Digital Piano Recording / Performance: Studio vs Live - Stereo vs Mono

Know when to use Stereo or Mono on your digital piano depending on whether you're doing a studio or live performance.

[danieldowning]

This is one of the best videos I’ve seen regarding this topic. Thanks for the help!

[Utoober-ypmf]

It depends on the keyboard. For example the MOXF8 - if play the full concert grand in mono, it will sound muffled. But there's a mono version of the full concert grand and it's called monaural grant mw. that you can play a mono output signal.

[kjstudio]

Thank you so much for this I have been recording only in mono this whole time and piano still sounds pretty good but I felt something was off sounding because the piano has great sounds and just wasn't really capturing the sound like a true grand sounds in a studio when recording with stereo mics. heading into my home studio now and setting up piano for stereo recording :D

[sammydodgers]

I kinda suspected this but was searching high and low to hear it officially from a pro. Nice video, thanks

[richardmcghie]

what you said from minute 5:35 to 6:10 is something that is extremely important. small detail but very important. especially if you aren't trained as an audio tech.

[nsmith]

The cancellation he talks about is worse when two speakers are playing the exact same signal. It's called "comb effect" To send your keyboard to speakers in stereo, with each speaker playing different sounds, means no cancellation. So a stereo feed is better than a mono feed. Say a keyboard is playing a 200 hertz signal out of two speakers. Some places in the venue will receive a positive peak of the wave from each speaker and 200 hertz will sound loud. Someone next to them will receive a positive peak of the signal from one speaker and a negative peak from the other speaker, and that person won't hear the 200 hertz signal. 210 hertz will be different. If you plot what each spot is hearing on a graph, the plot looks like a comb. Full of peaks and valleys. So it is better to send signals to an audience in stereo, bearing in mind that you need people on the far left of the audience to be able to hear the right speakers content too; so full panning may not be the best suggestion, but panning (the balance knob) slightly left for the keyboards left output, and slightly right for the right output, reduces comb effect.

[frankstone]

Thank you. This applies to live sound in general.

[KeyofGtutorials]

Nicely explained! Exception: If you are recording a live performance and/or are running stereo IEM's you should run in stereo to the FOH system. Then you can have your recording and IEM's sound better in stereo but your room can get mono from the FOH engineer.

[chickens]

Any benefit to using L and R into one speaker that has 2 inputs? Will there also be cancellations

[ernievault]

I can't believe you didn't mention phasing issues within the keyboard itself. Most digital pianos & synths, most notably the Yamaha Motif series, have sounds that turn to kaka in mono.

[raincells]

Great video. What happens to things like a ping pong delay in mono? Will it shift between L and R front of house speakers? Thank you.

[arthurbadal]

Dear PianoManChuck Thank you SO MUCH - gives very much right - full of mening and very important

[nrenaud]

Hi Chuck, thanks for your useful demonstration.
Regarding your video " studio vs live" how in opposite way to record in a smal concert room with piano and vocal, to produce stereo recording. I assume it need to place one mic to each vocal/piano on mono onto a digital recorder or an audio sound card? perhaps I'm a bit confuse...

[tomohara]

A stereo panning patch, such as Rhodes sounds frequently used by Stevie Wonder, will not be reproduced when connected in mono. In fact, the panning of the signal will be canceled. The only viable substitute, is to apply tremolo, instead of panning. One of my boards is a Studiologic Numa Compact 2. It only has a left and right channel output. It has no provision for "Left/Mono". This is a poor design IMHO, for which I must use a mixer to sum the two channels to obtain a mono signal. Attempting to sum the left and right channel out, simply by "Y"ing them together will produce an annoying phasing effect and the resulting sound will be anemic.

[SYHCORG]

hi, chuck... thanks for the post  ( but, hmmm... the stereo & mono comparisons actually sounded identical in headphones -- could there have been an oops during that part of the demo, maybe??  i.e., the mono sample sounded as rich/wide as the stereo sample)

i actually have a ZOOM H6 ( and also viewed you H4 video, coincidentally) and was trying to record the killer stereo sound combo patches using 1/4" L&R out of Kronos88 into two 1/4" H6 inputs.  However, when I use those same headphones and try to monitor what I am recording into the H6 via its 1/8" headphone out --- omg, it sounds awful.  Dead.  All the stereo richness/phasing is gone.  Is this typical, perhaps, and something that will need to correct once I take the two H6 wav files (L&R) into Final Cut Pro X and, I suppose, "manually" separate/spread them?

I'm determined to be able to have the viewers of my upcoming HD videos to hear the same amazing Kronos combo quality through their headphones, that I am hearing through my headphones when I play/rehearse and use the keyboard's standard 1/8" out, for instance.

I'm a stereo-sound fiend, and don't want to go through all of the production work of professional video capture if the keyboard sound reproduction isn't 1st class.

Any thoughts?  As in, can you please check my math? Thank you, sir.

Ron

[islandtony]

What about phase cancellation? Don't a lot of keyboard samples (piano, EP with panning, organ with rotary) lose some important aspects of their sound when combined into mono because of phase cancellation? And what if you have L & R outs (Studiologic Numa Compact 2/2x) where the L doesn't sum L+R?

[bruceglanville]

Very useful Chuck and food for thought as I always assumed stereo was best even for live band work. I have the Kronos X and as well as piano use many synth voices including strings, organs, synth pads etc, would you apply the mono principle to those sounds?

[richard]

I can’t find a video regarding home playing. What sounds better? Mono or stereo? What gives a digital piano it’s best sound while playing at home. Not just playing quietly but with the volume up a bit. I’m in a single dwelling home playing in my basement family room so I can have the volume up a little. What will sound the best to me sitting at the piano playing? I have a Korg grand stage.

[reezalguy]

Hi chuck, this was very useful and helpful. Do you know if this is true for electronic drums as well ?

[kfhgm]

how do you come out of the headphone jack and go into a portable recorder and do left and right? Thanks