# Why doesn't modern recorded music use the stereo effect much anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285 "2011-12-24T15:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/1 "2011-12-24T15:40:35Z")
I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music recorded in the 50’s & 60’s. I’m loving their use of the stereo effect. They’ll have totally different music in each channel. Chorus might be in the right and the lead in the left. Then they’ll change it up. Or even better the leads will answer each other in each channel. 😛 Its very stimulating and fun listening to music that takes full advantage of stereo. Why is the modern stuff (1980-) so boring? A lot of times you forget its stereo because the identical stuff is blaring out of each channel. Are modern music producers too lazy to use stereo in a creative way? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/2 "2011-12-24T15:53:01Z")
Good question. I know I miss quadraphonic. Now that was some cool hippie shit right there. Ohh, I recently heard a cool commercial. It was some kind of public service announcement about bad drivers or drunk driving or some such. When the announcer was telling the bad driver what they wanted to hear it was on the drivers side speaker only. When it was what the passenger needed to hear , something like “you know he’s gonna kill ya right?”, it was only on the right speaker and said in a whispery kind of tone. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/3 "2011-12-24T16:15:37Z")
Most modern recording do use stereo, but not panned quite as hard as some of those old records (where Ringo would be in one ear, but Paul or John would be in the other.) Generally, these days, vocals are mixed dead center, drums are usually mixed by how they would be placed in relation to the listener, bass is fairly central, and the guitars are often panned much harder to one ear or the other. Personally, I think most of the “creative stereo” mixing of the 60s sounds like crap. I mean, for what good reason do you want to pan the drums 100% to one speaker and the vocals 100% to the other? Blech. Gimme the mono mixes of those. > [@](#): > > Why is the modern stuff (1980-) so boring? A lot of times you forget its stereo because the identical stuff is blaring out of each channel. Except it’s not identical. It’s creating a 3D sound space, recreating, for instance, the feel of where the instruments are placed in relation to the listener. There is a clear, clear difference between going from stereo to mono mode when I listen to modern recordings. It’s just that modern mixing has some sensibility in regards to stereo separation and doesn’t bludgeon you over the head with “Hey, look at me! I’m in stereo!” type of mixing. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/4 "2011-12-24T16:16:57Z")
I asked this question once at a stereo store. The answer I got was that producers exaggerated the effect when stereo was new and faddish because that’s what customers wanted to hear. Over time they stopped doing it because they felt that less separation was musically better. I think that makes sense. In addition, many early records were recorded in mono. For stereo release they were redone using rechanneled stereo. This artificially separated highs and lows, or put voices on one side and instruments on the other or whatever they could fake. Purists hated it then and it sounds even more phony today. But I’m old enough to remember the cool effects from 60s stereo and miss them too. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/5 "2011-12-24T16:27:26Z")
Back when stereo first came out, it was a novelty, and the producers (and the geeks that had stereo systems while all their friends were still using “Hi-Fi”) loved to show off and say, “Look at my new toy.” When the novelty wore off, stereo recordings started being used for what the inventors originally envisioned – creating a realistic acoustic environment that accurately re-creates the original. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/6 "2011-12-24T16:43:51Z")
I think also there is much higher use of ear and headphones these days and splitting tracks so obviously to the left or right channel is not to everyone’s taste. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/7 "2011-12-24T17:35:52Z")
Stereo: the autotune of its day. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/8 "2011-12-24T17:36:39Z")
A session musician friend of mine just made a good point too: “it also sounds terrible in dopey bars where they put the speakers in different rooms.” ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/9 "2011-12-24T17:37:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I asked this question once at a stereo store. The answer I got was that producers exaggerated the effect when stereo was new and faddish because that’s what customers wanted to hear. Over time they stopped doing it because they felt that less separation was musically better. > > I think that makes sense. In addition, many early records were recorded in mono. For stereo release they were redone using rechanneled stereo. This artificially separated highs and lows, or put voices on one side and instruments on the other or whatever they could fake. Purists hated it then and it sounds even more phony today. > > But I’m old enough to remember the cool effects from 60s stereo and miss them too. exactly this. it happened again when they tried pushing DVD-Audio. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/10 "2011-12-24T17:40:09Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music recorded in the 50’s & 60’s. I’m loving their use of the stereo effect. They’ll have totally different music in each channel. Chorus might be in the right and the lead in the left. Then they’ll change it up. Or even better the leads will answer each other in each channel. 😛 > > Its very stimulating and fun listening to music that takes full advantage of stereo. > > Why is the modern stuff (1980-) so boring? A lot of times you forget its stereo because the identical stuff is blaring out of each channel. > > Are modern music producers too lazy to use stereo in a creative way? stereo (or multi-channel) is IMO most useful when the recording is of a live performance, and then only to get close as possible to the original placement of the performers. Justin Katy Gaga really has no reason to worry about that since vocals and bass have almost always been center-panned, and what’s the point of stereo separation when the background music is all electronic anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/11 "2011-12-24T17:41:15Z")
