Check 'er in mono

squibble94

squibble94

Nature of Force
So do any of you guys mix in mono? I find it helps me (especially with double tracked guitars in relation to vocals) get the true balance between parts. That's with volume alone. It REALLY helps with EQing. The bass and kick are always hard for me to glue together. It sounds a bit lack-luster at first, but when I click the stereo/mono button in Reaper back to stereo, it comes alive. I rarely have to fix anything after mixing a song in mono a few times through. Of course I'll put it back in stereo and make tweaks as I go. Your thoughts?
 
Early mixing I'm almost always in mono (and once I start turning pan pots, occasionally check stereo to make sure there isn't something really odd happening).

No doubt though -- Make a mix sound good in mono and it's almost automatically going to sound great with some space. But the opposite isn't anywhere near true necessarily...
 
I start my mix in mono and check it in mono periodically. If things sound substantially different I find the cause and fix it.
 
You're a mystery to me.....

There's still something I have trouble grasping about mixing in mono. Have I got this wrong or is everything in the centre, that is, no panning. If that's so, I'm still trying to work out why it's a good thing if ultimately you're going to pan things into a stereo space. What am I not understanding here ?
 
Levels shouldn't change much if at all when you pan things out, so your mono mix will just simply unfold when you start panning things
 
You can, IMO...make some wrong (different) EQ decisions with a full mix...in mono...that's ultimately going to be in stereo (but sometimes it also can reveal some EQ issues).

I check mono occasionally, but I don't dwell on it, since I'm mixing in stereo, becuase it sounds quite different, and the layering of frequencies is different in mono than it would be in stereo for mixes that make use of the full stereo image.
I tend to fan out all my elements, with rarely (if ever) two elements occupying the exact same position in the stereo image.
The mono check should sound "OK"...but apart for checking serious phase issues and level issues (it's more obvious in mono if one element is much louder/softer relative to others), I find little other value in *listening to the mix* in mono if I'm mixing in stereo.

And frankly...for the percentage of people who will be forced to listen to stuff in mono these days...I'm not that concerned if my stereo mixes are not as well mixed for mono as they could be. ;)
 
Even if they don't listen in true mono they may listen in "partial" mono. For example mp3 compression can do things to a file that's worse if it's not mono compatible. FM receivers picking up a fringe station may narrow the stereo image. Mono compatibility is not absolutely necessary but it's good practice.
 
grimtraveller said:
There's still something I have trouble grasping about mixing in mono. Have I got this wrong or is everything in the centre, that is, no panning. If that's so, I'm still trying to work out why it's a good thing if ultimately you're going to pan things into a stereo space. What am I not understanding here ?
Click to expand...

You will hear your phase issues more readily in mono.
 
Mono will point out many disparities in EQ levels, as well as out-of-phase relationships. If you collapse a mix to mono and things start going away then you have phase relationship problems. The phase shift in some kinds of EQ's will cause this too, so its always a good idea to check the mix in mono. I start there as do some others. Its simply a task I have learned over the years and has helped immensely many times.
 
Yup, checking for certain issues and overall compatibility is good to do for each mix, I just don't get too hung up about actually mixing for mono....worrying about why it doesn't sound as good as it can in mono.
 
If you can make your various instruments have a space of their own in mono (I'm not good at this yet) then things can really open up in stereo. I have a mono button on my monitor controller so it's really easy to switch back on forth

also unless you are going to be listening in the sweet spot between your monitors, most music you hear is going to be more or less in mono so it's worth knowing if it'll hold up. for example internet radio or streaming on a cell phone speaker, usually mono, lap tops, ipod/mp3 docks etc ,the speakers are so close together that it's not possible to put your ears into the stereo sweet spot so once you are a couple of feet away it's no longer stereo, your basically hearing it summed to mono.
If you aim for commercial success it's arguably even more important to have a good mono sound. Music at the mall and other venues where it's pumped in = mono, a lot of TV and radio stations receive a true stereo signal but by the time it reaches you it's often faux stereo or mono and so on
We think we live in a stereo age but unless you hear everything through earphones or are always perfectly placed between two speakers, most of what we hear is more likely to be mono
 
I get your point about sweet spots...but even with computer speakers spaced a couple of feet appart and you standing 10 feet back...it's pretty easy to hear the differences between a stereo mix and one truly summed to mono.

There's someting about how a stereo pair of speakers "throw" the audio into a room (or your ears) VS pure mono...and you don't need to sit "fixed" in the sweet spot to appreciate stereo...IMHO.
Plus...we always hear in stereo (unless you only have one good ear).
 
miroslav said:
I get your point about sweet spots...but even with computer speakers spaced a couple of feet appart and you standing 10 feet back...it's pretty easy to hear the differences between a stereo mix and one truly summed to mono.

There's someting about how a stereo pair of speakers "throw" the audio into a room (or your ears) VS pure mono...and you don't need to sit "fixed" in the sweet spot to appreciate stereo...IMHO.
Plus...we always hear in stereo (unless you only have one good ear).
Click to expand...

I'll agree to disagree.
I have pandora playing on my laptop right now. the speaks are 9-10" apart and are pointing almost straight up at the ceiling and i'm roaming from 5-20' away from the laptop unless I'm actively typing.
My "stereo" ears can do a great job of telling me where the laptop is but there is no stereo image in the music itself, to all intents and purposes it's a single source maybe not perfect mono but pretty much and any music that is relying on stereo wideness trickery to sound good is not going to work for me
 
Not being in the sweet spot is not the same as mono. Getting out of the sweet spot puts different frequencies at different degrees out of phase depending on where you are. Your hearing gets information from that that can still let it identify the two speakers as separate sources, even if you don't get the stereo image. When something is mono phase information is the same from all listening positions.
 
there are "PAN LAWS" in affect in most DAW's

make sure you know where yours are set, before you move from mono to stereo.

a lot of daws default to having the single mono source track output as 'stereo'

don't get caught by that either.

if you apply 'stereo' effects, they will work differently if your output mode for the track is in stereo versus mono
 
I'm still not getting this.
If every instrument is in the centre, you'll have various relationships volume wise. But surely this will change as you spread them out into their own space in the 'stereo field'.
Is mono not essentially everything panned centre ?
 
Thats an interesting question. It doesnt sound the same if I experiment doing that on my DAW. A stereo mix , collapsed to mono, has elements of the stereo mix within its single source. And doesnt sound the same as a simply 'everything panned to center' mix and then collapsed to mono.

Interesting.

And for those wondering....NO, psycho-acoustics do NOT effect me....I perfectly capable of convincing me of anything.
 
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