How to approach mixing stereo tracks
 

I am quite new to pro tools and I am a bit perplexed about mono tracks and stereo tracks. I know how to split a mono to stereo and how to join two mono tracks to create a stereo, but I am unsure when and why to use a mono track, and when and why to use a stereo track?

I have downloaded some clips from puremix and each drum track (kick, snare, hi hat etc.) is a stereo track, and some of the vocals are stereo tracks?

If anybody can tell me why you would choose to use stereo tracks instead of mono that would be great.

Also, how would you pan these tracks when they are in stereo with two pan knobs?

Thanks in advance

Re: How to approach mixing stereo tracks
 

Go back to the source, for example, singers have one mouth = mono, bass and guitars when recorded with one mic or DI = mono, keyboards that have 2 outputs = stereo. Insert a correlation meter on the Master and check out which of those tracks actually have stereo information, if they do (could be reverb for example and the meter will show information in the sides) leave it stereo, if they don't (the meter shows a vertical line only) insert a la PT stock plugin called Downmixer to convert them to mono or simply split into two mono tracks and delete one... That's how I do it here.

Re: How to approach mixing stereo tracks
 

Most of the time, if I get stereo tracks that I know should be mono, I just split into mono and delete the original stereo and one of the monos. One thing I like about Pro Tools is that when creating a new audio track it always defaults to mono, so you have to make an extra click to select stereo. Most things I record from external sources are almost always going to be mono, other than stereo outputs from a synth.

Re: How to approach mixing stereo tracks
 

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated