Alternate ways to plug into a mixer?

[Bones]

Lately ive been noticing people hooking up the L and R from their dj mixer into two separate channels of the main board. I would imagine that you cannot get true stereo sound like this? I use the Yamaha 124cx and i usually plug my L and R into channel 9/10 L and R. on this mixer, there are only 3 or 4 channels where i can run either 1/4" or rca in stereo but i cannot use the built in compressors on these channels, but if i were to plug my R into channel 1 and my L into channel 2, i would be able to compress my dj feed, just wouldnt be able to use as many mics... Im sure somebody knows more about this than me...

[SeisTres]

To get stereo, you can continue to do it as you're doing it (connecting L/R on the same stereo channel) or L and R on different channels and then just pan the those channels to the respective outputs. However, you would still need to have the L/R outputs and not just the L if you do want to pan. This would allow for you to use the compression on those channels.

I think that most people that use two channels is actually because they want to combine the signal into mono as this allows for a simplified set up.

[Bones]

Got it!! Thanks