Stereo to mono question

[stixman]

Hi dear friends.........

If anyone can put me right on this i would appreciate it a lot.

My question is this. which is the right /best/correct way of making a stereo virtual instrument track or any stereo audio track a Mono audio track without phase or attenuation problems .?

All my stereo files must be in Mono as its for a live show .

1. recording the stereo track through a mono bus to a mono audio track

2. recording the stereo virtual instrument track onto a stereo track and then splitting the stereo track into mono and keep the left side and pan that center.

3. recording the stereo virtual instrument track to a stereo audio track and then bouncing that stereo track through the mono (Summed) feature in pro tools.

Thank you so much guys for your time and expertise on this matter.

Happy mixing

Ric

[albee1952]

My 2 cents only;(and much of this depends on what the VI sound is)
If its a sound that is usually handled in mono(like maybe a bass guitar VI), I would simply pan both sides to center and leave it. If I decide to commit it to an audio track, I would then use the Commit function, and assuming it will only commit as a stereo track, I would split out to dual mono and then hide/Make Inactive the stereo version and 1 of the 2 split mono tracks.

Having said that, it raises 2 questions(for me). 1-does it matter(IOW, why not leave it as is)? 2-does panning both sides to center change the sound(other than maybe make it slightly louder)?