Why stereo out?

robosardine · Post by **robosardine** » Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:14 pm

Why do the fabled Volcas all have stereo outs if none of them have any panning capabilities?

Cybearg · Post by **Cybearg** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 12:35 am

I like that it is stereo out because the monotron was annoying when you could only hear it out of one headphone. Right? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Either way I have many 1/8 inch to 2 1/4 inch cables I get to use for maybe a wet/dry mix with one output to a guitar pedal?

Maybe it just isn't any cheaper to make a mono out.

DrHoo · Post by **DrHoo** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:07 am

It's a good question though. If you listen to the mix out of the beats, preset at factory, you can tell it probably wouldn't sound the same from a mono jack. Makes me hopeful that future updates or mods will allow panning. What were they thinking not having panning on a drum machine ?

The other two volcas though, why a stereo out for a monosynth ?

robosardine · Post by **robosardine** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 12:22 pm

I have just had to order some stereo mini jack to mono standard jack leads in order to hear it while not wasting an output on my mixer.

tsutek · Post by **tsutek** » Wed Nov 20, 2013 1:39 pm

My guess is that the volca's are targeted towards casual operation / entry-level synthesists? In that context it makes much more sense to use consumer-grade audio I/O like minijacks and output dual mono (so that sounds come out from both speakers / headphones)

For more advanced use cases, it's easy enough to circumvent the issue with proper cables/adaptors..

Tiax · Post by **Tiax** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:19 am

Okay, so I'm a total noob and I'm a bit confused.

What's the best way to plug my Volca into my mixer ? Which cable/adapters should I use ?

EDIT : Something like this ? MINI-JACK STEREO - > JACK MONO ?

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:41 am

It really depends on what you want to do with the signal, I plug mine into a mini stereo mixer via a mini stereo jack lead, then out of the little mixer into my input on the audio interface to PC, which has a stand alone mode for use without a PC. This makes it possible to have the stereo signal all the way to the output. Incidentally I only ever use the headphones out socket on all my synths as its nearly always a cleaner signal irrespective of the benifits of the fact that its stereo.

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:43 am

Oh and if you use that lead above, you will loose the stereo signal at the mixer, the signal would be converted to sub mono and although you hear it out of both speakers/headphones it wont be a tru stereo signal.

Tiax · Post by **Tiax** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:04 pm

Actually I not using a computer in this setup, the Volca are to be plugged into my Allen&Heath ZED14-FX mixer in a mono channel (channels 1 to

, line input.

As those are mono channels, wouldn't it makes sense to use a such a cable (stereo minijack to mono jack) ?

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:33 pm

Tiax wrote:Actually I not using a computer in this setup, the Volca are to be plugged into my Allen&Heath ZED14-FX mixer in a mono channel (channels 1 to , line input.

As those are mono channels, wouldn't it makes sense to use a such a cable (stereo minijack to mono jack) ?

In that case then yes, that cable will work but its bye bye to stereo from the volca's

dswo · Post by **dswo** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:14 pm

analoguekid wrote:In that case then yes, that cable will work but its bye bye to stereo from the volca's

The two channels have exactly the same signal. Stereo-to-stereo will sound just like stereo-to-mono-out-of-two-speakers.

Re-Member · Post by **Re-Member** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:21 pm

dswo wrote:The two channels have exactly the same signal. Stereo-to-stereo will sound just like stereo-to-mono-out-of-two-speakers.

Exactly, haha! I swear, I started reading this thread and half the people posting are totally insane. The output sound is literately the same as using a microphone with a mixer or a connecting a guitar to an amp.

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:12 pm

Re-Member wrote:
dswo wrote:The two channels have exactly the same signal. Stereo-to-stereo will sound just like stereo-to-mono-out-of-two-speakers.
Exactly, haha! I swear, I started reading this thread and half the people posting are totally insane. The output sound is literately the same as using a microphone with a mixer or a connecting a guitar to an amp.

Both Microphone and guitar are mono signals and always will be until you split the signal into 2 x mono left and right via an external FX pedal etc. and then take the output of that FX pedal into TWO mixer channels and pan left and right, you then get (depending on the stereo FX on the pedal) a stereo effect going to whatever amp, PC, speakers/headphones etc.

The only way you can have true stereo is to have two output paths from the sound device going into two channels of the receiving device, whatever that device might be............ so I am very sorry to piss on your parade guys but that's a fact

Re-Member · Post by **Re-Member** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:07 pm

You are indeed correct, but your point is made redundant by the fact that none of the Volcas have panning capabilities. In my set up, running a single mono 3.5 to 1/4 cable to my mixer and listening to it through headphones is the same as listening to the Volcas directly with headphones. You mention "although you hear it out of both speakers/headphones it wont be a tru stereo signal," but again, no panning feature, so what's the point? Even if I used a single mono cable to record directly into a DAW interface, I could easily just convert the audio to be doubled as a stereo track. People have been doing this with guitars for years.

analoguekid · Post by **analoguekid** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:40 pm

Re-Member wrote:You are indeed correct, but your point is made redundant by the fact that none of the Volcas have panning capabilities. In my set up, plugging a single mono 1/4 to 3.5 cable to my mixer and listening to it through headphones is the same as listening to Volcas directly with headphones. You mention "although you hear it out of both speakers/headphones it wont be a tru stereo signal," but again, no panning feature, so what's the point? Even if I used a single mono cable to record directly into a DAW, I could easily just convert the audio to be doubled as a stereo track. People have been doing this with guitars for years.

I haven't actually tried that, in fact I haven't actually listened to the signal direct to headphones to be honest, so I bow to your greater experience.

What I do know is that when I record my Volca Keys from its headphone socket into my Tascam US1800 and assign it as a stereo input, I get two channels of audio and each side has slightly different overtones etc. which leads me to believe that the headphone out on the Volca keys does in fact offer a stereo signal, irrespective of the fact that you cant pan it left or right from the Volca itself.