Mono vs Stereo on Ableton

[Sebastian]

Hi peeps

It seems Ableton only has Stereo channels?

So how come i dont see two pan knobs on the same channel?

How would I pan hard right and left a stereo channel that lives in one track only?


How do I create mono tracks?

thanks

[mr.adl]

To have a track mono do it like in this picture:

[chrk]

To have a track mono do it like in this picture:

That won't change the TRACK to mono, it chooses one CHANNEL as a mono input to record a mono sample. That's perfect for future recordings, but won't help you with stereo samples that only have a signal in one CHANNEL.

Read the paragraph on the Channel Mode chooser of the Utility effect here: Live Audio Effect Reference — Ableton Reference Manual Version 9 | Ableton to hear only one channel centered.

Two pan knobs? That would work for dual mono, but Live doesn't offer this, and since Live really has only stereo tracks (see Routing and I/O — Ableton Reference Manual Version 9 | Ableton) the're not really pan knobs at all but ballance knobs.

[Richie Witch]

I was working with a similar issue this weekend. I was trying to cut little pieces of a previously-recorded audio track to make small samples. I tried using Utility to combine the two stereo halves into a mono track so that my samples would include the entire sonic source.

I tried recording the track (through Utility) to another track. What I got was a stereo track with silence on one side.

I tried bouncing the track with the "convert to Mono" button on. This made it look like a mono track in Ableton, but I found I couldn't cut samples small enough.

So I downloaded Wavosaur and guess what? The bounced mono track from Ableton loaded as stereo!!? It seems Ableton only hid the stereo encoding. Wavosaur has an actual "convert to Mono" feature and that's what I finally used to get my little mono samples. It also allows you to delete one side of the stereo pair, if that's what you'd rather do.

Wavosaur is donation-ware, in case you don't already have it.

[Sebastian]

To have a track mono do it like in this picture:

That won't change the TRACK to mono, it chooses one CHANNEL as a mono input to record a mono sample. That's perfect for future recordings, but won't help you with stereo samples that only have a signal in one CHANNEL.

Read the paragraph on the Channel Mode chooser of the Utility effect here: Live Audio Effect Reference — Ableton Reference Manual Version 9 | Ableton to hear only one channel centered.

Two pan knobs? That would work for dual mono, but Live doesn't offer this, and since Live really has only stereo tracks (see Routing and I/O — Ableton Reference Manual Version 9 | Ableton) the're not really pan knobs at all but ballance knobs.

MANUAL says this. Its very confusing.

[Sebastian]

IN CAPS MY COMMENTS TO THE MANUAL:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/routi ... onversions



When a mono signal is chosen as an audio track’s input, the track will record mono samples OK. SO IT DOES RECORD A MONO SIGNAL IN MONO?

Otherwise it will record stereo samples. OTHERWISE WHAT?

Signals in the track’s device chain are always stereo, even when the track’s input is mono or when the track plays mono samples. WHAT???

Mono is turned into stereo simply by using the identical signal for left and right channels. When a track is routed into a mono output, the left and right signals are added together and attenuated by 6 dB to avoid clipping.
GREAT. TOTALLY MORE CONFUSING. LOL

I dont understand/

[Sebastian]

Let me re-ask by example:

Say I record my real Bass into Audio track.... record as Mono or Stereo? What do I do in Ableton?

Say I record an Ableton MIDI Synth....? Stereo? How?

How about Guitar?

thanks!

[clement.m]

If you record on an audio track with a single physical input, like for example, your bass guitar in Input 1 of your sound card, Ableton will record it in Mono. The file will be a mono canal file.
Any other way of creating an audio file (freezing, consolidate, resampling, etc…) will end up with a Stereo file, even if the source and processing chain was Mono. Let's say you have a mono Analog synth with mono effects behind and want to freeze it, Ableton will create a Stereo file.

So I sort of agree with you that, though you can have Mono sources, Ableton seems to treat everything like stereo.

[Richie Witch]

If you record on an audio track with a single physical input, like for example, your bass guitar in Input 1 of your sound card, Ableton will record it in Mono. The file will be a mono canal file.
Any other way of creating an audio file (freezing, consolidate, resampling, etc…) will end up with a Stereo file, even if the source and processing chain was Mono. Let's say you have a mono Analog synth with mono effects behind and want to freeze it, Ableton will create a Stereo file.

So I sort of agree with you that, though you can have Mono sources, Ableton seems to treat everything like stereo.

Nice explanation. I think I get it now.

[Angstrom]

To handle problematic tracks (eg mono sound in only L side of stereo), and do the various stereo operations - use the Utility device. This gives access to the advanced stereo and multi channel operations. Eg, use only L side, or to bring L & R toward the center, then move that center, or to subtract L from R, and R from L. Etc, etc.

[liverick]

I'm not sure this answers any specific questions, but it's pretty easy to make a stereo panning knob with an audio rack and two utility devices mapped to the same macro knob on the rack. There may be some details it doesn't handle, but it works pretty well in many cases.

[jlgrimes]

Hi peeps

It seems Ableton only has Stereo channels?

So how come i dont see two pan knobs on the same channel?

How would I pan hard right and left a stereo channel that lives in one track only?


How do I create mono tracks?

thanks

Simplest way would be to use a Utility effect and take the width to zero.

But that said if the track is truly mono, Live will play it in mono even though it is on a stereo track.

[Sebastian]

Thank you all.

One last question:

What is the dif between recording on 1 vs 1/2?

[chrk]

What is the dif between recording on 1 vs 1/2?

The number of channels(!) of the resulting audiofile.
1 is a mono source into a mono file, perfect for sources like one microphone, one guitar... - you wouldn't run into the panning (balancing) problems like you've done.
1/2 is a stereo input into a stereo file, sources like a stereo microphone or two microphones, guitar through stereo effects processor... - bad if you want to record a mono source: you'll get a stereo file with signal only on one channel.

[unix23]

Simplest way would be to use a Utility effect and take the width to zero.

But that said if the track is truly mono, Live will play it in mono even though it is on a stereo track.

Give this guy a cookie, he's 100% right, the sound would already be mono, though recorded onto a "stereo" track.

With a mono signal, both tracks have the exact same audio. If they do, there is by definition no "side" information that you'd hear with a mid/side encoder, which is what "width" does at numbers over 100%.