Live Playing - Mono or Stereo

[Coryd]

So I’m curious how everyone runs their helix live? I’m starting a new band and we are trying to figure out how we are gonna run our helix units live. Do most places just take a mono line out of the helix? Should we use a stereo to mono summing cable and run that mono? 
 

Again, I’m just hoping to get some input on what everyone else is running and see if y’all can teach me about this. Any and all input is extremely welcome! Many thanks in advance! 

[ibisibi]

I use L (mono) XLR to desk, L (mono) jack to Catalyst (behind me), Headphones out (stereo) to keyboard player (he prefers that for his in ears). I get my own monitor mix (mono) from board, mixed with XLR out of Catalyst (own mini mixer for my in ears). Bassist and drummer get their in ear mixes from board too (mono). Vocalist has stage monitor (old school).
Hope that helps.
Basically, our FOH is mono. Never seen the point of stereo. Some of my Helix goes to board and out of PA in mono. The rest of my sound is from Catalyst, running the Helix into its power amp input (yes I have cabs active in my presets).
We play small/medium bars and clubs. Hope this helps.

[ricstudioc]

On 11/23/2024 at 5:37 PM, ibisibi said:

Basically, our FOH is mono.  Never seen the point of stereo.

Well, I'd differ to this extent - in this day and age of powered FOH enclosures, pretty much every system I've owned/seen/operated for, say, the past 20 years comes out of the boxes ready to go for stereo.  You may choose to pan everything center, and I certainly get that.

 

For the OP - I always ran my Helix - and keyboard rig - in stereo.  1/4" out to 2 FRFR's in front of me like slants, XLR's to the house.  Big volume knob assigned to the 1/4's only so I could adjust things on stage without effin' with the sound guy.  My last few projects ran in what I'd call "tight stereo" - not too wide a spread, maybe 10 and 2 on respective pans, maybe a touch more.  Allows a little dimensionality in the mix without so much isolation that the core signal gets lost to the other side.  Works great for ping pong delays, chorus, spread pitch shifters, stuff like that.  But of course that also assumes you have the inputs to spare on the console.  Mono or Stereo (tight) - whatever works for you.

[theElevators]

Here's the complete summary of what I've posted on this forum many times:

 

Lots of bands have been running their guitars in stereo for the last 20+ years in a 5,000-seat theater or smaller.  Unless you are talking about an arena or a stadium, running guitars in stereo is actually desirable, as it offers benefits such as "non-clashing" with other signals that are mixed in.  Stereo sound is easier in terms of mixing, as you can SLIGHTLY pan instruments left/right, so they would not all be clashing together.  I'm not making this up, several pro sound guys told me they prefer stereo guitar signals.  If you are playing at a stadium, very few mixing engineers will run a stereo mix.  Maybe just a few times during an entire show as an exception to the rule, for some kind of a special effect.  Stadiums are difficult with the sound distribution to begin with, the last thing you need to worry about is stereo mixes.  And there is no easy way to decide, which side is left, which side is right, otherwise you will deprive half of the stadium of sound when you do this, and the mix will only sound good if you are sitting dead in the middle.  The distance from the left and the right sides is just too great in a stadium, compared to a theater. 

 

What exactly do I do in terms of stereo mix in my presets?  I mostly just have ping-pong stereo delay in the majority of my core sound.  A few songs have very exaggerated left/right delay but only in a few sections.  But I dialed it in so that both sides of the concert venue will be getting the same amount of information, and no side would get more musical notes than the other side.  For that reason I added my delays in parallel.  I play a note, it is heard in the middle, then it is followed by a repeat on the left, then on the right. 

 

Other ways I use the stereo mix is with stereo panning on some little fills/solos, but nothing crazy that would make one side silent, while the other one is blaring.  For example, I have one song where when I rock the wah pedal, the sound pans left/right, but not 100% left/right.  Another example is one of the songs has a chaotic ending, and I have the tremolo with left/right panning.  These are just special effects that I use very rarely compared to my main core sound. 

