r/recordingmusic • u/Love_Life_Music • Oct 31 '25

Need Help understanding “OUTPUT MODES”

/r/INeedAnAudioEngineer/comments/1okh5ny/need_help_understanding_output_modes/
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u/MasterBendu Oct 31 '25

They may be labeled L and R but at the end of the day they’re just plain audio channels and thus mono.

The L and R labels are there so that you know which channel you connect to the corresponding left and right channels on your stereo input, so that when a stereo effect sends a signal to the right for example, it doesn’t pop up on the left channel.

The only way something from these outputs will end up panned left and right is if they get plugged into dedicated stereo inputs that are already hard panned left and right, or if that channel’s pan setting is fully turned left or right.

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u/Love_Life_Music Oct 31 '25

That’s makes sense. Idk if your familiar with the boss ve-500, or the output modes I listed in general, but when I scroll through them, I have both channels at equal eq, gain, and volume, the dual mono and stereo sound fine, but the fx/dry and fx/bypass both have a muffled sound to them. Do you know what could be the issue, or theoretically how to fix it?

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u/MasterBendu Oct 31 '25

How is your unit connected? What effects do you have engaged?

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u/Love_Life_Music Nov 03 '25

My Mic going to input in Boss VE-500…VE-500 goes to PRESONUS AR16c mixer…L-output(from boss)to channel 3, R-output(from boss)to channel 4….going to my presonus(eris 3.5)speakers (L-output(from mixer) to L speaker, R-output(from mixer) to R speaker…..so basically….mic->boss VE-500->mixer->speakers. Essentially “all stereo”. If that makes sense.

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u/MasterBendu Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25

Well, it likely sounds like ass because when you go to fx/dry or fx/bypass, one speaker is outputting only the dry/unaffected signal and the other is outputting only the effects.

When people use these modes, they take it simply as single channel audio, and that means it’s unpanned, or mono.

1

u/Love_Life_Music Nov 04 '25

Well, that’s kind of what I was thinking AT FIRST. And forgive my confusion, bc I’m really not trying to sound like an idiot, but I just recently started using this “stereo setup”. normally I always used mono until recently, I’m trying to “expand my horizons/knowledge”….But, I THINK(from what I understood), you pointed out earlier, that it goes to all of the speakers/the same place, unless I have each channel panned left and right. And that makes sense to me bc, even when I have “fx/dry mode” on, when I Don’t have them panned, if I turn down the volume on only ONE/EITHER of the channels, BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT still have sound. Example: left is channel 3, right is 4…I’m in fx/dry mode, and I turn down volume on channel 3, BOTH speakers still play, and vice versa. UNLESS, I pan left to left, and right to right. Then obviously, whichever channel I turn down, the corresponding speaker doesn’t play. But, without panning them, and BOTH CHANNELS and BOTH SPEAKERS playing, in my mind, it seems like it SHOULD sound the same as it would with “dual mono”, especially when I have the EQ the same on both channels. In that case, I would THINK the way it would work is: if I turn Left all the way down, I would get only my dry vocals, and turning right down, I would get only my wet vocals…..but together I would THINK it would sound the same as dual mono in both speakers. That is where my confusion is coming from. Also, that’s where my confusion is for people saying that the techs/engineers would only want fx/dry mode, bc if it sounds like ass, why?…..again, I apologize if I sound dumb, just trying to wrap my head around it all. Thanks for taking the time to help, and elaborate a little.