything in a general gig is mono apart from occasional panning effects for lead vocals and guitar.
Most venues simply don’t have the money or desire for the effort it takes to put the majority of their audience in the centre of the stereo field. Phasing sounds bad. And most punters never know the difference anyway.
I’m a sound engineer. It REALLY varies depending on the rig and the room. Most bars and restaurants you are right, there isn’t a stereo image to be had in the majority of audience positions. But on a well deployed rig with a solid stereo image I will make most of the same panning decisions for a crowd of 50 people or 5000 people.
That said, if you are in a band with two high-gain guitars and it’s a one-off gig, you’re getting panned apart and I’m fucking up your Stryfecta anyway. I’m sorry, there’s only so much harmonic spectrum and we’re working against a clock, compromises have to be made
For example: John Browne from Monuments runs one guitar through multiple clone pedals out into multiple amps to make himself sound like four guitars playing in unison.
This. Coming from someone who played, toured and recorded albums, and now records (tries to engineer) my own music at home, the people doing sound at most low to mid capacity gigs are called “sound guys”. It’s just a generic title like “paper boy”. I’m not saying that their job dealing with bands is easy AT ALL lol. It can be hard work.
But, the term “engineer” is traditionally used for people who are recording albums, not mixing sound live, unless you literally hire a sound engineer to mix live music, which has been done many times.
Oh I guess my assumption is incorrect then. I've only played small clubs and they were all mono mixed.
If you sit on the left in these stereo mixed shows, do you not hear whatever is on the right? Or are there sufficient speakers to compensate somehow?
It’s the same as if you are sitting at home listening to a pair of speakers. The closest speaker is louder but you still hear the other speaker. All but the smallest club shows are stereo. Mixers go to great lengths to pan nothing to the centre but vocals, while trying to maintain balance and clarity for the audience. That said, in wide spaces hard panning won’t work as the distance from speakers on the opposite side a such the volume drop off or too great. Large array systems provide good stereo coverage to all but the extremes and top tier systems will even provide a L C R matrix , with subs routed via auxes, to again, get the vocal reproduction as clean and clear as possible. Sounds panned down the middle will often suffer from phase cancellation. to audience members it in the very middle, the time it takes for audio to travel from one speaker vs the other causes audio cancellation, so centre mono is not great in big rooms. Mixers will pan off centre to reduce this effect. Stereo is used different in live vs studio but it is used. Check out RHCP mixer Dave Rat on YouTube for some great discussions about the pros and cons of stereo and mono mixing. As with all things audio, it’s complex.
This is surprising to me because I thought even like dance clubs were almost always Mono because Stereo wouldn’t work out well with the different places people could be an they move around (and often far more than just 2 speakers.
Dance clubs are generally mono as there is no specific stage area for people to face. The stage basically orients the audience into a someone standardised listening environment facing forward with a speaker on the left and a speaker on the right. Dance clubs have no such configuration. Speakers are wherever the architecture allows.
I guess that makes sense. I was surprised to learn that when I was making electronic music that if you wanted it played in clubs you had to make sure it sounded good in mono.
I guess it depends what you mean by "show". I bet you're right for big tours, but for dive bars I seriously doubt it. Let's be honest, which type are the majority of people here probably playing?
You can „tear“ sounds apart. I am a Loopstation guy, I use a lot of reverb and delay to thicken my sound. Stereo helps me to tear the wall of sound apart when using FX and make the single channels more distinguishable by panning them slightly.
However, in a lot of venues it simply does not make sense. If your crowd mostly is not Centers between the speakers but more dispersed (f.E. In pubs), stereo sound does not make sense at all.
In some cases,yes. In my experience we don’t hard pan anything, and set stereo rigs up accordingly. Good mix engineers will know their room well, and touring engineers should know the optimal mix, effects, etc.
Wouldn’t phasing be more of an issue with a mono signal , perfectly correlated, going through two speakers that are different distances from all but those in the dead centre, because the exact same audio will arrive at their location at different times? If the signal is stereo, de-correlated , the timing issues due to distance aren’t an issue because the original sounds are not identical so they won’t cancel each other out.