 

I go: stereo to FOH via 2 XLRs (L/R) and mono for my personal monitor mix via 1/4" L.  I need to feel the guitar chugging, so I run my monitor mix into Mooer Baby Bomb 30W power amp connected to a speaker of a combo amp, or my own 12" speaker cab.  If the combo amp has the speaker hard-wired, I go into the return of it, if there is a return.  Otherwise as the last resort, I just plug into the combo amp on the cleanest setting.  I prefer a single 12" speaker, it just has the best focus and clarity for me.  I absolutely avoid 4x12 speaker cabs, or Marshall amps.  They just make the sound on stage too loud, while simultaneously not being able to hear what the heck I'm playing, and the sound guys always ask me to turn it down... while I cannot hear anything. 

 

My XLRs are at fixed mic level, and the 1/4" is at line level, allowing me to adjust the stage volume loudness with the volume knob.  I have it dialed in so that if the volume knob is on around 2, it's my home base.  I usually make slight adjustments to have more/less stage volume within the first couple of songs. 

 

I do not remove the amp/cab sim from my personal monitor mix, because otherwise the delays which are post amp/cab would be difficult to set up.  I just run the same exact mix to both a physical amp and FOH, as lots of people do.  I typically do not use the Global EQ, but sometimes if the venue is small and the on-stage amp interferes with the mix, I may dial out certain frequencies with the guidance of the sound guy.  The GE would only be applied to 1/4" mix. 

 

A few times when the stage setup is more amateurish, I went in mono to FOH. 

 

Helix sums your signal to mono automatically, no need for any adapters.  In fact, if you have an adapter that adds left + right signals, the signal may become hotter and start to distort.  This is something I discovered a few years ago.

 

On the Helix I have been experiencing a bug where 1/4" Left/Mono doesn't immediately sum both sides, until you plug something into the right side momentarily, then unplug.  Some people have experienced the same software bug with the XLRs as well.  I have had to do this plugging/unplugging since the beginning of owning the Helix.  On 3.7 firmware, that issue seems to have been fixed, but I still verify that everything is summing correctly by using a "Sound Check" preset that has exaggerated ping-pong stereo delay.  Before I start playing a show, I always make sure to verify that left + right are summed correctly.  I know what it's supposed to sound like, so if I don't hear the familiar delay sound pattern, I know something is wrong.

[Coryd]

Many thanks for all the replies so far! So I guess another thing is if venues have stereo XLR‘s for all guitars and bass. I mainly play at church at the moment and we run stereo there but we only have one Electric playing per Sunday. It’s been a few years since I’ve played out, but is it pretty common nowadays that most places have stereo XLR pairs for guitars to use? Good to know that the helix will sum everything automatically to mono. I was not aware of that. I think for the most part, we will all be just running our helix‘s live, and most likely won’t have stage volume with an FRFR speaker at first at least. I think it’s definitely something we have to figure out as far as the sound goes. We are going to be able to practice at a place where we’ll be able to probably just run mono but I suppose if it sounds good then it will sound good. lol.

 

Please keep the input coming and again I do appreciate all the comments so far. The last time I played live, I had a gigantic pedal board, an SWR rig with a 750 watt head while lugging an 8x10 cab. 

[denitronik]

I have a StompXL and I run it stereo, I use the headphone outs to a pair of FRFRs wedges in front of me on each side of the main wedge for monitoring the rest of the band. The Stomp's main outs go to FOH. My guitar is mostly in the middle and the stereo effect is for chorus and reverbs and the occasional pan effects like ping-pong delays. The use of two wedges also gives me an extra 3 db (SPL) of output and therefore more headroom.

[Schmalle]

I'm a big Deep Purple fan. Their guitarist Simon McBride has a stereo setup that might be inspiring for you:

 

 

Listen to this with headphones to experience when / how much he uses stereo.

[codamedia]

I always sent a MONO signal to the FOH and let the tech position it as he needs. He can add some stereo delay, or some stereo reverb if he wants, he can pan the guitar left/right/center as he feels he needs to... but he does have instructions not to go drastic. 

 

As an listener, I prefer MONO live as well. I want to hear the MIX regardless of my ticket being LEFT/CENTER/RIGHT in the room. 

 

On 11/24/2024 at 5:39 AM, theElevators said:

Stereo sound is easier in terms of mixing, as you can SLIGHTLY pan instruments left/right, so they would not all be clashing together.  I'm not making this up, several pro sound guys told me they prefer stereo guitar signals. 

 

I tend to agree, a slight separation is nice. But you don't need a stereo signal to PAN the guitar a little to the left or right!