Mono VS Stereo...???

[Chew_Bear]

Is this the general workflow for your main outs from the DAW/interface...?

A. Work in STEREO for All stages of music production.
B. Work in MONO when it comes time to check your bass and low end.
C. Work in MONO on your final mix down before mastering.

I just put Ableton's Utility plugin on the master channel and have it set to off. When it comes time for me to check how my low end/bass is doing...I just turn it on in mono mode.

 

[DarkRed]

Is this the general workflow for your main outs from the DAW/interface...?

A. Work in STEREO for All stages of music production.
B. Work in MONO when it comes time to check your bass and low end.
C. Work in MONO on your final mix down before mastering.

I just put Ableton's Utility plugin on the master channel and have it set to off. When it comes time for me to check how my low end/bass is doing...I just turn it on in mono mode.

I mono check, but for a different reason, I do it to take the L or R side to both speakers so that I can hear each side without having all sound on one side which is very ear fatiguing. I don't mono check to check how great the mix sounds in mono, I find it is waste of my time when it is in stereo the mix needs to sound good. Having said that, I don't mix L as a discrete mix and R as a discrete mix, because that can create a very strange stereo image, but I make improvements on the sides in isolation, because often times you can find out things about the mix that you cannot notice as easily in stereo mode. Having said that though, I do think it is possible to mix L and R discretely with great results, but it is more advanced than working in stereo, hence it requires a bit more from the engineer. I might some day do a full transition, but at this point I feel I am gaining most by just doing more light work in those dimensions.

 

[MarcDHall]

I do something similar but I pan the mono test to the right so that I get no phantom centre / phase weirdness.

Try it, its much better.

 

[ILL GREEN]

I'm just talking about me, I produce everything in mono first for strong signals. Then during mixdown, I pan what tracks need to be in stereo for the master.

 

[DarkRed]

I'm just talking about me, I produce everything in mono first for strong signals. Then during mixdown, I pan what tracks need to be in stereo for the master.

Interesting. Could you please elaborate a little on the "for strong signals" part, you mean to help become aware of the overall amount of frequency masking inside of the mix? I might have missed some benefit about mono, I am open to the idea. One possible benefit I can see about it, is that it allows you to work with/approach the mix from the perspective of the combination of the frequencies hitting each ear, meaning that if you want the ears as a union receive a certain stream of frequencies/information, the mono dimension is what enables mixing from that perspective. That perspective can also be useful during recording and mastering. Maybe a benefit of this would be that you have equal amount of frequency masking on both speakers and you get a better picture of the more overall amount of masking present in the recording/mix/master.

Overall mono mixing is a little against my overall mixing philosophy, one reason is that I try to achieve separation as early as possible and mono is reducing the awareness of the separation, bringing it in later could help reverse some of the separation I've created earlier in the process. Therefore, from that perspective it makes sense to use mono before you start working on the separation, which would then be extremely early in the overall process, like during the production/recording process, to help set the potential for the separation of the mix. So maybe it could work to use mono mixing as one of the first steps, like when you EQ tracks. Then once you have a clear sounding mix with not too much overall frequency masking, you switch over to stereo to resume to the second part of the work with separation, but now in stereo and at that point you don't return to mono, because mono has already served its purpose. Maybe that's good, might try it to see how well it works.

The idea of delaying the switch from mono to stereo towards the post-mix/master, is interesting overall, but I'm at this point thinking that this switch should happen as soon as possible, not as late as possible, but I could be wrong, need to think through the implications of this...

 

[ILL GREEN]

Gosh, when you put it like that, I don't know what I mean jk

I sample incoming stereo signals into mono, two channels charging into one channel gives more power. And if I want the stereo signal seperate on two channels, I sample the left channel into mono onto lets say track 1 and sample the right channel into mono onto track 2 and then normalize if needed. The latter gives me full control.

Even when I record live instruments, everything is recorded as mono, but each sound on seperate tracks within the DAW to give me full control when mixing down a stereo master.

PS. Dig the name Darkred, is like the ying to my yang :lol

 

[DarkRed]

PS. Dig the name Darkred, is like the ying to my yang :lol

:lol cool

Personally I think that mono has its benefits, because you can use the limitations that mono has compared to stereo, to your advantage in order to maximize the quality of the stereo image. Part of that is in the contrasts created between sound sources in the mix that are in stereo vs. those that are in mono, it helps separate the two types within the mix. Furthermore, because mono reduces to no stereo separation, you can more easily notice how various frequencies separate in the mix because the stereo separation does not distract you when you focus strictly on the frequency masking within the mix. I also think that when you work with various impacts and effects in a stereo mix, you need to be somewhat delicate about what you allow to spread, because else you will have a mix full of stuff that lacks impact because there are no contrasts created by them due to the amount of masking. Mono serves a good purpose in that regard because it can focus/narrow/control the spread within the stereo field so that when you blend all of the element in the mix they still exist in sync rather than on top of each other in the stereo field.

Overall I think it's good to try to be delicate about the stereo field and it's important to understand how panning works and what impact various pan settings have, both in isolation and in the context of the mix.