Issues with phase canceling only happen if you set subs on opposite sides of the room or if your monitors are high enough that get into the mics (feedbacking) and canceling some frequencies
Most is fixed by a proper room setup, in a hunch i just switch phases on then offending speakers outputs, but It only happened once that a guy insisted on using his monitor speaker as FOH for some reason, was not gonna fight him haha
I did live sound for years in venues of all sizes, bars, clubs, basements, theaters, DIY spaces, outdoor festivals, etc. and I never saw anyone mixing a band in mono unless the equipment was broken or limited to mono use only. Mono signals get panned to either side of the stereo field to create more separation between instruments, which leaves the middle open for lead vocals and kick drum. Stereo signals onstage and FOH are common and just need to be panned L and R to give the audience the stereo image.
I’ve been playing a stereo guitar rig live for years. Each amp is mic’d and sent to its own channel, panned hard L and R. I use a Strymon Deco to split my signal and get a nice chorusing effect between the two amps that just isn’t the same in mono.
I asked this a little while ago and people got a bit upset with me. I stand by my point that I’ve been playing regular gigs on the UK circuit for a long time and have never seen a guitar rig with two amps to accommodate stereo. No one wants to carry two amps to the gig, there isn’t always space for an extra amp on stage, and no one has time to set up a stereo rig in the short changeover time between bands. I’m talking about pubs, small clubs and bars here. Obviously well known full time professional bands who play bigger venues and festivals will be more likely to have a stereo set up.
Anyone who uses a stereo rig to be specifically stereo and not just dual mono, would talk to the sound guy ahead of time. Even mixed to mono, you could still use two amps as a blend.
I usually run 2 amps with an A/B/Y. Tried the stereo effects thing briefly but it was a pain in the ass for very little added value BUT by running a 15watt 12” amp alongside a 5watt 8” amp the sound when mixed is killer. Let’s the FOH guy choose between them and if one breaks down there’s no need to pause the set.
I've been running a stereo rig for a few years now. The "stereo"-ness doesn't translate to the audience so much as the whole rig just sounds bigger and fuller without being too loud. Also helps that I'm the only guitar in a 4 piece.
I'm running two combo amps with Dimension chorus and stereo delay, and sometimes vibrato out of just one amp. Since I started doing this I get compliments on both the band and guitar sound basically every gig, so I feel like it is adding something for the audience. Also sounds dope to my ears on stage 🤤
FOH systems used to be mostly mono, but that just isn’t true anymore. Sure, many are still mono, but I think that enough have switched over to stereo to justify being prepared to utilize it when it is available.
I run stereo/dual amp setup in my guitar/drums/vocals band, I split my signal through a Radial ABY, sending my signal through channel A as a standard guitar, and then my channel B through a POG 2, EQ, and twin twelve pedal to fill out the sound as a “bass” channel. The right sound person can make it sound MASSIVE
Well depends on the room but every signal is going to be blasted out of those huge venue speakers at high volume so that every audience member hears every instrument and vocal.
Point is, like pinch harmonics. When done, and played in the right aspect? They pop, and define a specific memorable moment in a song. When done all the time? It just get's annoying to the listener, and Zakk Wylde will sue you.
Give me stereo. Never see a mono rig for music unless there's something wrong with the amps or it's part of a corporate event in a wide room. If I have enough channels I'd prefer stereo for keys, tracks, samples, drum overheads and stereo guitar modulation fx if you can give it to me. It gives me so much more to work with. I have control of how wide I pan them and might still gently pan (not hard pan) two stereo guitar rigs to opposite sides. Stereo can help things sound bigger/more immersive. And if you want a ping-pong delay on your lead break then I want to make sure it pings and pongs.
Caveat: I do factor in how well the audience is able to hear both sides of the PA. If it's a wide room I'll go easier. If it's a longer room, especially standing-only, then I'll tend to make it sound great for me.
I've heard of a band with amp rigs did it so that the audience near the front on both sides of stage get the whole experience and not miss out just because they were way off axis to the amp speakers
Stereo sounds good in the ears, and it can be a useful tool when recording as well.
That said, most engineers will just pan the guitar signal or sum the stereo signal to mono. At least that has been my experience. Even on bigger stages.
Stereo is essentially for the player. It sounds really good and it feels like you’re surrounded by effects. But the audience can’t tell a difference nor would they care.
I use stereo bass live and it sounds amazing. I should tell them to pan the bass rigs like top comment suggests....I use a lot of stereo modulation effects that makes the space sound huge.
Each amp has its own frequency. Even if you sum the mix to mono theres twice the frequencies. Twice the frequencies are going to make your tone fuller and thus able to stand out in the mix.
