Stereo>mono messes your mix up, what do you do?

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mattplaysguitar
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Re:Stereo>mono messes your mix up, what do you do? 2011/05/22 17:44:26 (permalink)
I figure that in most instances, if your mix is going to be played on a mono system, it's quite possibly a crappy system AND the listener is not listening intently. As long as the basics are there - vox is clear, drums are clear, bass is clear, I'm not fussed. The audience really isn't likely to notice. And that's the biggy. Does the audience notice the difference between a mix which is ok mono, and one which is really tailored for mono, when they probably aren't paying that much attention anyway? I'm gonna say in 'most' cases, hell no. AND they are probably on a crappy system, AND even if they could tell the difference, they probably wouldn't actually give a damn.

Hence I make my music stereo, quickly check mono to make sure nothing crazy is going on, and be done with it.

Oh and when I'm doing my commercials, then I'll probably just mix them entirely in mono as: 1, the listener probably won't notice either way, and 2, most ads tend to be played on mono, or low quality stereo systems. I generally won't get any benefit switching to stereo, so why waste the time?
post edited by mattplaysguitar - 2011/05/22 17:46:17


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Frank Haas
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Re:Stereo>mono messes your mix up, what do you do? 2011/05/24 10:21:15 (permalink)
very nice thread,..
I always knew about the "mono problem".. and never really bothered with it until now..
I mixed my latest project in mono.. adjusted the levels and then spread the tracks accross the stereo field.. I am very pleased with the results.. there are only small adjustments to be made.. but I feel much more confident to have a mono-compatible mix..
and if I listen to the mix on my small notobook at work, it really translates well.. (those two speakers are so close together that you can't speak of a stereo-system)
2 things..
a.) the channel tools on the master buss were necessary as some of the mastering-plugins had difficulties with the interleave button.. so I guess whatever works for you.
b.) I am not sure if that quote is correct or if I am doing misreading something.
if I adjust the levels in mono, then I don't mess with the level after turning the project into stereo again while adjusting the panorama.
so:
set the master buss to mono, adjust the levels.
switch master buss to stereo adjust pan.
 
now back to pan laws.. wouldn't they be of major importance if you'd work like that ?
I think I still have them at default settings,.. and it works ok.
 
droddey


I know it seems I keep contradicting you but...

Actually pan laws aren't really THAT important, and mostly only matter if you do any pan automation, as was mentioned above. Once you pan something where you want it in the mix, you are going to adjust its level till it's where you want it, no matter what the pan law is. As long as that track's pan position isn't moving around, and for most tracks in most mixes it won't be, then the pan law doesn't come much into play.
#32
droddey
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Re:Stereo>mono messes your mix up, what do you do? 2011/05/24 18:20:52 (permalink)
If you keep things literally centered on each track, and then pan them after you mix, then yeh, the pan laws would be important. Though, even if you have an appropriate pan law set, it's not perfect so you may still end up wanting to tweak once you pan them.

OTOH, if you just pan things where you want, start mixing, and at various points along the way use a sum'er plug, mono summer on your monitor controller, or mono speaker periodically to check for mono compatibility, then it's A) more convenient since you can always check any time you want, B) the pan law doesn't really matter than much since you are already panned on the individual tracks, and C) you can be sure that something you did in the subsequent mixing steps hasn't caused problems.

So, to me, that makes more sense, to have the abilty to check it any time you want/need, rather than having to check it only at the start and only being able to re-check it by undoing all of your panning.

Dean Roddey
Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems
www.charmedquark.com
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