Hi there

In the last few days I saw few Mixing tips on youtube and I've read about Mixing in mono. I want to start a topic and I want to know who mix his music in mono and how is your experience mixing in mono, any tips would be great. Is that much better than in stereo. Thanx in advantage.

Lao

 

I´ve never mixed in mono,
but it´s very interesting!


I´ve found this: http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com/blog/2009/04/02/the-secret-benefits-to-mixing-in-mono/

 

Hi Lao,

I tend to do a combination of the two, mainly referencing in stereo but checking mono compatibility throughout the mix down to reduce any phase cancellation issues. I have a mono plug in on my master and run the signal through both monitors. I also cross reference by running the signal through one monitor only.

I find working in mono is good for finding a balance in level and EQ between two instruments which dominate the same frequency range, rather than trying to separating them just using the stereo field.
I’m not an expert by any means but hope my experience helps

Cheers,

Adam

 

Usually, in a live situation, Mono seems to be the choice, but when it comes about selling it on Itunes or whatever, Stereo is the nicest. I think is the best to make two versions of your songs, one in Mono for live situations/gigs (or stereo with a good stereo-mono translation) and a nice stereo-dedicated version for digital sales.

 

Thanx...do you have a link of some clips that explain how to do it with panning, subgroup and so on. That would be nice. In the past I did mixing only in stereo. Now I want to try how to mix in mono. Can you tell me what kind of mono plug ins do you use in your master fader? waves?

Lao

 

Mono is great for checking if there are any phase problems in your mix and I'll explain what that means.

Let's say for example you're producing a song and you went crazy with a super wide pad and it sounds amazing and fills out every corner of your speakers and headphones. Now, try switching the entire song to mono, and your pad is gone. That means you need to either live with the fact that you will not hear the pad properly on any mono system or that you can duplicate the pad, make a mono version of and a wide stereo version of it and layer the two together. That way you'll be able to hear it on all systems.

Like Adam said, Mono is also great for mixing especially for Eq'ing. Switch to mono and you won't hear all the distractions like reverb or delay or anything like that. You'll be able to focus on gain staging and EQ and get things to fit together much better.

I personally do not mix in mono, like I said I use it for checking things when my ears get too used to all the wide stereo stuff. Waves S1 stereo imager can do that for you, it can make everything mono or make things wider.

 

I mix in stereo but do check for mono compatibility. In Reaper we have a Mono button on the Master, which makes things easier. The idea is that you want your mix to sound good everywhere. If it will be broadcasted on a radio, some small radios are in mono, or when listening in the car and the channel is not received properly, it can be switched automatically to mono, another thing is that some car players are widening the stereo image and it can make your reverb too big.

The bass must be mono or at least in the center of the stereo field so if your song is played on a club on a PA system, when people are dancing they are moving away from the speakers and you don't want them to STOP HEARING the bass or some other instruments because they are spread too wide on the stereo field.

Ok and just to show you a good advice on how Mono can help you in mixing, I will quote u b k from gearslutz:

 

I try a slightly different approach: when I raise the faders to unity at the start of a mix, I go stereo for the stereo tracks, and leave everything else panned center. Once I get raw levels, I switch to mono on the output bus. Then in mono, I start tweaking the mix -panning included. I mix with two speakers in mono most of the time. When the mix starts to take shape, I change to stereo . When about to finish, I change to mono again for phasing, and then it should be ok.

 