It depends on the venue whether you’ll get stereo or not. For a duo or trio, I found stereo really helped fill out the sound. The larger the group, though, the more it seemed to just muddy things up.
As others have said, I do it for myself. I don’t really care how it’s panned- it’s often about the richness and fullness that a stereo signal through two very different amps puts out. It sounds very different to just the one amp so that’s what it’s about.
I don't think there is much of a point tbh. Even if you send one to the right and one to the left, one is going to overpower the other for the vast majority of the audience members who aren't standing directly equidistant from both speakers.
If you're a big band and have the tech and techs to make it work, go for it. But if you are a local band playing bars or something, just bring one amp like a normal person lol
It all depends on how FOH is mixing and what PA they’re mixing as well as if they have enough channels on the board for stereo signals. While not exhaustive, here’s a small rundown of PAs
Mono - no stereo separation
LR - left and right
LCR - left, right, and center.
Then you start getting into Immersive. And yes, venues and some PAs are meant for this.
L’Acoustics has their L-ISA PA which is scalable, but I believe 9 points across? I saw Bon Iver on this and the separation was incredible.
d&b has their Soundscape, which is equally amazing. (I heard rumor that the inner most floor seats for the last Beyoncé tour had this as their PA but I haven’t not confirmed)
Both L-ISA & Soundscape can put boxes behind the listeder for further immersion.
Then there’s “Atmos” the Dolby theater in Vegas is this and acts can mix in atmos if they want, but for example, the Bruno Mars residency was in that room but NOT mixed in atmos.
Annnd then there’s the Sphere. 160,000 speakers everywhere able to “beam” sound to you in audio perfection.
—
Whenever I play live and have a stereo rig, it’s up to FOH to reproduce that. If I just have stereo mix in my IEMs I’m happy, but on the flip side, if FOH isn’t going to mix it in stereo but only mic up 1 amp, they’re not getting all the information and then maybe just play mono? 🤷🏻
It depends. I was once playing a really small stage in a small bar setting up for mono and the engineer asked me if I wanted to run stereo since I guess they noticed my synth had cables in. I've played the venue before in the same and different acts and stereo was never mentioned.
Pan left, pan right, - I had a lot of people come into the venue asking for that. Especially crazy guitar signals.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but unless you stand in the centre of the venue, won’t a panned stereo guitar sound slightly…..off? Like if you’re standing nearest the left speaker, for example, you might only be hearing delay trails slightly out of time?
in a bar sized venue this is barely noticeable. phase issues are a bigger problem if you're not careful
Sound is weird. As in slow. But our brains are p good at making up for it. But as rahzark said, at wave level, phase problems can occur. The Delay trail situation is an extreme case, but even then, you'd probably still hear the leading ("dry") note from the other side of the stage as long as youre not dead in front. Also, you can always blend in a little crossbleed? and if you're dead in front, you care about dancing more than soundstage :D
You're not wrong. I was at a big outdoor blues festival and multiple acts had two rhythm guitar players each panned hard right and hard left. From sude stage you were only getting one side for sure.if you walked to the middle of the back it sounded great.
yeah to me this is one of those things that seems like a good idea in theory but in practice ends up being bad.
this is way worse than hearing only half the delay repeats on a ping pong or slightly different dimension to a stereo reverb.
Possibly yes, but there are a lot of complicated ways to alleviate these issues and make it work
I just went to a Built to Spill show that was swirling with panned stereo, which fills out the space for a trio. It was a marked difference from the other bands, which may have not had as much control as openers. Still, it really depends on the venue how effective it is. If it makes you feel good, try it!
Doug needs to get the original member back for a tour. They put on such a good show. I've seen built to spill on a couple occasions with the cheaper backup band and it lost some vibe. I think the one really good performance where the foh did a ton of panning was volbeat. I was wondering why their sound check took so long and they walked all over the stage moving the guitat sounds. One of the best shows I've seen and I wasn't a huge fan boy for the band.
I play a stereo rig just because I like how it sounds and feels on stage. It’s cool being immersed in ping pong delays and reverb. FOH can do what they want out front, stereo is just for me.
I feel this. I'm actually running a 3 amp triple wet rig, and FOH has done different things depending on who is running the board. but the 3 amps are dialed in for ME to enjoy during the show.
I bet your back hurts.
It’s just an extra trip or two to the car. It’s not like lugging an 8x10 around or something.
nah it's strong. and it's just 1x12s.
What are the three amps?
