Behringer Wing Mono vs Stereo: Fix a Left-Only Channel
Your guitar player plugs in, you push up the fader, and he only comes out of the left speakers. On the Behringer Wing that usually means a mono source is sitting on a channel that’s set to stereo. The fix is one button: go to the channel’s patch and click M. Here’s how to spot it and fix it.
What you need
- A Behringer Wing. I’m on the full size console.
- Your inputs coming in from a stage box or the console. Mine come in over AES50 from a Behringer S32; here’s how I set up the Wing with an S32.
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My whole console setup is in my Wing front-of-house kit.
Who this is for
Maybe your board is already all set up, and it was set up by someone else. Maybe you’re a volunteer, or you’re walking into an existing setup and you don’t quite understand how mono and stereo work on the Wing. This is the issue that shows you why it matters, and it has happened to me.
How to spot it: the meter only shows the left side
In the video I’ve got a music source on channel 23, which sits in the fourth slot on my layer. The Wing’s channel meter has a left and a right, so there are two blocks. The signal is only showing up in the left one.
If your speakers are set up left and right, that means you’d only hear that source out of the left speakers and nothing out of the right.
The real-world scenario: one mono guitar player
We have several electric guitar players at our church, and they swap out regularly. One of them has a mono setup, so he only sends me a left feed. The rest are stereo: they send me a left and a right from their pedal boards.
So my board defaults to stereo. My speakers are wired stereo, I’ve got a left-right speaker array, and my normal electric guitar channel is set up in stereo too. When my normal players come in, I get left and right and we’re good to go.
When the mono player comes in and plugs into the same channels everybody else uses, I only get a left signal. Every time, I have to switch it.
The fix: switch the channel from ST to M
- Go to the channel.
- Go to the home screen.
- Click on the patch. Mine is patched to AES50 A, channels 1 and 2.
- Look at the top: there’s an M and an ST, mono and stereo. It’s currently set to stereo.
- Click M.
That’s it. The channel is now a mono signal, and the Wing duplicates it on the left and the right, so you have left and right again.
If you want to know your way around that home screen before you start clicking, I walk through it in my channel home screen walkthrough.
Why it only came out of the left
When you click on the patch you can see it’s patched to 1 and 2 on my snake. That means the channel is taking two physical connectors, and my mono guitar player only fills the first one: I’m only getting a signal on connector number 1, the left. Switching to M makes it a mono signal, and the Wing duplicates it on the left and the right.
The opposite problem: two mono inputs that should be one stereo channel
Sometimes it goes the other way: a stereo guitar gets plugged into inputs that can’t be paired. On the Wing, channels one and two can be a stereo pair, but two and three cannot. I show a workaround with user signals in combining non-consecutive mono signals into a stereo pair, though I’d put that in the hack category.
FAQ
Why is my guitar only coming out of the left speaker on the Behringer Wing?
In my case the guitar rig was mono and the channel was set to stereo. The channel is patched to two connectors and only the first one has signal, so you only hear it on the left. Switch the channel to M in its patch.
Where is the mono/stereo setting on the Wing?
Go to the channel, then the home screen, then click on the patch. At the top you’ll see M and ST: mono and stereo.
What does switching to mono actually do?
It turns the channel into a mono signal and duplicates it on the left and the right, so a source that was only on the left now comes out of both sides.
Do I need to re-patch anything?
No. My mono guitar player plugs into the same channels everybody else does. The patch stays on AES50 A, channels 1 and 2; only M or ST changes. If you do want to move sources around, here’s how user patching works on the Wing.
Related tutorials
- The Wing channel home screen: the tabs, including where the channel patch lives.
- Combine two mono inputs into a stereo pair: the reverse problem.
- User patching on the Wing: move sources without moving cables.
- Connecting multiple stage snakes: how stage box inputs reach the Wing.
- Mastering inputs on the Wing: where your inputs can come from.
Gear I use for this
- Behringer Wing (full size): the console in this video.
- Behringer S32: my stage box on AES50.
Everything else I recommend is on my product recommendations page.
Got a question I didn’t cover? Ask me in the chat here on the site, or leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help.
