Re: Live stereo looping

[Matthias Grob <matthias@grob.org>]

I found that out of phase cancelation is much less of a problem with 
a stereo mix (unless the PA is all on one side which is not realistic 
on most stages).
Sure, heavy panning destroys the mix for those that listen off center 
(i don't like it on CDs either), but a light panning add 
intelligibility and improves the phase problem because the 
cancelation of certain frequencies never hits all instruments at once.
Imagine: Full cancelation happens when the difference of distance 
from the two speakers is exactly half (or 1,5...) the wave length AND 
both sources arrive with the same level. So when you have most 
instruments paned differently, they never cancel simultaneously while 
cancelations of some details naturally add to the space experience 
and do not create the "agony" as mono out of two speakers can.

Stereo looping is more complex because you do not only need a stereo 
looper but pan the instruments into it. In case of a single 
instrument/player it means that either the musician has to change 
panning before each overdub or the mixing person has to have access 
to the loop sends, which is hardly ever the case, is it?
Or you have enough loopers so the mixing person can pan the output of 
each one - while you could be playing... all depends on stile, 
equipment and intention

I had a pan control on the floor and operated it for a while and the 
result was much better recordings (as on my CDR Jejum") but for the 
public it did not make that much of a difference and I ended up 
preferring to carry only one EDP and concentrate on other controls 
that change sound more drastically and such express more.

Sound jumping all around the place is fun and may express something 
but for most situations seems to distracting from the "real" content, 
IMHO.

Mono sound from one speaker is ok, but reverb is not! To create 
space, stereo is a must! A mono reverb is doing almost the opposit: 
instead of opening the perception, it soups all up. So my dry signal 
is often mono, but the reverb never.
And i met a lot of stereo sound systems where they have been lazy to 
hook up the second output of the reverb or did not pan them right or 
thought a reverb output is only stereo when the input is stereo...
-- 


          ---> http://Matthias.Grob.org