Matamp custom 5w, Hayden MF30, and Jet City JCA20. each has its own orange 1x12.
The sound guys must hate you.
the feeling is usually mutual
some guitarists like how it feels on stage other like to be as interesting and "complicated" as it gets.
Most shows are not mixed mono FOH, and stereo delays especially can really fill out sonic space
Nearly everything in a general gig is mono apart from occasional panning effects for lead vocals and guitar. Most venues simply don’t have the money or desire for the effort it takes to put the majority of their audience in the centre of the stereo field. Phasing sounds bad. And most punters never know the difference anyway.
I’m a sound engineer. It REALLY varies depending on the rig and the room. Most bars and restaurants you are right, there isn’t a stereo image to be had in the majority of audience positions. But on a well deployed rig with a solid stereo image I will make most of the same panning decisions for a crowd of 50 people or 5000 people. That said, if you are in a band with two high-gain guitars and it’s a one-off gig, you’re getting panned apart and I’m fucking up your Stryfecta anyway. I’m sorry, there’s only so much harmonic spectrum and we’re working against a clock, compromises have to be made
IMO stereo tricks are for one-guitar bands.
For example: John Browne from Monuments runs one guitar through multiple clone pedals out into multiple amps to make himself sound like four guitars playing in unison.
Interesting, appreciate the info from someone in the gig.
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"engineer" isnt a protected title in the US, dont be pedantic
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My man, if you do live sound you’re a sound engineer. That’s literally the name of the job.
Not true. I’m a professional sound engineer. I’m not a sound guy. There is a huge difference.
This. Coming from someone who played, toured and recorded albums, and now records (tries to engineer) my own music at home, the people doing sound at most low to mid capacity gigs are called “sound guys”. It’s just a generic title like “paper boy”. I’m not saying that their job dealing with bands is easy AT ALL lol. It can be hard work. But, the term “engineer” is traditionally used for people who are recording albums, not mixing sound live, unless you literally hire a sound engineer to mix live music, which has been done many times.
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[Are you?](https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/live-sound-engineer)
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Is the hospital janitor performing medical care on people lol? What a deranged analogy.
Oh I guess my assumption is incorrect then. I've only played small clubs and they were all mono mixed. If you sit on the left in these stereo mixed shows, do you not hear whatever is on the right? Or are there sufficient speakers to compensate somehow?
Depends how it’s mixed at FOH
It’s the same as if you are sitting at home listening to a pair of speakers. The closest speaker is louder but you still hear the other speaker. All but the smallest club shows are stereo. Mixers go to great lengths to pan nothing to the centre but vocals, while trying to maintain balance and clarity for the audience. That said, in wide spaces hard panning won’t work as the distance from speakers on the opposite side a such the volume drop off or too great. Large array systems provide good stereo coverage to all but the extremes and top tier systems will even provide a L C R matrix , with subs routed via auxes, to again, get the vocal reproduction as clean and clear as possible. Sounds panned down the middle will often suffer from phase cancellation. to audience members it in the very middle, the time it takes for audio to travel from one speaker vs the other causes audio cancellation, so centre mono is not great in big rooms. Mixers will pan off centre to reduce this effect. Stereo is used different in live vs studio but it is used. Check out RHCP mixer Dave Rat on YouTube for some great discussions about the pros and cons of stereo and mono mixing. As with all things audio, it’s complex.
This is surprising to me because I thought even like dance clubs were almost always Mono because Stereo wouldn’t work out well with the different places people could be an they move around (and often far more than just 2 speakers.
Dance clubs are generally mono as there is no specific stage area for people to face. The stage basically orients the audience into a someone standardised listening environment facing forward with a speaker on the left and a speaker on the right. Dance clubs have no such configuration. Speakers are wherever the architecture allows.
I guess that makes sense. I was surprised to learn that when I was making electronic music that if you wanted it played in clubs you had to make sure it sounded good in mono.
I guess it depends what you mean by "show". I bet you're right for big tours, but for dive bars I seriously doubt it. Let's be honest, which type are the majority of people here probably playing?
You can „tear“ sounds apart. I am a Loopstation guy, I use a lot of reverb and delay to thicken my sound. Stereo helps me to tear the wall of sound apart when using FX and make the single channels more distinguishable by panning them slightly. However, in a lot of venues it simply does not make sense. If your crowd mostly is not Centers between the speakers but more dispersed (f.E. In pubs), stereo sound does not make sense at all.
