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I'm trying to record some vocals, and ive been recording them in stereo on vegas video 4.0

But the problem is, when I pan it to the left, it doesnt do anything until about 95% to the left and it quickly fades out. Same with the right side.
Now,I tried panning the music and it works fine,Its only the wavs. I record now. If I convert them to mono, they pan fine,but they dont sound anywhere near as good as the original stereo wav.

Does anybody know what the problem is? I have a feeling the preamp is putting out a mono signal, and vegas is converting it to stereo,which screws something up.But Im trying to figure it out before I get back home so I dont have to spend my recording time fixing this problem.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys could give me...

Comments

anonymous Thu, 04/13/2006 - 21:31

Massive Mastering wrote: Just don't record mono sources in stereo.

Yea, no shit...how did you think of that? Rewording my question doesnt solve my problem.

I wasnt asking if I should still record in stereo,I was asking if that would cause the problem. Ive allways recorded my vox in stereo, for the past 5 years,& this is the 1st time this happened.

Recording in mono would make since,but I never had to before, why would all of the sudden these wav's not pan? I havent changed anything in my setup. I have 100+ songs with stereo vocals, that pan just fine,even now. But my new tracks dont pan.

Now, I just tried to record in mono, and its the same. If I convert the mono wavs to mono,they work.If i convert the mono wavs to stereo, they work.
If I convert stereo to mono or stereo to stereo they work. But doing that takes away alot of tone. ALL recorded files dont pan until converted.

Any ideas?

Cucco Fri, 04/14/2006 - 08:20

Uhhh, hey there numbnuts.... Try listening to John instead of being a dick to him when he answers your question.

So - you record your voice in stereo. Exactly how would one do that?? Are you in fact using 2 mics?? If not, then you gain NOTHING by recording your voice in stereo. You do LOSE in fact though when you try to pan a mono sound spread to a stereo track over to one extreme or the other. Why?? Well, that's because the same information is essentially spread across two channels. To pan, you simply subtract one channel from the other (in oversimplified terms). So, when you pan hard left, you are subtracting the right information from the left which, since is currently equal, comes out to ZERO.... (x-x=0)

So, unless you are truly recording using a stereo micing setup, you shouldn't record a mono source to a stereo track. If you REALLY think that you are getting a fuller sound by doing this, try this - Record yourself in mono and then copy the track to another track in your DAW. This would be the same as, oh, maybe ADDING 3dB to your originally recorded mono track.

Ooo...try this - Record the two tracks and pan each of them equal but opposite distances from center. That would be a cool effect....oh wait, nope, it would still be mono...

Oooo, you could also do this - place your mono vox on two seperate channels and then invert the phase on one of them. Frankly, that's how I'd like to hear your voice.

Sorry - I know I'm being an ass. But, don't come here - ask advice and then sh!t on one of our more respected members when they give you the honest to god answer.

J.