From: franko@cco.caltech.edu (Frank Filipanits)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.pro
Subject: Re: Console Question
Date: 20 Nov 1992 04:40:06 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: alumni.caltech.edu

Many people said many things, condensed for relevance...

To start, I'd like to say ITE monitoring is something I was not familiar with,
so many of the possible problems I brought up would disappear, as they are
artifacts of using 2 seperate monitor speakers some non-zero distance from the 
performer.  There are a few things I still disagree with, however.

Such as the sweeping generalization:
>>>Given a choice, anyone would want stereo monitors.
>>I would like to take exception here;  there is a reason most headphone
>>boxes are wired for MONO.
>Probably because it was cheaper to only have one amp in the old days and it's
>one of those "traditions".
I didn't say "there's _probably_ a reason"; I said there IS a reason, and I
stated that reason.  It is easier to follow a beat (or click track) in mono.
The headphones and boxes we have here can be used either way; they are almost
always used in mono, for precisely this reason.  And you said "anyone"
would want stereo monitors.  I am giving you a counterexample: me.

>>Stereo monitoring introduces alot of unusual properties such as position-
>>dependant phase shifts that are distracting for a musician.
>Yes, position-dependance, like lead guitar on the right, vocals up the middle,
>horns on the left and snare a little left of center.  I would jump with both
>feet to get an onstage monitor system like that.  I could pick out cues from
>the other band members much easier with spatial cues than with it all coming
>straight up at me.
No, position dependant _phase_shifts_ (please stop quoting me out of context)
Spatial cues ARE coming at you in addition to what's coming straight at 
you; this was part of my argument.  If you have the bass panned hard right
in your monitor, but the real bass player and his real amp which are making
real sound are behind you and to the left, then you have conflicting
spatial cues arriving at your head.  Again, this is assuming speaker
monitors, not ITE.  If you crank up the volume to override the ambient
spatial cues, then you are approaching the levels where stereo becomes moot.

Point taken regarding stereo effects on a keyboard rig.  That is one place
stereo monitoring would strike me as being very useful.

>Live sound is a totally different world from the studio.  I chose many years
>ago to concentrate on the concert, where you get one shot to get it right,
>no rewinding and take two stuff.  Many was the time the artist would bring in
>an engineer who had eons of studio experience but usually had me mixing over
>their shoulder about half way thru the first song in the live.  

You would do well to stop the sweeping generalizations which mar your prose.
Not all studio work is "a totally different world" from live sound.
Try recording live to two-track sometime.  Not only do you have only one
chance to get it right, but if you DO screw something up, it is recorded
for all of posterity.  Live sound and studio work are both demanding tasks,
each in their own way.  Live sound reinforcement, however, tends to be the 
more forgiving master.  A wise engineer works at both, and mocks neither.


-- 
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Frank Filipanits Jr.    B.S. EE/Music, California Institute of Technology '92
>><< Go 'canes! >><<       M.S. Music Engineering, University of Miami    '94  
franko@alumni.caltech.edu   "I ain't evil - I'm just good lookin'..." A.Cooper