mark skinner Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 "Finally" realizing a song of mine would be featured on a podcast that is in mono , and I Never mix in mono or even Check it in mono , it scared the hell out of me . (and I'm out of time to submit a new mix) I went to my DAW and changed my master bus to mono , then I crawled under my desk .. After the first mono mix I've ever done , I can "almost" stay in my chair , and the stereo mix sounds Way better. I never thought I'd Ever need a mono mix , but I now see how much it can help in the long run. The bad track volume choices become Way more obvious as well as EQ for track separation. Big rookie mistake I'll Never make again . ms 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 I will bookmark this thread so that the next time an actual rookie confidently declares that "nobody needs to check mono anymore" because everyone listens to music on Apple earbuds I'll have a quick comeback. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Carzola Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 HEY!!! I resemble that comment!!! ☝?? I mean…ahem…I resent that comment ? No, but seriously though. That’s a great habit to get into. Thanx for sharing it here, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derick Anderson Posted October 8, 2021 Share Posted October 8, 2021 I think the number one mono check is phase, but another thing to check is too much low-mid energy. If your mix is boomy in mono that means it's boomy in stereo but the separation is tricking your ears. Probably because a lot of full range instruments end up panned L/R or having other stereo widening effects vs. kick and bass. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 Of course, my answer to everything is a free plug-in, but really, Boz Labs' Panipulator is a nice tool for checking mono compatibility before I finalize (ha ha) a mix. Lets you check everything, mono, L+R swapped, L only, R only, either out of phase, pretty much everything you need to know about how it will sound on the sound system that consists of a 1987 boom box with a single raw car speaker dangling from it by a lamp cord. I've heard that back in the Cakewalk SONAR days it came as a freebie ProChannel module too, but I'll never believe that until someone leaves a copy of the .dll laying around on a Google Drive.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garybrun Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 I always start my mixes in mono. Then pan out later when I have them fitting together I then use panning. Youll be amazed when you get eq correct and cut out masking in the mono... then out to stereo... youll be amazed at the difference. As a live sound engineer... mostly work in mono... this is where I got the habbit from. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted November 6, 2021 Share Posted November 6, 2021 7 hours ago, garybrun said: I always start my mixes in mono. Me, too, with the sole exception of panning my drum overheads. I do find that with electronic music, the sounds I'm using often have huge stereo images baked in, so I have to be careful with big wide basses with a hole in the middle. Sum that down to mono and that bass can really build up. When I throw my own wideners on sounds, I stick to the ones that sum to mono well. And hit it with Panipulator at the end! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now