I know it's a chunk of extra work, zuki, but if you are going for a mono rig for a while, you MIGHT consider re-tweaking your registrations so they work better in mono. You've already noticed that stereo pads and effects, etc. get perceived quite differently in mono...

If you go through your setups, and re-tweak them to correct for what gets lost, then save that whole set as a 'Mono Set', you may not get so discouraged with having to go mono (plus you'll still have a set tweaked for stereo when you go back to that).

Not that that should stop you from getting that second Compact ASAP...

Interesting point comes up, there, DonM.

Currently, I'm coming out of the 'mono' jack on my Korg, but from what you're saying, might there be an improvement coming out of the L and R jacks into a Y adapter to go into my Roland Cube 100? I thought there'd be no difference whether things were summed within the keyboard itself or at the Y adapter. Can you comment, please?

124 listen to both hookups and as you A/B them you will hear a difference.I find summing at the keybord does well for me.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 10-05-2009).]

I don't know about the Korg, but Yamahas definitely sound better to me the way I said. Roland, not so much, but I still feel it sounds a little better.
DonM

Unless you are very careful at making sure both systems (use mono out of the keyboard or sum to mono with a mixer) come out with the EXACT same volume, you can fool yourself into thinking that there is a difference between two things that, if heard under tighter controlled conditions, you might not hear a thing.

Primarily, only the Yamaha PSR series has had any serious accusations of a major difference between the mono out and summing the stereo outs externally. And, as of yet, to my knowledge, no-one has ever done a serious comparison of the two to find out definitively if this IS the case or not...

If I had a PSR, it would take me ten minutes to answer this question definitively. Sad that no Yamaha owners are willing to find out for sure...

I did extensive tests with at least three different Yamahas. The result was that they sound better in stereo, and they sound better when using separate outs, rather than the summed outs, when using mono. They sounded great in mono, but, to me at least, better in stereo.
The difference in the other brands is far less pronounced, if audible at all, once you get a fair distance away.
DonM

If you have the time, it is a piece of cake to empirically test the issue. Record a short SMF of arranger play, maybe something with the piano as lead (seems to be one of the voices that show up problems the quickest).

Now record it to your computer in stereo. Record it one more time using ONLY the mono out. Now sum to mono the stereo file IN THE COMPUTER. Compare the computer mono file to the arranger mono file... (you might also double check to make sure both files have exactly the same peak amplitude, and adjust in the computer if one is a hair louder).

Be great to have a definitive answer to the issue, and this might also give you leverage with Yamaha to get them to change whatever they are doing internally to make the mono such a poor comparison. If it is widely spread around that there REALLY is something wrong with their summing electronics, they might get around to fixing it to beat the bad press...

Worth a try, anyway

So, I suspect that, in general on-the-gig conditions, there'd be no radical difference. Lab results are one thing, on-the-gig results are another. Bit like MPG on cars, then?

Sorry, but lab results ARE on the gig results, but with none of that subjective cr@p thrown in for good measure...

Look, everyone knows you get a certain amount of phase cancellation when you sum things to mono. But how much depends on several factors. How good do the actual stereo samples collapse to mono, and then how good the electronics do the summing.

Yamaha SEEM to have a double whammy, with piano samples and effects that are deliberately (I think) a certain amount out of phase (helps artificially widen the stereo image when heard in stereo - good for the built in speakers), but also, reportedly, poor summing internally. It has been stated many times (and I really have no doubt about the issue), but it WOULD be nice if someone took the few minutes it would take to actually test this out definitively, so we could ALL be aware that you should NEVER hook a PSR up with just the one cord...

So Don, I'm assuming that I should go from my L/R outputs into the RCA stereo Bose ins? Interesting. I thought that regardless of running stereo in, only one speaker will still produce mono? I'm confused. How should I hook this thing up on Friday? The Korg L or R outputs BOTH produce a mono output (according to the manual, it doesn't matter which one to use - btw, the Korg tech desk didn't know) Thanks all.