Is it better to mixdown using mono tracks ?

[three]

I disagree. what is the point of this? I think its better to keep things as stereo if they are stereo. it makes editing easier.

What is in stereo should stay stereo - I agree completely! That's why I'm recommending that you think of stereo as two mono tracks. That way you won't accidentally run a mono effect on a stereo track and consolidate left and right to a single mono stream.

There is no point separating everything to two mono tracks

I'm not advocating separating anything into two mono tracks. But many (perhaps even most) sources are mono. You can take a look at your samples to verify this, particularly drum samples.

If you have mono samples, or a synth with mono out, why run any of that on a stereo track? There is no point duplicating mono data in order to make stereo and asking your CPU to push the same data around twice.

[hurlingdervish]

if your layering takes of say vocals or guitar or bass or keys you should not be layering stereo tracks because then you have to mix 12 tracks of audio instead of 6

it depends on what your doing but recording in mono then panning has its perks

[dinaiz]

But isn't it the same in live, in terms of tracks ? Cause you don't have mono tracks....

[hurlingdervish]

thats not the point the point is

12 tracks will be fighting for space instead of 6

so some wont be heard etc. it really doesnt matter if you are working with stuff inside of live though

[dinaiz]

I see ! So my first post wasn't totally stupid then ?!

[DJMillsy]

Interesting post. If you take a mono sound and pan it to one side of a stereo bus, even slightly, then the information in the left and right sides are different, so in effect it becomes a stereo sound at the output. If you want to retain that information when bouncing down the track then it will have to be bounced down to a stereo file.

Realistically though, you are most likely to think of stereo sounds as having some other difference on each side as well, such as frequency and timbre.

OP, you have to be the judge of what sounds best, and louder isn't always the answer , don't sacrifice interest and good stereo width in your synth sounds if they are adding something to your track, but also be aware of letting sounds completely dominate your mix.