Mixers/Consoles Stereo or Mono Mix and Matrix Buses

[tyler351]

So I run a LS9 and M7CL at my church both of which have 16 mix buses and 8 matrix buses. And in the settings for them you can set them to either be stereo (mix 1&2 paired, 3&4 paired etc...) or mono (mix 1, 2, 3, 4, etc...). I was wondering what would should be taken into consideration when setting up these buses? What should determine them to be stereo or mono?

 

[NickVon]

Just some thoughts to throw at you.

the first answer: What ever suits what you are doing

I do largely theatre stuff, running wireless body mics, and then some in the band usually. I run my system mostly mono, aside from playback effects and music.

For your purposes. it can be great to have some stereo mixs and stereo matrix's if you are mixing your choir or band in stereo (ie pan'ing channels.) Then by having a number of mix/matrix in stereo can make setting up a stereo recording mix a little nicer, If you are running monitors out of a matrix or mix for your band or vocalist that's usually something that most people would keep mono. That said sometimes a lead/features solo singers wants to monitor left and right in front of them, and making those stereo can simplfy setting up there mix. I find unless there is some reason to go stereo ( recording, or passing audio to other devices ), mono is just as easy for most things.

 

[Aman121]

I personally almost always mix mono in venues, because usually even "stereo" PA systems aren't true stereo, and depending on the audience members location they would not hear a true stereo mix and would only end up hearing half of the mix. One thing you have to remember is that just because it sounds good from the board does not mean it sounds good throughout the house. Running in mono is generally easier and helps ensure that everyone can hear everything. Again though, these factors will vary with system and space design. When im using my mobile setup I will sometimes run stereo, an example would be last night where I was reinforcing an orchestra in an outdoor amphitheater. The seating was relatively linear, so I ran my mixer in stereo and mixed the mics on stage left to house right and vice-verse. In this case I was trying to boost the natural tendencies of the orchestra sound. The effect actually worked pretty well. But for rock bands and such, where all sources are mono, there's no reason not to mix mono as well. Hope this gives you something to think about.

 

[tyler351]

awesome. thanks for the replys. Another question, What would be some reasons to run effects through a stereo mix (ex. reverb, delay), what would be some reasons to run them mono? And lets say the mains are stereo and not mono. Or should you always run the effects to match your setup?

 

[DaveySimps]

A common use for stereo auxes these days is when using in ear monitors. Being able to create a stereo mix for each musician is often much more desirable than a mono IEM mix.

What would be some reasons to run effects through a stereo mix (ex. reverb, delay), what would be some reasons to run them mono? And lets say the mains are stereo and not mono. Or should you always run the effects to match your setup?

This is really a question of taste. It really depends on what kind of sound you are looking for. There are not too many absolute rules. Many delay effects make use of panning sounds back and forth (such as a ping pong delay). If you were to use these particular effects, you would most certainly want to return them in stereo to make full use of the effect.

~Dave

 

[tyler351]

Ok. Thanks again for all the replys.

 

[TimmyP1955]

For those in the audience who can hear both speakers, reverb will sound a lot better in stereo. For the rest of the audience, there won't be any down side to stereo reverb.

 

[museav]

So I run a LS9 and M7CL at my church both of which have 16 mix buses and 8 matrix buses. And in the settings for them you can set them to either be stereo (mix 1&2 paired, 3&4 paired etc...) or mono (mix 1, 2, 3, 4, etc...). I was wondering what would should be taken into consideration when setting up these buses? What should determine them to be stereo or mono?

As noted, it is the intended use and application and for house sound also the speaker system that determines whether the mix buses should be mono or stereo pairs as well as things like whether the are Fixed or Variable (essentially Yamaha's way of defining Group and Aux buses, respectively).

I agree that many speaker systems are neither stereo not dual mono, they are simply two speakers whose coverage somewhat randomly overlaps to some degree. If you run those systems stereo then the sound likely varies throughout the listener area. At the same time, running systems with significant overlap in the speaker coverage as dual mono has its own potential disadvantages, often including reduced intelligibility. So in such situations you may have to just play around and find what works best for that particular situation.