Stereo is an artificial creation of two interleaved sound sources loosely defined as left and right. In regards to recording, you are speaking mainly of a set of two coincident microphone techniques. There are advantages and disadvantages to each technique and most engineers have their pet go-to's. There is a wicki article that is halfway decent describing the most familiar versions and what the standard mic patterns associated with those techniques are. You should definitely drop the dime on the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook which describes all of this and more in good detail. Then all you have to do is practice all the various configurations in all the myriad rooms and situations you will encounter-but only for the rest of your life just like the rest of us.

Some mixers claim the two bus main out slide is a stereo out but that is a misnomer. It ain't.

TheJackAttack wrote: Stereo is an artificial creation of two interleaved sound sources loosely defined as left and right. In regards to recording, you are speaking mainly of a set of two coincident microphone techniques. There are advantages and disadvantages to each technique and most engineers have their pet go-to's. There is a wicki article that is halfway decent describing the most familiar versions and what the standard mic patterns associated with those techniques are. You should definitely drop the dime on the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook which describes all of this and more in good detail. Then all you have to do is practice all the various configurations in all the myriad rooms and situations you will encounter-but only for the rest of your life just like the rest of us.

Some mixers claim the two bus main out slide is a stereo out but that is a misnomer. It ain't.

Ok, John - thank you! I'll pick up the yamaha book but let me try the question at a different angle.

Please compare two scenarios, both with my Alesis Multimix 16.

1) Two mics established as mono in Cubase software, in the recommended mic placements, and panned 45 degrees on the mixer.
2) Two mics established as stereo in Cubase software, same mic placement.

Can you tell me the technical difference in these configurations?

Thank you!
Patrick

While the two channels on the mulitmix are panned, they are still getting sent to Cubase as mono files and since the Multimix is not a controller, the files are panned center. So, in Cubase, you still have to pan the tracks if you want to hear the stereo effect.