Why not mix an album in mono?

  • Thread starter Thread starter curtiswyant
  • Start date Start date
Why not mix in mono?

Well because the whole point of mixing recorded music and transferring it to a widely accessible medium on which it can be listened to (a cd, mp3, etc..) is so that people can actually....listen to it.

You're mixing for an audience (hopefully). You want your audience to be able to hear it as close to how it was intended to be heard as possible. People don't listen to music in mono anymore. People have stereo systems.

But if you're just mixing for yourself and no one else is going to hear it, then go ahead ahead.
 
ez_willis said:
I've heard that the Amish still mix their music in mono.
Click to expand...
:eek: :D :D Nice... I'm actually trying to think of a good addendum to that. But it's too early. I barely have the brainpower to type this reply.
 
and they don't use EQ, effects, aural exiciters, compression...any other items to alter the mix either. They want it to be "plain".
 
RAMI said:
Sorry, Sgt. Pepper was not mixed in mono. There's panning all over the place. In fact the Beatles were recording in stereo way before that. Many Beatles tunes have vocals and bass in one speaker and the rest of the band in the other speaker (for example).
Click to expand...

actually Pepper was both, MONO and STEREO.
per a GM article the first was MONO, he saoid that was the ones the Beatles were involved in heavily, and it is different.
Then he did a stereo version mix, which was common in those days, to have a MONO and STEREO release.
He siad by the time we mixed the STEREO version much of their interest was gone, but the STEREO version went very well too. But the MONO mix sessions were the magical ones...thats George Martin. I think the Recording Session book, or one of the many.

Sgt.Pepper, I got the mono version last Dec/Xmas after reading this.
Its cool and amazing so much stuff can be "mixed together" in MONO and still sound good ...amazing.

Magical Mystery Tour too, there is an ocean of this stuff....how almost all their singles were MONO mixes, yet the Albums eventually converted to Stereo-phonic.

The change-over years...albums were released in both versions. Mono and Stereo mixes.
 
COOLCAT said:
actually Pepper was both, MONO and STEREO.
per a GM article the first was MONO, he saoid that was the ones the Beatles were involved in heavily, and it is different.
Then he did a stereo version mix, which was common in those days, to have a MONO and STEREO release.
He siad by the time we mixed the STEREO version much of their interest was gone, but the STEREO version went very well too. But the MONO mix sessions were the magical ones...thats George Martin. I think the Recording Session book, or one of the many.

Sgt.Pepper, I got the mono version last Dec/Xmas after reading this.
Its cool and amazing so much stuff can be "mixed together" in MONO and still sound good ...amazing.

Magical Mystery Tour too, there is an ocean of this stuff....how almost all their singles were MONO mixes, yet the Albums eventually converted to Stereo-phonic.

The change-over years...albums were released in both versions. Mono and Stereo mixes.
Click to expand...


Right. I'm reading the Beatles Sessions book which kinda prompted this post. I don't think that stereo is necessarily how a band is "supposed" to sound. Imagine you're at Woodstock seeing The Band; you're standing 100 yds away from the stage...do you think you're going to be hearing them in stereo? No way.
 
At the origninal Woodstock, no. The later Woodstocks, yes.

Just wondering, why are you referencing stuff that someone did 35 years ago and wondering if it is the way to go now? All this stuff was done on 4, or possibly 8, tracks. They didn't have nearly the power that we have now. Technology has changed, delivery mediums have changed, the environment that poeple listen to music has changed, and peoples expectation of the sound of music has changed. I don't see how much of this relates to today.


I know that in the 1920's you had to start your car by turning a crank sticking out of the front grill, I wonder if we should go back to that, it is obvious that that is what the car manufacturers intened.



The mono mixes were made for the radio, which was AM mono for the most part.
 
Last edited:
yeah, it's obvious the big YELLOW stripe at the top of Pepper said STEREOPHONIC, my MONO version doesn't have the yellow stripe at the top.
Magical Mystery thats in MONO.
1967-66? when they really started releasing both versions, marketing and HiFI, man!!! I imagine the Singles were all MONO because think of the car decks in 1960-1969?? mostly Radio...and Mono will translate to other systems the best, but it won't get the best out of the system. imo.

but as far as the Studio Mixing...these were actually different mixes, as i read it. AbbeyRoad Eng crew... didn't just hit a mono-button on the board..they actually are two very different mixes. and you can hear it if you really try.

and as someone posted, it was mandated by the industry...Mono and the new-up and coming STEREOPHONIC!! There was a really good book at the Library on The Capitol Records & Beatles...it goes into detail how the industry worked and how the made one british album inot 2 albums, different album covers, different MIXES,...butcher cover flop....

