Playing Live in Stereo

[drumlogic]

How many of you out there are playing live with 2 distinctly different channels (L/R). Aside of course from your monitor which would probably be mono. Im really referring to the FOH PA. Do you pan everything down the center to try and get equal sound throughout the room your playing, or go for stereo panning and risk having the people on the left side of the stage hear something totally different from the people off to the right?


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-Drumlogic, V-session, Visulite/roland cymbals, (2)Mackie srm-450's, bbe 482 sonic maximizer,

[Boingo]

I have sent a true stereo feed to the FOH a few times (normally we use mono). I keep the separation very close to center - the cymbal and tom spread ranges R3 to L3 as max spread. Usually snare and kick are on center and hihat is L2. When there are wide spreads from left to right, it doesn't sound right to me. In fact, I don't like wide spreads in the headphones either. It's anoying.

I think the slight spread gives it some dimension. Unfortunately, since I wasn't in the audience, I can't say if it made a difference.

Possibly the toms would sound ok with a wide spread but not the rest. I could see where some types of music might benefit from a wide spread between instruments.

[Mick Wade]

Stereo is the only route I'll go. A "standard" setup for me is very similar to the one that Boingo described, but since my music tends to have a lot of techno and psychedelic elements to it (in addition to being heavily sequenced), I find myself using hard panning as well as the random and alternate panning features of the V-drum modules quite frequently.

I like to think of it as similar to being in a movie theater watching a film done in THX sound or the like. You hear the dimensions of left and right and forward and back as cars pass, planes fly by, conversations are held, etc. It gives a sense of depth and space, and panning obviously plays a huge part in this. Lucasfilm's tag line for THX is "The Audience Is Listening", and I've found that to be true indeed based on feedback I've gotten from my own audiences. Bottom line: use it where appropriate and in moderation......

P.S.: I monitor in stereo, too!

[animal]

when you run stereo to the FOH, do you pan them in reverse? Think about it, The hi hat is on your left, but it is on the right side of the stage (provided that you are right handed). The audience will be hearing a negative of what they are seeing.

[mrVRock]

I also use the stereo out. Everything panned in the middle except the crashes L2/R2 and the toms L3/R3. I'm thinking of putting the crashes also in the middle because the rolls I make are sounding better that way.
Monitoring for me is mono, one monitorchannel out of the mainboard in the mix in from my TD-10. My headphones are connected to one powered stage monitor.

Groeten,

Peter

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My bands: Meneer Van Zanten and The Shed (sorry, both in Dutch but you can see the pictures and listen to our songs)