RE: Why stereo? its a lesser spotted stan......

["Paul Weissman" <paul@nioterra.com>]

> From: Kim Flint [mailto:kflint@loopers-delight.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 5:53 PM
>
> And then I wondered about dance clubs. When people make dance music
> intended for listening, it often obviously uses stereo. Sounds
> nice in the
> headphones, but that is not the real environment for dance music. what
> actually happens in real dance clubs?

no one seemed to answer this bit...

i dj at many different dance venues and at many parties that i've had a 
part
in producing and i haven't encountered a mono system yet, nor have i ever
set up a mono system when responsible for sound.  of course, the quality of
the sound system at parties and clubs varies _immensely_ and given the 
state
people are in when they set these systems up (and given the average
knowledge about sound systems in general) i would doubt they would do
anything but plug the L+R outs of their mixers directly into the L+R of the
sound system.  i'm out dancing often, but usually if the music is good i'm
not exactly in the state of mind to analyze the stereo field quality of the
speaker setup.  ;)

the number one concern, as far as i can tell, for dance music is poorly
mixed and mastered records.  lots of great records pretty much don't hold 
up
in mono.  it would SUCK for a dj to throw in a favorite low budget bootleg
or trashy mix only to have the entire bass line drop out due to phase
cancellation in a mono system.  there's tons of delays type effects, like
chorus, on basslines in dance music.

i've only worked on sound rigs for 1500 or less so i can't tell you waht
larger dance venues do.  there are often rooms where you have speakers in
any of 8 directions from the middle of the floor... i have no idea what 
kind
of mix is in each of those.

paul