Stereo v Mono, The Great debate which do you use ?

[Totally Plucked]

After reading a few articles regarding the Great Stereo v Mono debate, it kind of gets you thinking.

My personal view is for home Hifi etc then there is no questioning stereo has to be the best?
However, in a live environment (Disco) there are a few questions to be asked of Stereo?
Do you really think the difference is that great in a live environment?

Have a look here and read

http://www.mp3backingtrax.com/article25.htm

Over to you.............................Healthy debate invited please (No ego's)

[BeerFunk]

Minimal benefit from using stereo in a PA system. In fact, if you're speakers are placed quite far apart, the sound could be vastly different either side of the room. Play Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' and pan left to right, and you'll see what I mean :-)

If you do go with stereo, it might be advisable to have the ability to switch to mono if needed, should a speaker blow, for example.

[Shaun]

I use mono.

[deltic]

Mono all the way....

[Alchemy]

Mono.

It stands to reason that unless you stand/dance midway between the speakers you will never get the benefit of stereo sound.

[super-hero]

I use mono, because a lot of the audience will not get the benefits of the stereo sound.
Plus if you have to turn one side of your speakers down, or even off, you need to hear all the audio from the speakers you have left on.

[Sapphire Disco]

So if you use mono which I mostly do how do you set it up , from source, the mixer, mono on the amp or all of them ?

[Shaun]

So if you use mono which I mostly do how do you set it up , from source, the mixer, mono on the amp or all of them ?

Mixer.

[ukpartydj]

Stereo offers a FAR superior listening experience when set up correctly (see image) and the listener is perfectly between the two speakers.



I think in the case of us DJ's when using two speakers 6 ft apart it's not all that relevant.
If you have a program (I'm using Cubase) which can play either stereo or mono at the click of a button have an experiment with it - I'm using this track as it uses an extreme panning effect - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8

I personally prefer to hear a stereo track panned slightly to either side than a mono track ... Stereo offers atmosphere from the multi-directional sound, I've heard bands use stereo quite often at "smaller gigs" (average guildhall / 02 academy style venue) and I must say it sounds great when you hear a guitar riff coming from the other side of the room panning across to your side.
This being said stereo isn't best suited to events where there are more than 2 sets of speakers (nightclubs and festivals come to mind) or where speakers are placed very far apart - you wouldn't be able to hear the left of stage speakers very well if you were on the far right.

I think that if you're standing to the side of a stereo speaker setup the sound quality is on par with mono... so unless your speakers are miles apart and low volume you're missing the magic of stereo!

All well produced tracks have basslines, vocals and important staples of the track on both sides ... you very rarely get a track which has vocals on the left and instruments on the right - sounds terrible even when it's correctly setup.

To add to my argument I've found that using the master pan on my mixer during the buildup to a exciting part of a track makes people more excited and creates a "live atmosphere".

So in short - if you're in a BIG room with your speakers below head height and you've popped them in the corners of the room and aren't playing your music very loud (or you've got multiple speakers facing all directions) - MONO. If not you're offering a better quality of sound to those who are on the dancefloor with stereo. If you google the mono - stereo argument you'll find the majority of articles relate to large applications and recording.
That's my ten pence.

[ukpartydj]

I've just tested several genres of tracks at home ... walked out of the room - put my ear to one speaker panned the speakers ... closed my eyes switched mono - stereo to see if I could tell the difference outside the room - stereo sounds noticeably better in all the tests I've done especially on tracks which do not have any extreme panning which is 99% of tracks.