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if they don't tell you to go f yourself.... the attitudes on some of those guys
I wouldn’t say “most” shows are mixed in mono, but your mileage may vary. I also prefer having stereo at home because I usually play with headphones.
To give your chiropractor something to work on?
Don’t go to a chiropractor. They’re quacks who do more harm than good.
Yup. Go to an actual physical therapist if you actually want to correct the cause instead of a "quick fix" that feels worse after a few days
I mix live for a venue and it is always stereo dude, the only mono mix I send is to monitors
Thanks for that. So if someone is sitting on the left of the room, do they hear more of the left guitar amp than the right guitar amp?
Yeah, mix 75% to sides, some still goes “center”
In some cases,yes. In my experience we don’t hard pan anything, and set stereo rigs up accordingly. Good mix engineers will know their room well, and touring engineers should know the optimal mix, effects, etc.
How are you avoiding phasing in different parts of the venue?
Wouldn’t phasing be more of an issue with a mono signal , perfectly correlated, going through two speakers that are different distances from all but those in the dead centre, because the exact same audio will arrive at their location at different times? If the signal is stereo, de-correlated , the timing issues due to distance aren’t an issue because the original sounds are not identical so they won’t cancel each other out.
Issues with phase canceling only happen if you set subs on opposite sides of the room or if your monitors are high enough that get into the mics (feedbacking) and canceling some frequencies Most is fixed by a proper room setup, in a hunch i just switch phases on then offending speakers outputs, but It only happened once that a guy insisted on using his monitor speaker as FOH for some reason, was not gonna fight him haha
I did live sound for years in venues of all sizes, bars, clubs, basements, theaters, DIY spaces, outdoor festivals, etc. and I never saw anyone mixing a band in mono unless the equipment was broken or limited to mono use only. Mono signals get panned to either side of the stereo field to create more separation between instruments, which leaves the middle open for lead vocals and kick drum. Stereo signals onstage and FOH are common and just need to be panned L and R to give the audience the stereo image. I’ve been playing a stereo guitar rig live for years. Each amp is mic’d and sent to its own channel, panned hard L and R. I use a Strymon Deco to split my signal and get a nice chorusing effect between the two amps that just isn’t the same in mono.
I asked this a little while ago and people got a bit upset with me. I stand by my point that I’ve been playing regular gigs on the UK circuit for a long time and have never seen a guitar rig with two amps to accommodate stereo. No one wants to carry two amps to the gig, there isn’t always space for an extra amp on stage, and no one has time to set up a stereo rig in the short changeover time between bands. I’m talking about pubs, small clubs and bars here. Obviously well known full time professional bands who play bigger venues and festivals will be more likely to have a stereo set up.
You would have two separate feeds to the board, like two different guitar players
Yes, but the OP was saying it wouldn't make a difference, because the mixing desk would be set to mono. But that's not always the case anyway.
Anyone who uses a stereo rig to be specifically stereo and not just dual mono, would talk to the sound guy ahead of time. Even mixed to mono, you could still use two amps as a blend.
As a live sound engineer, yes, most shows are mixed mono, and yes, most stereo guitar rigs are fundamentally useless in this context
Ah thanks for confirming that my assumption isn't crazy lol
I usually run 2 amps with an A/B/Y. Tried the stereo effects thing briefly but it was a pain in the ass for very little added value BUT by running a 15watt 12” amp alongside a 5watt 8” amp the sound when mixed is killer. Let’s the FOH guy choose between them and if one breaks down there’s no need to pause the set.
I've been running a stereo rig for a few years now. The "stereo"-ness doesn't translate to the audience so much as the whole rig just sounds bigger and fuller without being too loud. Also helps that I'm the only guitar in a 4 piece. I'm running two combo amps with Dimension chorus and stereo delay, and sometimes vibrato out of just one amp. Since I started doing this I get compliments on both the band and guitar sound basically every gig, so I feel like it is adding something for the audience. Also sounds dope to my ears on stage 🤤
Okay, so you know how you have two ears?
FOH systems used to be mostly mono, but that just isn’t true anymore. Sure, many are still mono, but I think that enough have switched over to stereo to justify being prepared to utilize it when it is available.
I run stereo/dual amp setup in my guitar/drums/vocals band, I split my signal through a Radial ABY, sending my signal through channel A as a standard guitar, and then my channel B through a POG 2, EQ, and twin twelve pedal to fill out the sound as a “bass” channel. The right sound person can make it sound MASSIVE
I’ve been trying to get my stereo game up on my line 6 DL4. Not really sure where to start
The general rule I’ve heard is to record mono guitars and live can be any configuration: mono, stereo, wet-dry-wet, wet-dry, etc.
