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  • How to MONO a VIPRO ?

    What is the simplest (or best way) to have Vienna Instruments Pro send a MONO signal ? I am in Logic 9 and trying to have my oboe in MONO mode. For some reason i can only instantiate a stereo version of VIPRO... Is collapsing the audio image using powerpan the same as mono ? thanks for taking me out of my "misery" and sorry for this seemingly elementary question but i just can't find the solution. thanks in advance to my saviour !

  •  If you narrow the width in power pan to minimum, you the have a mono signal. Though it is still a 2 channel signal (that is now the same in both channels).  It's been a while since I used Logic, but I am sure, like Cubase you can pick a MONO audio channel strip, in which case either Left or Right would then be the same signal.


  • Thanks for this insight. However, as you say, Powerpan collapsing the signal combines the stereo channel of VI PRO and sends the resulting signal into two identical signal BOTH left and right. But what i am hoping for is to have ONLY either the right OR left of the signal but NOT both. It's a long debate but i find that panning solo wind instrument (in particular) is better if the signal is truly mono ( in other words... as if the samples thenselves had been RECORDED mono). If i may say it another way... i find the musical expression clearer and more "natural" if these solo instruments (not ensemble instruments) are truly mono and not he result of collapsing a prerecorded stereo sample into a mono one. I consider myself quite at ease with Logic... it's been 8 years now... but just cannot see how to instantiate a VIPRO solo wind instrument and have JUST either the left OR right channel of the stereo samples of the flute, for example. Any suggestions ? thanks in advance.

  • If you use the Logic pan control on a stereo channel if it is fully left you will only hear the left channel information. But I think what you want to do is to reduce the width of the instrument fully to mono and then pan it where you want.

    To do this you can use the individual power panners in VI pro - unfortunately you have to enter the same pan settings in the power pans for EVERY single articulation in your matrix - a very time consuming process. I have asked on numerous occassions for VSL to add a main output power pan control which would address this short-coming (true stereo panning is not possible in Logic but is with VSL power-pan controls) but unfortunately this hasn't, as yet, been adopted.

    It is not possible to use the stereo direction mixer plug-in for the same purpose as when you reduce the width to mono you loose the ability to pan it.

    You ask if it is possible to have only the left or right channel of say a stereo flute sample - you can achieve this by routing the stereo output of the software instrument channel to aux 1 and 2 then using the aux 1 pan control to place it where you want. This would not really be best practice as you will not get all the full information of the flute - any notes not centre will not be at their correct volume.

    To use VSL stereo samples in panned mono mode you can adopt the following process. 

    1. Insert stereo VIPRO in software instrument channel strip

    2. Below VIPRO insert Logic plug-in imaging/direction mixer and set spread to zero

    3. Use the channel pan control to pan what is now a totally mono signal to the position you want.

    You may want to check Logic  File/Project Settings/Audio to uncheck <<apply pan law compensation to stereo balancers>> then although a stereo channel it will behave and produce reults exactly like a mono channel.

    Julian


  • Julian thank you much for this thorough explanation. You extracted me in a snap out of the difficulty while pointing at a few other ways to consider the problem. i have just tried your last solution and it hits the nail for me. Finally got to "understand" the pan law thing a bit deeper as well. May i ask you further: fooling around with logics plug i also tried this: 1. insert stereo VIPRO in software instrument channel strip 2. insert Logic plug-in utility/gain and press the mono button on this plug-in 3. using the balance knob ON the plug-in you have a choice between left OR right of the stereo samples. is this correct and the same as using direction mixer ? thanks again so much for taking the time to explain. Stephane

  • Hi Spephane,

    The utility gain has a pan control which reduces the volume of the channel you "pan" away from. So if you have panned fully left it has reduced the output of the right channel to zero. The mono button is after the pan control so if you pan fully left and activate mono you end up with the left channel only at equal level on both channels (centre image).

    If you ever want to check how an imaging tool affects your signal you can take 2 mono instrument channels in Logic and insert the oscillator in both of them. Pan one channel fully left the other right, select a high tone on one oscillator low on the other and route both channels to the same stereo output. Now you can insert various plug-ins and panning controls and see the effect they have. You will find the "pan" control on a stereo channel does not actually pan the signals - just reduces the channel you pan away from - which is not quite the same as the great VSL power-pan with which you can select the width required then pan it maintaining the levels of both left and right sources but positioning the centre of the image where you want.

    Be perfect if they put one of these on the main output of VIPRO  (please!)

    All the best 

    Julian


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    @nox said:

    i find that panning solo wind instrument (in particular) is better if the signal is truly mono ( in other words... as if the samples thenselves had been RECORDED mono).
    The problem is that most of these sample libraries (Play, VSL) are in fact NOT recorded in mono, so no matter how you slice it you will be "down-mixing" the stereo image if you insist on mono. ;)

  • Indeed the libraries you mention are recorded stereo (notable exception DImension Brass by VSL). However by experimenting with various approaches there is a way to either use the right OR left portion of theses stereo samples... the Powerpan plug in particular can be configured for that use. In the end you get a very clearly located instrument and it seems to me to focus the articulation in better ways, musically speaking... especially on truly monophonic instruments like solo winds, brass or strings. This is almost obligatory on very busy passages where everybody wants to be heard at the same time...clarifies a great deal the mix and the situation... after experimenting a bit with VSL solo winds and brass in MONO i just can't come back to the stereo. Thanks a lot to everyone who commented and helped me on this.