On The Ramones’ first album, 100% of the bass is in the left channel, and 100% of the guitar is in the right channel. (Play with your speakers’ balance settings while listening to [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K56soYl0U1w).) I love the effect. Though I’ve never played it through a headphone or ear buds. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/12 "2011-12-24T17:53:55Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > what’s the point of stereo separation when the background music is all electronic anyway? 😕 Because you’re still trying to create a sense of depth and space in your soundscape. Why _wouldn’t_ stereo apply to electronic music? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/13 "2011-12-24T19:26:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 😕 Because you’re still trying to create a sense of depth and space in your soundscape. obviously they aren’t, else this thread wouldn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/14 "2011-12-24T19:36:24Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I think also there is much higher use of ear and headphones these days and splitting tracks so obviously to the left or right channel is not to everyone’s taste. No kidding. Drums and Guns by Low is a beautiful album but nigh unlistenable via headphones because of their use of channels. ---
**Author:** ![loshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/15 "2011-12-24T19:47:10Z")
When I was a kid I thought it was so cool that I could sit dead middle in front of my grandmother’s console stereo and listen to Ella Fitzgerald scat her way from left to right and back again. Now, I have to go look it up and see if I can get the same effect on earbuds. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/16 "2011-12-24T20:41:52Z")
> [@loshan](#): > > When I was a kid I thought it was so cool that I could sit dead middle in front of my grandmother’s console stereo and listen to Ella Fitzgerald scat her way from left to right and back again. > Now, I have to go look it up and see if I can get the same effect on earbuds. Lots and lots of 60s songs did this. The one I remember best is Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” in which the guitar slides back and forth on one fantastic chord - right through your head on headphones, and still groovy when played loudly on speakers. That’s a \*\*cool \*\*effect that was perfect for the song. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/17 "2011-12-24T20:55:12Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > obviously they aren’t, else this thread wouldn’t exist. Obviously they are. Have you listened to Lady Gaga or any Top 40 on headphones? There’s plenty of stereo separation going on. I think the OP is talking about the crazy, wild, experimental type of stereo panning. But you even get some of that effect, _especially_ in electronic music, with sounds panning from left to right and back in your ears to create a “swirling” type of sound pattern. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/18 "2011-12-24T22:34:39Z")
Okay, I have a lot of musician friends and asked this on Facebook. Hence my various replies! I’m told this is generally the case with mono recordings on early 4 tracks that are later remixed into stereo. Because there are only 4 channels they have to be divvied up quite widely to create the stereo effect. With so few tracks to work with, it’s impossible to be subtle and still make something different enough to be worth reselling to people. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/19 "2011-12-24T22:47:58Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Okay, I have a lot of musician friends and asked this on Facebook. Hence my various replies! I’m told this is generally the case with mono recordings on early 4 tracks that are later remixed into stereo. Because there are only 4 channels they have to be divvied up quite widely to create the stereo effect. With so few tracks to work with, it’s impossible to be subtle and still make something different enough to be worth reselling to people. I agree with all the posts in this thread so far except this one. It doesn’t matter how many tracks you have to start. They can be panned full left/right or only partially, and that doesn’t include phase changes that can be introduced if you want more control or effect. It is quite possible to be subtle or crudely obvious. At one time, when stereo was new, mixes often were strongly L/R channel. That doesn’t approximate the live experience of listing to a band, which is the more common mix nowadays. After all, your ears are only a few inches apart, and the signal your left ear receives at a live concert is almost the same as your right ear. Styles change, in audio mixing as everything else. For a humorous treatment of this topic, watch [“Leopard Skin Phones,”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWf0YBhcelA&feature=fvsr) by Spanky & Our Gang, ca. 1968, on the Smothers Brothers TV show. Sadly, the audio on this clip appears to be in mono! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285/20 "2011-12-24T23:03:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 😕 Because you’re still trying to create a sense of depth and space in your soundscape. Why _wouldn’t_ stereo apply to electronic music? Depth and space only exist when you can localize a point where the audio is coming from. The modern effects are generally only used to keep the parts separate, or as an effect. At least, I can’t remember the last bit of electronic music that was trying to give you a sense of where each instrument is located. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-modern-recorded-music-use-the-stereo-effect-much-anymore/607285.md?page=2)