Recording in Stereo¶

When your instrument has a stereo output, you can capture both channels. Sampling Assistant offers two ways to do it: a normal stereo pass and a separate pass per channel.

Normal stereo recording¶

If you enable two active input channels (see Audio & MIDI Setup), the Input label reads Input: Stereo and each note is recorded as a single stereo file in one pass. This is the right choice for most instruments — it's fast and captures the full stereo image exactly as it arrives.

Record Channels Separately¶

For cases where you want each side captured in its own clean pass, tick Record Channels Separately in the parameters panel.

"Record left and right channels in separate passes"

With this enabled, Sampling Assistant runs the range twice:

Left channel pass — samples the whole range capturing the left channel.
Pause — recording pauses so you can make any change needed between passes (for example, re-patching or adjusting your source) before continuing.
Right channel pass — samples the whole range again capturing the right channel.
The two passes are then combined into the finished stereo samples.

Why record channels separately?

Most instruments don't need this. It's useful when your two channels aren't a simple stereo pair captured at once — for instance a mono source you want to re-patch or re-process between passes, or a rig where the two sides can't be recorded simultaneously. For ordinary stereo outputs, normal stereo recording is simpler and faster.

It doubles the run

Because the full note range is recorded twice, a separate-channel run takes roughly twice as long as a normal pass. Plan time accordingly.