I mix in mono most of the sounds, especially drums. I'm always trying to emulate the oldschool console way of mixing as far as Reaper lets me with its absence of true mono tracks. In the old days [I'm talking 80s and 90s here, not just 70s or earlier] we mixed with analog consoles and there were only mono channels and the sounds you record with the mike were and are always mono. Synths and samplers had mono outputs, except for the main output in some, more modern cases. They only become stereo, or rather double-mono when they pass through the fader on the console so you can pan it and when you add stereo aux FX on the sound like reverb. I tend to think of the mix as a stereo mix with mono sounds and if you think about it it makes a lot of sense, eh? ;) You mix mono sounds within the stereo field and get stereo audio in the end. In those days even most of the insert FX were mixed with in mono, like limiter, compressor, EQ - all mono. The aux send FX are stereo, like reverb or echo and I do like to make pads, FX and some other background sounds in stereo from the get go, but kick, bass, drums, vocal, leads are all mono placed within the stereo field where I find them to sit nicely in the mix. It all "depends", you know? I usually don't even bother panning kick and bass from the centre because it's ridiculous to have bass sounds in stereo as we can't perceive stereo in the bass frequencies lower than ~200Hz at all. However, bass can sound really nice through chorus and even stereo chorus then it can kinda envelope the kick and give the deep, nice bassy feeling to the whole mix. Mixing is an artform in itself. I tend to compare it to painting. But it also benefits greatly from you having enough technical knowledge about the tools you use to mix with.

What I think this way of mixing brings you is simply a better sounding, more defined mix. It's also easier to get there with this oldschool method. Basically the philosophy is: keep the front sounds and bass sounds mono and make the background sounds stereo to somehow envelope these front sounds with to finish the stereo painting. ;)

Cheers!

 

both

 

it depends how your stems come to you but i do Tracks in Mono and Group tracks in Stereo

 

I Do panning and stero spreading all the way, And when I say all the way: eery channel is beeing placed in the stereo image widening/narrowing panning left right stereo delays,
Mono is checked in the end
no brainer for me

 

Stereo. Cross-reference in mono for checking mono compatibility and phase issues.

 

@ Lao,

As it seems, at a first glance, that nobody has still mentioned the Great and Invaluable works and inventions done by 'Mister Phil Spector' (in the Audio/Studio Areas, but not only !) all along his Legendary career, you should, in my own opinion, listen to some of his works done through the Albums of not less famous Artists... *yes*

Maybe not your 'cup of Tea' as Music Styles, but a 'Goldmine' to see (and listen !) how are used 'Mono' Sources by 'bunches' to create (with other FXs) his Famous : 'Wall Of Sound'...

 

Stereo first.

Mono on a dedicated large band single voice speaker for checking phase issues, compatibility but NOT only.
It will help you "place" instruments, concentrate on mids in fact (very helpful for vocals, guitars...)

So when i say mono, i mean a SINGLE speaker with SINGLE voice, not fake mono with 2 stereo 2 voices speakers with 1 sub

I say that, because if you simply switch stereo speakers to mono, you still get that "phantom center" effect.
When you hear a sound in the middle, it means left and right are the same for this sound.
You hear it in the "middle" of stereo field...but not. There is no middle speaker.
That's why 5.1 was born : a middle speaker dedicated to dialog because moving "phantom center" effect kill clarity when you move in the room. But even without moving, it is already there.
Do a simple check : stereo switched to mono, and the same mono signal facing only one side (the other disabled), you will understand soon

And why single large band ? Simply to avoid voices filters, voices phase mess (horizontal and/or vertical)...and more.

My next buy : a single Auratone-like speaker for this task only
But for now, "mono facing a single speaker working" can do the trick.

 

According to Pensado, the need to mix in mono is dead, all songs should be mixed in stero, but checked in mono to ensure backwards compatibility with mono devices.
The best example that I can think of for why mono is still kind of important is if someone was showing their friend your song through their iPhone speaker (which is mono) you'd want it to still sound good.

Id say your first priority is to get it to sound great in stereo, then good in mono.

 

There you go

 

I mix in stereo and every now and then switch to mono, also always have analyzer on my 3rd screen running to ensure things don't get too wide.

Of course nowadays mono isn't that big of a subject anymore, but think of outdoor gigs for instance; if you have a very wide stereo field (like working with imager etc to widen even more) the song will be all over the place and loses impact.

In my opinion, both is really important, so I mix in stereo and switch to mono to check how it sounds, how the FX etc come through.

PS: Every genre/style.

Kind regards

 

People at home , listen in mono.



It looks like this in the ad, it looks like this at their place. L and R , side by side, in a corner.

They also listen on a laptop (I know...), and on phone.


You should always check your mix in mono. (even it doesn't sound right , it should just not collapse)
And everything below 100Hz should be mono, if you aim for loud.