Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with stereo and mono

Left ear: melody. Right ear: harmony. More, please!

Sweetie Darling — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:11:13 -0800

Left ear: melody. Right ear: harmony. More, please! In an effort to increase my personal safety, I'm walking the dog in the morning with only one earbud in. It's been fun to shuffle through my iPod and get the occasional song where the music I hear in one ear is markedly different than what you hear when listening with the other ear. It seems to happen mostly with mid- to late-'60s songs - Mamas & Papas, CSN, Grateful Dead.

So as I walk, I wonder:
- Was that production style a trend specifically in that era? Did it have to do with the transition from mono to stereo? Why did people stop doing this?
- Can you give me any more examples of artists and/or songs that utilize this technique (any era, any style)? It's kind of fun to listen with one ear, then the other. I think I'm learning more about harmony, which is kind of cool.

Thanks!

How can I record speech in stereo?

featherboa — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 04:53:32 -0800

Oh, how I wish I could record in stereo, but as things stand, it's looking like it's going to have to be a mono-podcast. Help me get into both channels. So, I'd like to start podcasting, and I've been experimenting this week, but at the moment I can only seem to record in mono (coming through the left channel).

I'm using an old Peavey dynamic mic from my days as a singer, which has an XLR cable to 6.3mm jack, which in turn is plugged into a 6.3mm to 3.5mm converter, that goes into an iMic which is stuck in the USB port of my iBook G4 (OS 10.3.9). I've tried Garageband and Audacity, but nothing gets recorded in the right channel. Even though I've told it to record in stereo.

Is it something in my set-up that's causing the problem, and are there any get-arounds? Is there some way I could copy what's in the left to the right to give the impression of stereo sound? Would it work better if I went through my amp and then to the imic's phono input?

I'm not that technically skilled and I've only ever used Audacity to trim recordings down, so this is a bit beyond my capabilities, but I want to learn!

Stereo to mono?

LordSludge — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 12:47:57 -0800

Seeking a freeware MS Windows Media Player plug-in to play stereo mp3s as mono. I very often listen to mp3s using only one ear-bud headphone, but I only get one channel, left or right. Is there a free plug-in that will play my stereo mp3s as mono? If I can't find a software solution, I'll just get hardware 1/8" plug adapter, just curious...

iPod with Hearing Aid

luriete — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 11:03:21 -0800

My father is thinking about buying an iPod. One problem though is that he has a hearing aid in one ear (90% hearing loss in one ear due to a childhood ear infection), and he'd like in-ear 'phones, like those that come with the ipod, with independent volume control - so he can turn one ear off, and shunt the stereo > mono when he has the hearing aid in, and turn one way up when he has the hearing aid out. Any ideas?