Ahoy there.
I was playing around with some patches in the editor and started to wonder about the behaviour of the audio inputs on the Big Genes. They are labelled as Left and Right input, respectively and in the editor a stereo input or the individual left and right inputs can be patched to stereo effects. What happens if there is only one mono input (typically on the left channel)? Is BG internally normalised so that the right channel gets a copy of the left if nothing is patched in? Or can this be done in the editor? I checked in the editor but could not find any object that looked like a mono to stereo converter. I may have used the wrong search term, though. And finally, if there is hardware normalisation, which is the best way to utilise this in the editor? Using the audio/in left (or right) objects or the audio/in stereo object?
Thanks in advance,
jcw
Correct, if nothing is inserted in the right input, the right signal is normalised to the left in hardware (i.e. the left signal is forwarded to the right).
The main idea is so that stereo patches will work with both mono and stereo sources and you don’t have to modify and re-upload patches all the time.
Best example would be a stereo in, stereo out reverb - most Euro signals like filter or VCA output etc. are (still) mono… with normalisation you get the full reverb and not just a “left channel” version of it.
So it really depends how you plan your patches to work - a single mono/stereo in, or something like two independent mono in chains.
If mono/stereo, you’d probably use an in stereo in either case (for the above-mentioned flexibility).
If two mono chains, there is of course less flexibility due to the hardware normalisation. If there there is a chance you’ll only use one chain, it should be through the right input. Otherwise if you use the left but not the right chain, you get the mono signal pushed through both chains. (Unless you insert a dummy plug) Hope this makes sense!
Now I am wondering if I should add a little solder jumper so users can break the hardware normalisation…