Phase issue in mono

Ed Fones said:
On that point Rob thinking back to when I was a kid with a mono record player. When you put a stereo record on it, you almost lost part of the sound in the odd place. Does this not happen converting a track back from stereo to mono?
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This depends on how something was recorded and how you are listening in mono.

Sometimes old mono devices were just the left channel, so anything that was panned right disappeared. There was a low wattage independent radio station that was set up like this, so every time they played early Van Halen, there was only guitar reverb and no guitar. That would not have happened if it was both channels collapsed to mono.

Also, back in the early 70's, people were experimenting with stereo by putting drums on one side and vocals in the other and goofy stuff like that. If you were only listening to one channel, you might not be able to tell what song it was.

If you have a well balanced stereo mix, and the 'stereo-ness' doesn't come from copying and phase (polarity) inverting an instrument, you should be able to collapse both channels to mono without completely losing anything.
 
Hendrix did a nice trick on Electric Ladyland. During the solo to the song Come On Pt1, he panned the guitar solo left and right and flipped the phase on one channel. Years ago, when I tried to play the song at the radio station (AM mono), we used a stereo cartridge wired to mono. The solo just disappeared. I put the song in Reaper, and flipped a couple of sections to mono. Screw mono compatibility! 😉

 
Farview said:
Also, back in the early 70's, people were experimenting with stereo by putting drums on one side and vocals in the other and goofy stuff like that. If you were only listening to one channel, you might not be able to tell what song it was.
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Many early stereo Beatles songs were done that way. Drum guitar and a bass on one side, maybe guitars vocals and other instruments on the other.
 
The earliest stereo consoles only had three-way switches for channel assignment: left, right or both (center). The modern conventions hadn't been set so it was often rhythm section on one side, color instruments on the other, vocals in the center (or some variation on that).
 
BSG, this was my first "console" for mixdown. It's still on a shelf. Being that it's now "vintage" is should be worth a fortune!

 
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