If I was cleaning up my VST menus...Stereo, Mono or Stereo/Mono...which versions to keep or hide?

[minminmusic]

Let's say for Waves...they offer all those options. If I was trying to clean up and declutter my menus...which would be the preferred versions to Enable or Disable? If I just stayed with the Stereo versions...what would happen if I placed that on a mono track?

I'm trying to declutter my life...

[bitflipper]

Depends on how the plugin was designed. 10+ years ago, it was common practice to build separate mono and stereo versions of effects. And they were necessary.

Nowadays, it's become normal to design plugins that can distinguish between mono and stereo inputs and won't mess up if you, as the user, guess wrong.

A recurring question that comes up on forums is "why can't I pan this track?". Or worse, "Sonar is BROKEN! Panning doesn't work!" The solutions to such issues always comes down to mixing up mono vs. stereo plugins, mismatched track interleave, or not understanding how a track can switch between mono and stereo within the same signal chain.

Rule of thumb: if a developer offers mono and stereo versions of the same plugin, keep them both installed and be careful to use the appropriate one. 

What happens if you don't use the right one? Sometimes it'll be no big deal. But sometimes, it'll be bad. Worse, it might take you awhile to figure out why it sounds so bad. It's easy enough to test for yourself, which I'd advise you do so that when there is a problem you'll know what to look for. Symptoms are typically that a track behaves unexpectedly, such as losing stereo width or not panning the way you expect it to.  Sometimes, plugins that normally widen stereo (e.g. choruses) don't seem to work when followed by a mono effect (e.g. an amp sim). In some rarer scenarios, you can even get severe audio quality degradation.

 

 

 

 

[sjoens]

Depends on the effect you want from the track.  It's common to use a stereo plugin on a mono guitar track.