Mono and Stereo.........kind like TV going from B&W to COLOR.
 
curtiswyant said:
I don't think that stereo is necessarily how a band is "supposed" to sound. Imagine you're at Woodstock seeing The Band; you're standing 100 yds away from the stage...do you think you're going to be hearing them in stereo? No way.
Click to expand...

this is where as someone told me ...application and crowd your mixing for comes into play.
i was getting confused as my mix would translate here and not there, ok in the car but not ok at my friends house??
then you realize there's too many setups....and its NOT your fault as a mixing engineer if your buddy likes to play his sub-woofer on full blast causing your mix to be bass heavy....

a band "live" sound is probably better done in mono. as Mono is more difficult but translates well from bar to bar, or gig to gig.
if I was a house band, every weekend same location...yeah you could start doing some stereo once you knew the room.

studio, stereo just opens up a field of "colors". Listen to old Frank or Dean MArtin singing with a frkn orchestra!! IN MONO!!
..or Sgt. Pepper Mono.....it can be done in Mono obviously. I can't get it right.
But stereo is more enjoyable, and apparently majority bought into it...offers more seperation and effects.

i mean no mix can be perfect. if your mixing to a radio crowd or maybe if your mixing to Dance Beat Jungle Club Mix..with window shattering bass levels and Kick drums that LEad the BAnd...well...er... uh...(lost train of thought)...

i'm hungry i'm going to go eat. :p
 
curtiswyant said:
Right. I'm reading the Beatles Sessions book which kinda prompted this post. I don't think that stereo is necessarily how a band is "supposed" to sound.
Click to expand...
Perhaps not "supposed" to, merely better.

I rarely go to movies, but when I do I love the stereo/surround sound effect. Same with pop music, I love the creative use of panning.

I guess if I was listening to someone like George Thorogood I would not care/notice if it was in mono. Pink Floyd? It would sound ridiculous in mono.
 
I mix in mono up until the very end. It forces you to really define space for the instruments. Once you pan everything the mix comes alive. I also like to see the looks on client's faces when things go from mono to stereo.
 
i've recorded/mixed/released plenty of stuff in mono in the past just out of lack of resources and knowledge. i never wanted it to sound like the 60s though..
 
COOLCAT said:
Mono and Stereo.........kind like TV going from B&W to COLOR.
Click to expand...

That's the best analogy I've heard yet. Have you seen a movie in black and white from the last 50 years?

Someone will probably say "Shindler's List", that was in black and white, right? That was for artistic effect, and if you want to be "artistic" mixing in mono, go ahead.
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
I mix in mono up until the very end. It forces you to really define space for the instruments. Once you pan everything the mix comes alive. I also like to see the looks on client's faces when things go from mono to stereo.
Click to expand...

Interesting. On MS-10s?

-RD
 
Not to be Captain Obvious or anything, but I suppose you woulnd't have to worry too much about mono compatibility if you went that route.
 
I confess, I know jack about recording but...what does the expression 'mock stereo' mean? I have heard it quite a few times.

That's where I read it...in Mark Lewisohn's Beatles Sessions book...what does this mean...

A mix referred to as "mock stereo" is mono electronically rechannelled to simulate stereo (as it was often called) or duophonic (as Capitol liked to call it), a process of distorting mono sound by feeding different frequencies to right and left channel and possibly delaying some of the sound as well. This processing was popular when it was believed that a people wanted any kind of stereo on a record labelled stereo.

...and don't shoot...I'm unarmed
 
I mixed an entire album's worth of songs in mono, and it holds up pretty well...

as time goes on. I was going for a "roots/retro" sound at the time, and I think I achieved it. Mixing to mono can be fun, sometimes.

There have also been numerous times since then that I'd rather have heard those cuts in stereo, or have contemplated a post-dated remix into stereo of this material. That's all TBA/TBD. Despite it all, most of my mono mixes seem to hold up pretty well as capturing the moment.

IMO, if done right, mono has a cool retro sound.

:eek: ;)
 
So does mono mean just leaving the L/R faders alone? Leaving them in the middle? Is that mono?
 
Monkey Allen said:
So does mono mean just leaving the L/R faders alone? Leaving them in the middle? Is that mono?
Click to expand...

Yes, having both the left and right channels centered.

Turn on the AM radio, find yourself the first station playing music, and that's mono. When FM reception gets weak it goes mono, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top