Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

pwheel · Jan 22, 2006, 01:01 PM

I am using a FASTRACK M-Audio interface with garage band. The problem I'm having is that I can't record in stereo. The interface had a mic input and a guitar input. When I plug the guitar in it records in mono (on the left) and when I plug the mike in it records in mono (on the right). When I unplug the interface and use the mac mike it records in stereo. This tells me its the interface but why will it not record each instrument in stereo? If I can't use this interface (which I should be able to) how can I plug my regular mixer into my mac and try to use that? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

analogika · Jan 22, 2006, 03:48 PM

Stereo means two separate signals, one for right and one for left.

A guitar is by definition mono, as is any ordinary microphone (that isn't explicitly a stereo mic).

For the track you're recording, select the appropriate input to get a single mono track.

Recording a mono signal in stereo will do absolutely nothing except waste twice the amount of disk space and require twice the amount of bandwidth when reading from/writing to the disk.

pwheel · Jan 22, 2006, 04:03 PM

I see what your saying. But the question is then how come my "mono" track will only come out of one speaker. When I record the guitar you only get the sound out of the right speaker. When I record the mic it only comes out of the left speaker. How can I record this "mono" track and have it come out equally on both speakers. When I record the track with the mac mic both bars go up and down. When I record with my interface only 1 bar shows a reading. Thanks for the help

analogika · Jan 23, 2006, 03:50 AM

Again: You have to select the appropriate input channel.

Click on the track. Click on the little "I" button to get info on that track.

See where it says "Input" and then "Channel 1 & 2 (stereo)"? Click on that and select either Channel 1 or Channel 2 for a mono signal.

goofticket · Jan 24, 2006, 08:08 AM

There are a few stereo guitars out there i know of... a Rickenbacker 360/12 is a stereo 12-string and the Gibson ES355 was stereo..
I suggest you see if there is someway you can convert your axe to stereo.
By the way, when will there be a Surround Sound 6 channel stereo guitar? or am I just wishing here.

Gibsonsg · Feb 2, 2006, 12:22 PM

Does your interface have a mono/stereo switch? If so, if you switch it to mono on your single-channel guitar input, it will "sum" the channels to play on both sides. Not true stereo, but it's one way. From there, you can pan it anywhere in the stereo field in GarageBand on a single track.

Another option is a stereo output guitar, or an amp simulator with stereo outputs. I have a POD 2.0 that I sometimes use to record my guitar in stereo. In that case, set your interface to stereo, and record-enable 2 tracks in GarageBand, and assign the inputs in GarageBand accordingly. I also use 2 mics on my Marshall cabinet to record my guitar in stereo on two input channels.

I've also recorded stereo drum tracks in Pro Tools using the stereo outputs on my drum machine.

In GarageBand, I also sometimes copy a software instrument drum track region, then delete everything on the copied region but the snare in the editor. That way, I can have a separate channel for the snare drum and assign a little reverb to the snare, leaving the other drum parts dry on the original track.

analogika · Feb 2, 2006, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Gibsonsg

Does your interface have a mono/stereo switch? If so, if you switch it to mono on your single-channel guitar input, it will "sum" the channels to play on both sides. Not true stereo, but it's one way. From there, you can pan it anywhere in the stereo field in GarageBand on a single track.

There is absolutely no point whatsoever to doing this.

If it's a mono signal, and all guitars (but about four) ever made are mono, then he should be recording a mono signal using just the one live input.

That can be panned wherever he wants - left to right - and will only use half the disk space, disk bandwidth, and processor power of a stereo track.

Gibsonsg · Feb 3, 2006, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

There is absolutely no point whatsoever to doing this.

If it's a mono signal, and all guitars (but about four) ever made are mono, then he should be recording a mono signal using just the one live input.

That can be panned wherever he wants - left to right - and will only use half the disk space, disk bandwidth, and processor power of a stereo track.

Yeh, I know. I was just trying to explain what mono-summing does.