Gary McCoy
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Summing a stereo mix
First let me explain my problem: I have only one working ear. Born that way. It is only a minor problem for me except when it comes to mixing. You see, for a one-eared person, stereo is merely a concept. I cannot experience it. I live in a mono world.
I always mix in mono to adjust levels and eq and such, then, using logic and experience, I pan various instruments to attain some separation. It is rudimentary, but it works fine.
But...I want to listen to my stereo mix in mono. If I sum the two stereo channels (by using a "Y" cord), and feed it into one speaker, am I going to get phase cancellation problems, or will it be accurate?
I know mixers have long listened on a single Auralex speaker. How is that done? How is the stereo summed to the Auralex? Any tips are welcomed and appreciated.
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The Maillard Reaction
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 13:48:47
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The idea, if you wish to mix in stereo, is to do so in such a way that when you collapse it to mono that there is no perceived loss of level at various frequencies due to comb filtered phase cancellation effects.
Personally I enjoy mono mixes.
I'd say that if you mix the stereo conservatively and enjoy the mono monitoring then you will be ok. If you perceive problems while listening in mono then there are indeed some things that can be changed, but if it sounds good in mono it is a what you hear is what you get situation.
I'd advise that you consider hard pan left center right style panning and concentrate on levels to achieve the sound scape... that way you can be assured that people are hearing, more or less, what you are hearing.
Or, if it were me, I'd consider simply working to make good mono mixes and sharing that with people with the confidence that it will sound good on their systems as well.
best regards,
mike
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drewfx1
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 14:04:33
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You don't want to do it with a Y-cord.
Just do it in Sonar. You can either use the mono/stereo switch or, if you have Channel Tools you can just put it on your Master (stereo) buss and set it up so that it pans all the information from both channels to one side or the other. Then you can just turn it on when you want to hear mono.
 In order, then, to discover the limit of deepest tones, it is necessary not only to produce very violent agitations in the air but to give these the form of simple pendular vibrations. - Hermann von Helmholtz, predicting the role of the electric bassist in 1877.
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Middleman
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 14:49:46
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bitflipper
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 19:20:22
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I have only one working ear. ...for a one-eared person, stereo is merely a concept. I cannot experience it. I live in a mono world. You and Brian Wilson. Some have theorized that his monophonic auditory perception was actually a key factor to his superb mixes. I just know that when I'm happily grooving on "I Get Around", keeping beat on the steering wheel and singing as many parts as I can squeeze in, I am certainly not thinking "this would be so much better with the voices panned apart".
 All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. My Stuff
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BretB
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 21:15:09
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You can find a simple and FREE vst plugin to select mono. No wiring, no switches. Insert this on the master bus and your done.
Sonar Platinum - A&H ZED R16 - KRK VXT4's - Yamaha DTXpress IV & Gretsch Catalina Maple kits "Music is what feelings sound like" https://soundcloud.com/bret575b
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John T
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 21:19:23
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Agree with Bit about Wilson; incredible stuff. I remember seeing a thing on some documentary a few years back where George Martin and Wilson were both in front of a console with the Pet Sounds multitracks. Wish I could remember what it was, would love to see it again. Anyway, Martin has a bit of a fiddle with the knobs, and Wilson very graciously says "Wow, that's even better than I did it." And then leans over and tweaks some stuff and makes it right. It's really funny, you can see there's a massive amount of mutual respect, but you can also see that Wilson's grasp of what he was doing is completely undimmed.
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John T
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Re:Summing a stereo mix
2011/10/02 21:20:27
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Ayway, puzzled as to why anyone would want to use a plug in to check things in mono; it's built right into Sonar, just press the interleave button on the master bus. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not sure what that would be.
http://johntatlockaudio.com/Self-build PC // 16GB RAM // i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz // Nofan 0dB cooler // ASUS P8-Z77 V Pro motherboard // Intel x-25m SSD System Drive // Seagate RAID Array Audio Drive // Windows 10 64 bit // Sonar Platinum (64 bit) // Sonar VS-700 // M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 // KRK RP-6 Monitors // and a bunch of other stuff
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