Clarification regarding "Stereo" or "Mono" Master selection on Multitrack

To be more specific about this:

"And if so, do I then select "Default Stereo Input" as "Mono Left/Right" for a specific track in multitrack with voice-over?"

If you are recording a mic, then there's no need to do it on a stereo track, and if you create a mono one, you'll initially get options looking like this:

And if you select, in this example, [03M] HD Audio Mic input 1, then this will get transferred to the box where it currently says Default Stereo Input. Gnerally, for a mono input taken from a stereo socket, the left channel will be chosen, and that's the one you should have your mic plugged into. Since you haven't described how you are recording and what with, I can't be any more specific than that.

Great questions!

Mono is indeed the way to go for a speech based podcast however if you're including a lovely produced jingle and/or stereo music in the show you may want to consider stereo. Yes, it doubles the size of the file but this is really negligable with today's download speeds so it is your choice.

Personally I opt for stereo even if 95% of the podcast is speech based as I love great sounding audio and some listeners may appreciate this. Anyhow this is all a matter of opinion and others will have different ideas.

Here are the real answers for you:

1) Master is the overall setting for a multitrack. Once you select Mono nothing in the multitrack may be stereo (it'll all be mixed down in mono even if you insert a stereo track to the session). If you select Stereo as master you can have both stereo and mono tracks inside the same session and all will be mixed down to a stereo file.

2) Selecting the Default Stereo Input is only necessary for the tracks you're recording your microphone to. You could, for example select a mono input for the track you'll be using to record as a host for example. You don't need to set this on music/jingle tracks as you simply drag and drop the audio into those tracks with no recording necessary.

These answers may generate more questions which I'm more than happy to help with. Good luck with the podcast!

Strictly speaking, you could indeed do the whole thing in mono... but I wouldn't.

Even if you only have mono sources, people expect to hear a little variation in positioning of the voice. If you create a stereo multitrack session, you can put mono tracks into it - and you get a pan-pot to position the voice exactly where you want it in the stereo field. So if you have two people talking, you can pan each of them slightly to a side each; this sounds much better for the listener. If you have stereo jingles/intro music or whatever, then put that on a stereo track, and that's how it will come out in the mix.

If you have a stereo source to record, then pick the Default stereo input to record with. If you have a mono source (like a microphone) then record onto a mono track using the mono default - whichever channel the mic is plugged into.

So yes, it's fine to have mono tracks in a stereo session - indeed, it's the norm...