sampling

when is it necessary to sample in stereo vs mono. I no mono is best for drums but for sampling a cd vinyl or a mp3 i get lost

also when is it necessary to convert a stereo sample to mono and the pros and cons thereof.


any help much appreciated

Assuming that you know what is stereo and mono. It´s simple. It´s necessary to sample in stereo when you have stereo samples that have relevant stereo information and want to keep it stereo. If the stereo is irrelevant, like a trumpet that is more on the right side but you will pan it as yo like anyway according to the mix, you can sample it in mono, so later in the mix you can decide how to pan it. When u have multi instruments in one sample they are generally panned and generally u want to keep it stereo. When u have a single mono instrument with stereo fx applied and u like the fx, u keep it stereo, even if it´s for example a snare, if u want to keep a stereo reverb on a snare that u think it´s cool. Hear the left and right sides separated, hear it in mono, and decide yourself.

* Be careful with mp3 samples, specially mp3 from vinyl on internet blogs, they usually are ripped with crappy gear and low bitrates and crappy software by people who don´t know how to do it properly.

thanx for the reply!!! what about converting to mono?

convert to mono if you've got a sample which is already stereo, but doesn't need to be. isn't that obvious?

pros: uses less memory, uses one voice not two

cons: some things sound better in stereo

I sample everything that I can in stereo, as you can always convert it to mono later on. You can always combine stereo to mono, but you can never get true stereo from mono. Also, a lot of times a sample is better just cutting out either the left or right side of the sample. As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with stereo samples. Peace...

good looking