# Recording in Cubase.. Mono or Stereo configuration



## Indigo (Mar 1, 2009)

I bought an sm57, recording through a presonus firepod. Ill add a Midi track and program the drums no problem. Now when i add a track to record guitar.. Am i going to do a stereo configuration or a mono, and why? I noticed when I record guitar on stereo.. itll only play back through one monitor. I'm not too good at recording.. mostly ill just plug in, set my input and output and hit the record button. am i doing something wrong?


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## PirateMetalTroy (Mar 1, 2009)

Always record your tracks in mono. Always.

Then go back, double track your guitars and hard pan them


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## Brutalnet (Mar 1, 2009)

I always record my guitars in stereo because what the hell, you can always just hard pan it if you want.


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## Metal Ken (Mar 1, 2009)

Brutalnet said:


> I always record my guitars in stereo because what the hell, you can always just hard pan it if you want.



Thats kinda pointless though, cause you're not playing a stereo instrument.


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## Plankis (Mar 1, 2009)

If you're recording with a mic there's no point in recording in stereo.


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## Mattayus (Mar 1, 2009)

PirateMetalTroy said:


> double track your guitars and hard pan them



That's just preference so it's not essential, I should add.

A guitar track will still act as a mono track even if it's in stereo. It's only if it's got some sort of stereo effect on it that it will act and sound stereo. Some VST plug-ins only let you operate in stereo even for predominantly mono-recorded instruments such as bass etc but it still comes out sounding mono because that's the nature of the instrument. So generally speaking bass and guitars are always mono.


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## Indigo (Mar 1, 2009)

thanks guys! 
i knew something new would come up i never heard of. im reallly not too good with recording. how do you "pan"


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## Mattayus (Mar 1, 2009)

On the channel you recorded your guitar part on, (i.e. "audio track 1" or whatever it's called in Cubase) there should be a switch or a dial or something to drag left or right. Use that. Guitars are generally panned 100&#37; Left and Right if there's just two tracks, and any additional track on top of those i recommend panning a bit closer to center, i.e. 80%


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## Indigo (Mar 1, 2009)

great. if i wanted a part to just come out of one side though, or something like that. i would have to make a seperate track to pan all the way to the right, or left?


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## Mattayus (Mar 1, 2009)

Well yeah I mean if you're running two guitars for example, and you just want one part to play then you don't need to do anything because it will already be panned left or right. But if you wanted a specific part to come out of a specific speaker then you'd either create a new track and record that part, or just cut and paste it out of the existing track and drag it down to a new channel.


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## Dylan S (Mar 1, 2009)

I'm a Cubase user so I can help.

Where your audio track is for your guitar on the elft side of the window, there should be a tiny little + symbol on the bottom left of that channel. Click it and then you will see a similar looking thing come up underneath it called 'volume'. You use this obviously to control the level of the track. If you click the little + sign on this volume part numerous times, you will see more options come up, and the one you need to pan the track comes up after a couple of clicks.


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## prosincerity (Jul 7, 2010)

Mono track is a good choice for those who want to edit their recorded tracks. For example, recording from two different mic positions in two different mono-tracks will give you more possibillities in blending those tracks.
Some info you can read in my two posts on my blog:
How to record guitar in Cubase | Creating and Mixing Music
How to record guitar in Cubase (part 2) | Creating and Mixing Music


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## chaosxcomplex (Jul 7, 2010)

Definitely go for mono tracks. You _can _record the mono signal from the guitar onto a stereo track, then use the mono to stereo plugin (Cubase LE4 has it, I don't know what version you're using) to double the signal into the empty side, and it has controls to do different things...but multiple guitar tracks accomplish the same thing, and IMO sounds muuucccchhhh better. I do the mono to stereo thing for scratch tracks when I program drums. It's just faster that way for me. But in the end, I double track all the rhythms, using different amp/eq settings, and pan hard left/right.


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