Um, no.

What you describe above is known as a "binaural" recording. The binaural recording, once quite popular, was the attempt to recreate the actual exact sound of a performance, inclusive of the room acoustics. That kind of recording is hard to find today and has fallen by the wayside for all but the smallest group of purists in favor of the Stereo recording, which is quite a different animal entirely.

The old stereophonic method of recording an orchestra with the two mics positioned at a measured "3 to 2" distance is no longer done. Instead there is a lot of close mic'ing and multitracking, bringing in the Mix Engineer to create a sound that is larger than the actual. Richer, some might say.

We can take advantage of that when playing live with MIDI or AutoAccompaniment keyboards and the like, panning the instruments across the soundstage to force the perception that the bass player is standing "stage right" while the horn player is over on the left, etc. We can also take advantage of the fact that there are two separated amplifier and speaker systems at work, one reproducing mostly one instrument or so, the other side duplicating the rest. This can help the system be able to handle transients easier, which can translate to a clarity of sound. Even before the pair of Bose Compacts came into my life, I ran a true Stereo front in the small to medium venue clubs -- and always got compliments on our sound as compared to other acts that played the same places. Besides that, my MIDI synths all feature Stereo pianos, which I love to keep that way and the most critical part of the equation to me -- Leslie rotating speaker simulation, which can NOT sound proper at all from a mono source. I needs me some motion, some FM as well as AM going on when the B3 patch calls for some spin. In mono, every single Leslie emulator out there sounds like a sick and weak tremelo.




While this is true for the lower frequencies, a bass guitar or plucked bass fiddle does not make all of its energy "down there" where the directionality is not apparent to the human ear. You can easily use your ears to locate the bass player on teh soundstage due to the *note initiations* -- the ATTACK of the note, the "pluck" -- which is spread out above the range of nondirectionality. As high as the 5K mark. Matter of fact, it is the pluck marks that give the bass part its definition. Filter them out and you get a mushy mess of a bass sound not appropriate for any modern music that I know of. (This is also why accomplished B3 players who play the walking bass with the LH also kick one of the pedals at the initiation of each bass note -- typically a tritone away from the root of the current chord -- because it mimics the pluck of the bass string and adds that all-important definition to the part.)



Did you know that the original stereo diesing consisted of three channesl, L, R and Middle? It was indeed more accurate, especially for recreating those Binaural recordings. However, the mfrs deemed it too expensive and, afraid that customers of the day would not be willing to invest the cost of three amplifiers and three speaker systems, they cut it back to only two.



In my setup, Left and Right stereo outputs from my keyboards and MIDI synths get fed Stage Left and Stage Right accordingly. Internal Pans are left at default, typically the 12 oclock mark.



I think I've already explained what the real difference here is. You are confusing Stereo amplification with a true Binaural Recording.



I haven't seen a mono mixer worth using in decades. So that's a nonproblem.



You said it, I didn't, now govern yourself accordingly.