Stereo Vs Dual Mono

Depends on the material. If it’s two different acoustic guitars, I definitely prefer dual mono. If it’s something like OHs, stereo is better. If I only had one option though, it would be dual mono.

Same here, my mastering comps can be dual mono or linked stereo, and I keep them dual mono 99% of the time.

The reason I thought of the question was I just tracked a piano stereo pair then sent them to a buss panned to say 11 and 2:30, maybe even narrower than that, and I'm finding that I prefer stereo.  But yeah, I meant the question to be broad.  So is there a consensus for dual mono on the 2-buss?

In the plugin world, you can achieve that with a mult to two compressors, right?

Given only one option, Dual-mono would be my choice.

M57 I don't think so. I mean, maybe it is splitting hairs, but the way the VCA works is there is a timing portion on the RMS detector which sets the attack and release behavior of the RMS output. When a signal comes in, this capacitor or circuit determines what RMS signal level is sent to the sidechain, which of course is what determines the compression voltage applied to the VCA.

When you have two RMS detectors set up for true RMS power summing they share a single timing capacitor / circuit, and typically one RMS output is used for both sidechains.

I don't know exactly how API is "sharing" the timing capacitor between them, because the manual says that each channel is always only controlled by its individual detector. It's not a blend of individual compressed channels, it is a blend of the signal that causes the compression.

In stereo link mode a hard hit on the left channel causes the same duck on the left and right channel. In 50% mode, the duck on the left ducks the same, but the right only halfway participates. In independent, the right doesn't get compressed at all (other than how hard that sound was heard by the right mic). That's not quite the same as what you're describing.

What spurred this, Im guessing....that now any AU in Logic can be configured as Mid/side, dual mono controls linked, dual mono control indepednet, or stereo. So whatevr AU you have is now all of the above. 

Just want to state the obvious, but if you mic a source with a true stereo near-coincident etc technique, then it will usually sound best and still have a strong center when hard panned.

Conversely if you mic two sources and treat them as stereo, then hard panned sometimes sounds too much (like with Glyn Johns overheads). Because it's not really stereo and the center image is off.

The funny thing is that dual mono will sound best when you have a stereo-miked source because the balance is already there or a natural presentation of an ensemble in a room/hall (like divided strings) that you don't want to change, but sometimes I use linked stereo when I want drums to sound a little narrower with hard panned or half-panned mono sources.

So the narrowing effect of stereo-linking seems most appropriate to me for a bunch of non-stereo sources that need to be reined in on a sub bus.

I almost always prefer dual mono otherwise. But I also like real stereo sources where possible, and I don't care when an overall mix is lopsided, it can sound cool.

The thing with stereo vs dual mono is how is the stereo detecting ? Dual mono can kill a stereo spread, but so can a stereo that keys on one channel.
I’ll say it depends on the situation and program, but take the time to figure out how your stereo or linked comps are detecting, use some tones and play around.