damnspynovels Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 I'm curious about recording MD's in mono for a little project I'm giving myself. I just bought the Beatles mono vinyl box set, and figured I'd record to MD for portable purposes. I've spun a few of the albums so far and, all placebo aside, they really are fantastic. There's been a lot of chatter however about the fact most people (myself included) will be playing them on stereo gear. No issue generally, but it does mean that any ambient surface noise etc will be reproduced in stereo - which contributes a lot to the noise floor being louder than it would be if you had a pure mono cartridge or mono sim switch on the amp, neither of which i have. there's a cheap trick, which involves using two Y-shaped RCA cables between the turntable and amp that basically crushes the signal into pure mono before it's amplified. I don't have such cables. But I wondered if recording in mono on MD is much the same thing. the obvious benefit to recording in mono is space (i.e. double), but that's not an issue. I'm going to do this, unless anyone suggests I shouldn't... is there any audible reason why I shouldn't record a mono source, reproduced on stereo gear, with the mono setting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 The only issue I ever ran into of this kind is related to codecs (LP4, not sure if I can generalise) which use joint stereo. A perfectly good stereo signal with a mono announcer comes out really badly, generating weird sibilants on the mono voice. LP2 doesn't have this problem, presumably because it's true stereo.So as long as you avoid LP4 I expect mono to work fine. Philippeb says he thinks the mono MD format is a good archival one. I inherited a complete set of Beatles mono MDs though I am not sure how they were made. I am far from being a connoisseur of mono any more but they sound pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddyjollo Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 what about just use one channel from the stereo record player? if its mono then they should be the same? what happens if u just pump a mono signal from one channel into just one phono socket of the md using the mono record settings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippeb Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 I'm going to do this, unless anyone suggests I shouldn't... is there any audible reason why I shouldn't record a mono source, reproduced on stereo gear, with the mono setting?There is no reason why you shouldn't record in mono. Go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damnspynovels Posted October 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 what about just use one channel from the stereo record player? if its mono then they should be the same? what happens if u just pump a mono signal from one channel into just one phono socket of the md using the mono record settings? that's interesting. i wonder what would happen if i pull one channel cable out - presumably the MD set to mono will reproduce it properly. Good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippeb Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 what about just use one channel from the stereo record player? if its mono then they should be the same? what happens if u just pump a mono signal from one channel into just one phono socket of the md using the mono record settings?No. The level of the input signal would decrease. You should use a stereo cable, and set the recorder to mono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damnspynovels Posted October 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 No. The level of the input signal would decrease. You should use a stereo cable, and set the recorder to mono. good to know - thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trott3r Posted October 7, 2014 Report Share Posted October 7, 2014 There are mono cartidges Maybe you can look into them to see if they are worth while with the number of mono recordings you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damnspynovels Posted October 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2014 There are mono cartidges Maybe you can look into them to see if they are worth while with the number of mono recordings you have. ah yes I know. it wouldn't be worth the hassle, but thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.