BR Users, What Do You Record onto the Stereo Tracks?

[Geir]

I record as much as possible in mono !!! 

There is a good reason for it, at least for me.  A stereo track tacks up much more sonic space in the mix, and reduces the options when doing the final mix. As an example: in stead of using a stereo effect on a guitar I prefer to record the guitar twice. I find that gives more "air" to the mix, but also makes the sound richer.

I do however use stereo tracks sometimes:

* Stereo effected LEAD guitar (panning delay/panning temolo) (I try to only use this if there's enough space left in the mix).
* ditto for lead vocals
* electronic drumset/drum-machine
* some keyboard/thumbjam/iMiniMoog sounds

I know it's tempting to use stereo effects on many tracks, 'cause they do sound so damn good don't they

and lastly, 2 rules i live by:

1. Never never never ever use stereo effects on bass
2. There are no rules !!!!!!

[na_th_an]

Same as Geir. I record most of my tracks in mono. Same reasons. I do a very exhaustive placement in the stereo field of each of my tracks, and I like being in control on what (and the amount of it which) is sounding in each channel.

If you record all your tracks using the natural stereo of the source you may end up with an imaginary bunch of instruments in the same place which sounds unnatural. I like to close my eyes and tell "they guitarist is on the left, the bass player is on the center", etc...

I do use stereo recording for backing rhythm acoustic guitar or for grand piano. And that's it.

I also use stereo recording for live tracks, even if we record the song in several goes which we pile up. I also do the experiment of recoding 4 stero tracks leaving the BR-80 in the middle of the room and playing each instrument in a different place in the room, so stereo placement and stereo reverb (the room sound) are 100% natural. That works quite nice if you want a "live feel".

We are three in my band and one of us got married earlier this year. My other pal and I decided to make a special recording for him as a wedding present, and we ended up recording a whole album using this technique consisting on songs we composed when we were in our teens. Usually we recorded the songs live (and mainly improvising ad-lib) using three or four stereo tracks, with the BR-80 in the middle of the room and placing ourselves in different spots depending on what we were playing. That worked great. Here it is an example: this song uses three stereo tracks, two instrumental and one vocal, plus a sequenced drum track. In the first track my pal played a Monotribe and I played bass, on the second track we both played a second set of keyboards. We used delay while recording a couple of tracks, and then I added a couple of effects in post-production (mainly compresion and eq). I think the results are quite satisfactory.

[Geir]

I also do the experiment of recoding 4 stero tracks leaving the BR-80 in the middle of the room and playing each instrument in a different place in the room, so stereo placement and stereo reverb (the room sound) are 100% natural. That works quite nice if you want a "live feel".

Now that was a great idea !!! I must try that. Very inventive!

[na_th_an]

I works great with acoustic or stripped down songs.

[AndyR]

I'm the same as Geir and na_th_an - I'll often record stereo sources (keyboards or guitar parts coming out of my amp modellor) as mono, because they work better in the mix that way. Let the mix create the stereo, not take the instrument's stereo.

It does kind of depend what the part is, though - if it's the "main backing" instrument and it sounds cute, then, yeah, I'll do that one stereo and build the mono overdubs around it. For a lead guitar, I'll always record mono, and let any reverb or delay (or chorus) send during mixing add to the stereo - the actual track itself will be mono, panned wherever is appropriate.

Another trick I do sometimes is to record stereo but control where the left and right tracks are panned in the mix. For example, if a song has both piano and organ, I'll record both in stereo. Then, in the mix, I'll pan the piano-left hard left and the piano-right roughly centre, the organ-left roughly centre and the organ-right hard to the right (I'll also only put reverb on the "outer" tracks, not the centred ones). I'll do that with two rhythm guitars sometimes - but the sounds I use tend to make that less effective than doing it with two keyboard parts, so I tend not to bother doing it so much nowadays unless I want lots of reverb on them and want to try and leave space for the lead part (vocal, whatever) and its reverb.

[na_th_an]

Another nice trick for rythm acoustics is, instead of recording a stereo track, record TWO mono tracks in two different takes, then add both takes to the mix, one far-left and other far-right (60% or more). It works awesome, gives a great rythm foundation layer.