How do you pan live when you go FOH?

Sometimes hard left and right and sometimes 84% left and right, and sometimes just center. Depends on the song and where the guitar needs to be in the stereo field.

For live I use mono for recording I use stereo panning usually 100% left / right

Quote from JoshuaL1

How do you pan left and right when going straight to FOH

Plain mono for live - doesn't really make sense for me to have a stereo guitar signal if the guitarist stands on one side of the stage

Also, most (smaller) locations we play in run mono anyhow.

even bigger locations will make a mono mix

I always run mono as to all of the other guitar players I know. I will pan my guitar slightly to the opposite side of the stage if I have an amp on the stage with me to try to balance out the room. If there are two guitar players with speakers on the stage facing forward I pan them a little to the opposite side to help hear both instruments equally out front. If both are running a direct mono signal I leave them dead center.

Quote from JoshuaL1

all the stereo effects like delay or chorus or even double tracker would be useless no?

I make absolutely sure that my delay and chorus settings are mono compatible (had some nasty experiences with a chorus that completely disappeared when summed to mono...). But sure: no ping-pong delays pinging across the stage - but delay and chorus will still be there.

Not sure about the double tracker - haven't tested it yet. It should still have an effect, but probably not as pronounced in mono.

Quote from JoshuaL1

same as above, how do you deal with stereo effects tones?

I don't use stereo effects in my signal chains. I stick to mono.

Quote from JoshuaL1

Hard left and hard right

If you have a professional FOH engineer, offer him exactly that. He will tell you what he prefers.

Quote from DonPetersen

even bigger locations will make a mono mix

I think this is a myth ... or at least it lacks the definition of what a "bigger location" is.

I know for sure that (just as examples) Black Sabbath, U2, David Gilmour, Rush, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers do stereo FOH mixes.

Many bigger acts do stereo even though it might not result in being "hard panned", full width stereo. But if you can offer hard panned left & right, the FOH engineer can still narrow it down or even make it mono if he pleases to do so. Don't ever send FOH partly panned stuff, this just makes it troublesome.

As said above, ask and discuss options you (and the FOH engineer) have.

In your output section you can easily and quickly switch from "Master Stereo" to "Master Mono", no big deal if he asks you for a mono signal.

Quote from lightbox

If you have a professional FOH engineer, offer him exactly that. He will tell you what he prefers.

I think this is a myth ... or at least it lacks the definition of what a "bigger location" is.

I know for sure that (just as examples) Black Sabbath, U2, David Gilmour, Rush, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers do stereo FOH mixes.

Many bigger acts do stereo even though it might not result in being "hard panned", full width stereo. But if you can offer hard panned left & right, the FOH engineer can still narrow it down or even make it mono if he pleases to do so. Don't ever send FOH partly panned stuff, this just makes it troublesome.

As said above, ask and discuss options you (and the FOH engineer) have.

In your output section you can easily and quickly switch from "Master Stereo" to "Master Mono", no big deal if he asks you for a mono signal.

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I don't think running mono in a bigger venue is a myth. I have been playing guitar in bands for a good long while as well as running FOH sound for a good while for others and I don't know anyone that is running in stereo, including myself. I know a lot of musicians. Some run their own sound and others hire it out. I also know a fair number of sound guys and nobody I know is running in stereo.

Anytime you have two guitarists performing, you are basically in stereo.

Quote from JEverly

nobody I know is running in stereo

You probably know the wrong ones. All I'm saying is that it's a myth that mono is the common thing even in bigger venues ... believe it or not. Otherwise go and ask Greg Price, Dave Rat, Marc Carolan, Antony King, Big Mick Hughes, Colin Norfield ... and loads more.

If the FOH engineer wants a mono signal from me, I use Master Mono.

If the FOH engineer wants stereo, I use Master Stereo.

Whether I send mono or stereo, the panning of the guitar in FOH is up to the FOH engineer.

BTW - If this question was asked by someone who mixes their own band, I suggest each instrument send a mono signal, and using stereo FOH to pan each instrument toward the opposite side of the FOH, to even out the mix, so anyone in the audience can hear the entire band, no matter where they are in the room. Vocal effects could be in stereo.

Quote from paults

I suggest each instrument send a mono signal

But make sure you're always aware of potential pitfalls with such generalized suggestions.

Just as a simple example: You have a keyboarder who plays the Korg Kronos and he wants to play the Kronos German Grand which has the keys mapped from low (left) to high (right). If you e.g. just send the left channel as a "mono" feed, FOH will not hear the upper keys. You rather send stereo and let the FOH engineer take care of the mono mix if required. Otherwise the keyboarder quickly ends up with 2 sets of patches depending on the venue they play, which is super impractical.

So as always, it depends. Communication is key.

Yes, communication is key.

I *might* know a keyboardist who always sends a stereo signal to FOH. It *might* even happen when I have asked the FOH engineer what he wants, and I am told FOH is mono

I think there's always confusion surrounding the idea of stereo in a live setting.

If the mixer is stereo and you have mono parts panned across the stereo field that's a stereo mix to me. If you send a stereo Kemper feed to that PA and pan L/R you'll get the stereo effects from the Kemper, they will probably pan you a bit or lower the volume on one side as needed.

A purely mono mix is the same thing coming out of both speakers and no panning. That sounds like a mess to me, with everything overlapped.

I use stereo for messing around practicing at home but Mono for live and usually send mono to my DAW for recording. Unless a stereo effect like ping pong delay is a key part of the sound (for me it isn’t) then I add any of the icing in the DAW on a stereo buss later on but keep the raw guitar signal mono. That’s just my tuppenceworth, others may do it differently and get great results. There is more than one way to skin a cat ?