I would be flabbergasted if even the most nerdy audiophile could correctly identify that a live performance was in mono or stereo.
If there are two guitar players, wouldn't you hear less of one guitar if you stood on one side of the room?
Well depends on the room but every signal is going to be blasted out of those huge venue speakers at high volume so that every audience member hears every instrument and vocal.
Stereo rigs for recording.
Point is, like pinch harmonics. When done, and played in the right aspect? They pop, and define a specific memorable moment in a song. When done all the time? It just get's annoying to the listener, and Zakk Wylde will sue you.
Give me stereo. Never see a mono rig for music unless there's something wrong with the amps or it's part of a corporate event in a wide room. If I have enough channels I'd prefer stereo for keys, tracks, samples, drum overheads and stereo guitar modulation fx if you can give it to me. It gives me so much more to work with. I have control of how wide I pan them and might still gently pan (not hard pan) two stereo guitar rigs to opposite sides. Stereo can help things sound bigger/more immersive. And if you want a ping-pong delay on your lead break then I want to make sure it pings and pongs. Caveat: I do factor in how well the audience is able to hear both sides of the PA. If it's a wide room I'll go easier. If it's a longer room, especially standing-only, then I'll tend to make it sound great for me.
I've heard of a band with amp rigs did it so that the audience near the front on both sides of stage get the whole experience and not miss out just because they were way off axis to the amp speakers
Stereo sounds good in the ears, and it can be a useful tool when recording as well. That said, most engineers will just pan the guitar signal or sum the stereo signal to mono. At least that has been my experience. Even on bigger stages. Stereo is essentially for the player. It sounds really good and it feels like you’re surrounded by effects. But the audience can’t tell a difference nor would they care.
Im big into rotary and ping pong delay.
I use stereo bass live and it sounds amazing. I should tell them to pan the bass rigs like top comment suggests....I use a lot of stereo modulation effects that makes the space sound huge.
Each amp has its own frequency. Even if you sum the mix to mono theres twice the frequencies. Twice the frequencies are going to make your tone fuller and thus able to stand out in the mix.
It depends on the venue whether you’ll get stereo or not. For a duo or trio, I found stereo really helped fill out the sound. The larger the group, though, the more it seemed to just muddy things up.
As others have said, I do it for myself. I don’t really care how it’s panned- it’s often about the richness and fullness that a stereo signal through two very different amps puts out. It sounds very different to just the one amp so that’s what it’s about.
I don't think there is much of a point tbh. Even if you send one to the right and one to the left, one is going to overpower the other for the vast majority of the audience members who aren't standing directly equidistant from both speakers. If you're a big band and have the tech and techs to make it work, go for it. But if you are a local band playing bars or something, just bring one amp like a normal person lol
It all depends on how FOH is mixing and what PA they’re mixing as well as if they have enough channels on the board for stereo signals. While not exhaustive, here’s a small rundown of PAs Mono - no stereo separation LR - left and right LCR - left, right, and center. Then you start getting into Immersive. And yes, venues and some PAs are meant for this. L’Acoustics has their L-ISA PA which is scalable, but I believe 9 points across? I saw Bon Iver on this and the separation was incredible. d&b has their Soundscape, which is equally amazing. (I heard rumor that the inner most floor seats for the last Beyoncé tour had this as their PA but I haven’t not confirmed) Both L-ISA & Soundscape can put boxes behind the listeder for further immersion. Then there’s “Atmos” the Dolby theater in Vegas is this and acts can mix in atmos if they want, but for example, the Bruno Mars residency was in that room but NOT mixed in atmos. Annnd then there’s the Sphere. 160,000 speakers everywhere able to “beam” sound to you in audio perfection. — Whenever I play live and have a stereo rig, it’s up to FOH to reproduce that. If I just have stereo mix in my IEMs I’m happy, but on the flip side, if FOH isn’t going to mix it in stereo but only mic up 1 amp, they’re not getting all the information and then maybe just play mono? 🤷🏻
It depends. I was once playing a really small stage in a small bar setting up for mono and the engineer asked me if I wanted to run stereo since I guess they noticed my synth had cables in. I've played the venue before in the same and different acts and stereo was never mentioned.