ill try to answer ... im not a recording geek though so....

Quote Originally Posted by Nomak View Post

1) I have been told if you have a mono sample, and run it into 2 channels and pan each hard left and right respectively, you can create a feeling of width and give a stereo effect, is this true? If so how do you account for the discrepancies I mentioned in the first paragraph;
not really... there will be a slight change in the stereo image, although you will have the same sound pretty much, which is a soundfile, at the same sound intensity in both speakers. at this point if u delayed one side a couple of samples, u would get a wider perceived stereo effect.

Quote Originally Posted by Nomak View Post

2) If the above is true, then is it possible to mimic stereo placement by adjusting the panning positions of the left and right track;
i suppose with synthesized sounds u could, but with recording you're way better off trying to get the best sound possible on record. what i think u were getting at before refers to phase cancellation. if u are recording at 2 instances... and if the 2 mics are out of phase..they can cause deconstructive interference where the sound is comprimised instead of boosted. i could work this but moving the mics around to what sounds best. if u have a phase flip btn too ...they can help on recording.

Quote Originally Posted by Nomak View Post
2) If I have a synthesizer and it has a supposedly stereo patch, is it actually stereo? Does the synthesizer account for the delays and differences in frequency?.
synths would have some sort of stereo effect yea... liek the delay i mentioned before