Mono/Stereo Mixdown issues

tewky1

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Oct 16, 2012
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Got a head scratcher, and not exactly sure what the hell I should be thining/doing. I am aware of checking you work in mono, to see if elements disappear from you track.

Well I am doing a remix competition track, and all going swimmingly, made my sounds, done a 1st mixdown, sounded quite good to my ears. Then i thought ok, Mono, and when I do this the pads/atmos that Ihave running through just loses all of its power and sounds flat and weak. Maybe some other high end sounds start getting drowned out as well.

Any ideas on how I can correct the mix to preserve the ingerity of the pad sound I have going? It really pins the tune together and makes it sound so much fuller, but if it gets played in Mono, loses power :(

Anyone can point me to any reading about these things?

Cheers

- - - Updated - - -

Had a thought, can I use some reverb to give it a bit more width/space in the mix?
 
Something I do sometimes (for pads and atmos mostly) is that I duplicate the sound and pan one left and one right and give them slightly different FX. Technically if you are in mono and make 2 of that sound and put one in each speaker... it shouldn't loose any power at all right? : d
 
Nice idea, will give it a shot. i have got the channel getting sent into a reverb and a delay, so can use one of each on each one.

Cheers boss
 
why are you putting the whole track in mono just out of interest? I was always under the impression that only the lower end of the bass spectrum needs to be in mono? i could be wrong
 
^ Its to do with some club systems being mono I believe

Yeah i always put bass in mono, i thought that was the rule of thumb? didnt realise the whole track had to be in mono though. I also seem to remember hearing something about using a mono bass when getting a track cut to vinyl as the grooves are too big in stereo or something. Fuck knows!
 
what do you mean by referencing (sorry if the answer is blatantly obvious)

I am just seeing how i sounds in Mono, have seen lots of mentions in masterclasses, tutorials and such about checking it for Mono. It might show up areas in your mix that fall down.
Also in the club it will be Mono, althugh I understand how egotistical that is on reflection hahaha. But it is a comp and by some strange fortune I win(gotta believe), I would hope it would get played by someone somewhere :)
 
Yeah i always put bass in mono, i thought that was the rule of thumb? didnt realise the whole track had to be in mono though. I also seem to remember hearing something about using a mono bass when getting a track cut to vinyl as the grooves are too big in stereo or something. Fuck knows!

He is not putting his track in mono carteliator he is just checking how it sounds in mono and if there are any complications if it will even be played on a mono system.
 
ahhh it all makes sense now. Never thought of putting it in mono to find flaws, might give it a go. tbh, the whole mono stereo thing still confuses the shite out of me.
 
A/B a pro tune between mono and stereo. What you'll immediately notice is while a few elements/mix may lose "width," you can still hear every component clearly–especially the core elements such as drums, bass, lead. That's the point of checking the mono compatibility with your mix–to make sure everything can still be heard clearly. The "width" is great for consumer listening, but when played on a club system the "width" is obsolete–moreso, you want to make sure all of your sounds are coming through the mix clearly and with impact so that it cranks when played on a club system.

Cheers.
 
You might also find this plugin useful called Basslane by Tone Projects which is used to sum the track to mono under a specified frequency (by default set to 300hz), and best of all, it is free. I've had this in my arsenal of software for a few years now and use it on every production at some stage, usually on the master.

http://www.toneprojects.com/products/plug-ins/basslane/
 
I process all sounds with frequencies ranging below 120hz in mono, and the rest in stereo, I'm not an expert, but mastering engineers who I've sent tracks to get mastered have given me those tips to improve my mixdown before mastering.
 
There's a vid with camo and krooked and one of them says that you should view your stereo field as the shape of an ice cream cone with the low frequencies at the bottom and the stereo spread getting wider the higher the frequencies go.
 
On this subject, i have vocals in a track which i don't want to be too prominent, they sound perfect in stereo, but in mono they are a bit muffled and not as distinct. When i change it to sound clearer in mono, it is far too loud in stereo. Is there any way around this??
 
Honestly, something I like to do is use Ableton's Utility plug-in and set it to 50% width as needed in any given channel I'm working on; most (not all) of the time it ends up making a decent enough compromise to sound great stereo and still sound pretty good in mono too.
 
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