Keyboard output to stereo speakers - to mic - to PA

[DominoS]

I'm brand new to this forum, so not sure if this has been covered before..

 

Korg Krome - Sounds awesome on headphones, but loses those stereo qualities when output to a mono PA system.

 

I'm thinking about sending left output to a powered speaker, and right output to another powered speaker.

Separate the two speakers a few feet apart, and then place a microphone in the middle of them, and send mic output to the PA system.

I'm wondering if the PA system would capture the "stereo effect"?

Has anyone ever tried this?

 

Thanks.

Dom

[Stokely]

You'd need two mics....and two signals from them to the PA. But if that PA is mono, it will just sum those two signals down to mono.

 

Now it's possible that the Krome doesn't do a great job of making mono from its patches--we've had discussions here before--but you aren't ever going to get stereo in a mono PA. Some people bring both outputs out of some keyboards into a small mixer, then let the mixer sum them to mono; that may or may not sound different or better than what the keyboard is doing with it's "mono" output.

 

Plus I suspect a miked signal from a speaker is not going to sound very good. I reckon it's going to sound like you are playing in a box.

 

Bottom line, yes most keyboards don't sound near as good in mono. I like to monitor myself in stereo in my in-ears (this helps with the other instruments also) when our old PA mixer only had one channel for me. I make sure to test all my patches in mono to make sure there isn't a big volume drop or timbre change. Sometimes the fancy stereo can cancel out in mono, especially effects--that may be what you are hearing now.

 

Best bet would be to take patches you like and work in mono at home to try to make them sound better, knowing that the PA has that limitation. Or get a new PA

[AnotherScott]

Picking up from Stokely's post, stereo always requires 2 signal sources, going to 2 destinations. Meaning...

 

...If you're using a single mono mic, you get mono, regardless of whether the thing it's mic'ing up is mono or stereo.

 

...if you're using a mono PA, you get mono, regardless of whether you send it mono or stereo sources.

[El Lobo]

I send my L and R outs to 2 QSC K8 speakers. As others have said, if you want stereo keyboard in the PA, you need to have a stereo PA. I've done this before where the sound guy takes a stereo direct from my keyboard to the house system while I also send my stereo outs to my K8's so I'm in my own speakers as monitors and stereo is also in the house mains and monitors. You need a stereo direct box to do that, also called a DI box (for direct inject).

[CowboyNQ]

I use a Krome and it definitely sounds better in stereo. A lot of the built in patches have stereo FX.

 

This being said, I monitor in mono. It"s not terrible and I can live with it if I know I"m going stereo to FOH.

 

Ditch the mic - it won"t achieve anything other than (possibly) feedback.

[Baldwin Funster]

The OP would be better off monitoring himself with his stereo powered speaker setup and send mono to the FOH and not worry about what the PA sounds like. I call it separation of responsibility. I'm a musician at that gig not the soundman. That's all you can do until the FOH is stereo so why worry about it.

[CowboyNQ]

The OP would be better off monitoring himself with his stereo powered speaker setup and send mono to the FOH and not worry about what the PA sounds like. I call it separation of responsibility. I'm a musician at that gig not the soundman. That's all you can do until the FOH is stereo so why worry about it.

 

I take your point here but I"m always happy to have slightly inferior mono monitoring (and I do mean slightly) as long as the paying punters get stereo.

 

I do agree with your philosophy that once the sound leaves my personal mixer it"s FOH"s problem, not mine. But I do like to give the soundy a fighting chance of success.

[Stokely]

Problem for a lot of us is that "FOH" means "us" We run sound from stage.

 

So it's good to check patches to make sure they don't change drastically when going from stereo to mono if you are in that situation.

 

I'm currently jumping through hoops a bit to get stereo monitoring, while FOH gets mono. It's a stereo PA but I'm fighting for a spot in our mixer, I've won the spot finally and so hopefully will be stereo and stereo!

[MotiDave]

OP would be better off getting a DI box and running either one or two lines to the PA vs using mic"s. There are DIs that can send dual (stereo) feeds THRU to two PPA monitors while summing a mono on the XLR out if you only have one PA channel (or PA is mono). I have this one

 

Samson MCD2