Stereo is a dangerous word because most of you started producing music assuming you knew what it meant and most of you didn’t. The reason I’m harping on this is that if you’re wrong about what stereo means, it’s gonna block you from understanding a lot of important stuff that happens downstream. A mono signal sent to a stereo bus is still a mono signal.
It’s just the same signal coming out of both speakers. Ultimately, your mix is going to a stereo bus because that’s what your master output is. When we talk about a stereo signal, we’re talking about two signals.
And those two signals have some things that are identical and some things that are different. Those components are described as the sum and difference. And it creates the illusion both of space but also of having a sound that emanates as if it’s coming from between two speakers.
That’s known as the phantom center. While I have your attention, the concept of a pan control on a mono output is meaningless. And this isn’t a stereo cable.
It’s a three conductor cable capable of carrying a stereo signal because three conductors are enough to send the right and the left
