Hi Group,

This has probably been discussed before but I have an audio rip of an older vhs tape and I'm suspecting it's only a mono recording but is there a way to tell for sure?


Thanks in advance,
Steve

Quote
STUFAN
Hi Group,

This has probably been discussed before but I have an audio rip of an older vhs tape and I'm suspecting it's only a mono recording but is there a way to tell for sure?


Thanks in advance,
Steve

Well, you can listen to it with your ears. If it's MONO, you will hear it.

Mathijs

I usually find that if you can't really tell by giving it a good listen on headphones its most likely mono. As far as software to be certain? maybe you could try Soundforge. It separates the tracks and shows you...

It's usually pretty easy on headphones, just listen to each side without the other, if you hear missing elements in one, or the mix seems different to you, it's stereo. It's only really difficult when the mix of the music is narrow stereo. For an example using "Satisfaction" Compare any 1986 ABKCO CD version of Satisfaction (mono) the 2002 ABKCO CD version (Narrow Stereo) and the London CD of Hot Rocks 1 (Wide Stereo).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-03-14 16:04 by tkl7.

Clear your mind.

Imagine the band in front and centre of you.

Listen and visualise.

Any instruments voices seem to the left or right of centre?

The most ridiculous stereo I have is an old vinyl of "Got Live If You Want it".

Now that IS a stero mix - NOTHING is centred - everything is panned hard left or right.

It's a nightmare on headphones.

To be sure I would make a stereo wave file (soundforge, Creative Wave studio, ProTools, Logic, et al) , then subtract channel L from channel R using the tools available. The resultant wave file should be NOTHING, if the recording is in mono. (L minus R equals zero).

Alternatively if you just look at the L and R wave files on a screen it should be relatively easy to tell if they are exactly the same (mono).

As far as listening goes, early stereo recordings , especially Stones clearly have Charlies drums different in the L and R channels. Jimmy Miller was big on keeping the drums in stereo even using only 4-track technology, no matter how many bouncing of the tracks was required to pull it off. Some would say this is what separated the pro's from the ametuers in the days of a limited number of multitracks (4 or 8). These days with 48 track + machines being the norm, most all drums are easily recorded and mixed in stereo. It was a bit harder to pull off back then. Part of Jimmy Millers genius imho. peace

Your ears can fool you - a phase correlation meter, not.

especially when it's a very narrow mix and no stereo spread events are happening.

I guess this is a free one
[www.brothersoft.com]

but the better tools are quite expensive.

A harder question to answer may be is the recording originally mixed for mono or a fold down?

Quote
STUFAN
Hi Group,

This has probably been discussed before but I have an audio rip of an older vhs tape and I'm suspecting it's only a mono recording but is there a way to tell for sure?


Thanks in advance,
Steve

If you post a song or snippet here, I can tell you for sure.

one thing suprise me the last years,that many soundboards are in mono

the vhs gimme shelter(my copy) was in mono,but my vinyl bootleg was glorius stereo

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GravityBoy

The most ridiculous stereo I have is an old vinyl of "Got Live If You Want it".

Now that IS a stero mix - NOTHING is centred - everything is panned hard left or right.

It's a nightmare on headphones.

How so? That sort of thing is great. Hendrix also often used stereo to really widen the sound so that only his voice was in the center, sound good to me!

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones