. Filmmakers & Their Sound: Stereo vs. Mono What's the difference? Stereo vs. Mono During the film production process you may be faced with various sound options. These may be settings within your microphone or camera during production or they may be manipulated after the fact (i.e. flattening a stereo sound into a mono sound). For starters, one isn’t necessarily any better than the other one. They both have drawbacks and advantages and they should be used in different circumstances depending on your desired effect. The major difference is that stereo sound has two channels and mono sound has one. To help you visualize what this means let’s imagine that we are at a concert and there is one singer on the right side of the stage and a violin player on the left side of the stage. If the sound was recorded in stereo, the audience would be able to identify the direction of the sound during playback. The sound of the singer’s voice would come from the right speaker and the violin would come from the left speaker. If the concert was recorded on a mono system, the sounds would be merged together and the sound coming out of both speakers would be identical. Mono or “monophonic” describes a system where all the audio signals are mixed together and routed through a single audio channel. Mono systems can have multiple loudspeakers and even multiple widely separated loudspeakers. The key difference is that the mono system signal does not contain level and arrival time/phase information that would replicate or simulate directional cues. True stereo or “stereophonic” sound systems have two independent audio signal channels and the signals that are reproduced have a specific level and phase relationship to each other so that when played back through a suitable reproduction system, there will be an apparent image of the original sound source. Stereo would be a requirement if there is a need to replicate the aural perspective and localization of instruments on a stage or platform, a very common requirement for many films.   Continue Below... Film Sound: Stereo vs. Mono Good Microphones for Filmmakers Microphone Types Choosing the Right Microphone       .

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