"Mix in Mono"... all good engineers tend to suggest this. My question is, in Sonar environment, what is the best approach to mix in Mono?
Should I turn mono on in Master Bus or at the track level?
Is there a Sonar Plugin that converts all tracks and buses to mono temporarily for my mixing stage?
Thanks.
 
Shahed

At the track level only. Channel Tools can do almost anything to do with stereo and mono. You can use it to make a stereo source mono. 

John
At the track level only. Channel Tools can do almost anything to do with stereo and mono. You can use it to make a stereo source mono. 

could you pls explain why mono at track level? you are only checking if/how your mix translates to mono playback systems. those systems sum the master to mono ...

Because once you've got your mix working in mono you can then start panning things to the sides.
 
Seeing as you have Channel Tools inserted on every (stereo) track it's easy to place each track EXACTLY where you want in the stereo field. Mono tracks don't need this.
 
 

Only a suggestion from a novice mix engineer...
 
I do this on the Master bus by clicking the interleave button. This brings the entire mix down to mono so you can hear how it sounds and fix any problems.
 
If there are you may have to try going through any other stem busses to see if you can find the conflict (like a bus being fed by doubled guits or your drum bus or whatever). If you find something that sounds wonky try inverting the phase of any doubled tracks on the track level and check again. That may fix it.
 
If you have stereo effects going that can contribut too I think so you can try disabling those to see if that helps and make alternate plans.
 
I really have no idea what I'm talking about though but that's how I do it. I very rarely encounter bad phase issues and if I do a simple invert phase works.
 
You may want to try this in the Techniques sub forum (or just do a google search because I'm sure this has been discussed many time already).
 
Cheers.

I do this always outside the DAW after the audio-interface.
 

Bristol_Jonesey
Because once you've got your mix working in mono you can then start panning things to the sides.
 
Seeing as you have Channel Tools inserted on every (stereo) track it's easy to place each track EXACTLY where you want in the stereo field. Mono tracks don't need this.
 
 

Correct.  Thanks for explaining this so well. 

I throw Boz Digital Labs' Panipulator on my master bus. It's free and hardly uses any cpu.
 
http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/panipulator/

Bristol_Jonesey
Because once you've got your mix working in mono you can then start panning things to the sides.
 
Seeing as you have Channel Tools inserted on every (stereo) track it's easy to place each track EXACTLY where you want in the stereo field. Mono tracks don't need this.
 

OK. I think I understand now ... so you're going for frequency balance first on a complete mono mix, only afterwards start panning (height first, then width)? It's different "philosophy" than going width first and only checking for mono compatibility by summing the master, checking whether it still sounds good on a mono system.
 
May I ask how often you (or anyone else reading this) really applies the full blown mono-first-on-track-level mixing approach considering most consumer devices are stereo these days?

By far the best way to do it is outside your interface.  I use a spare headphone output on my digital mixer and there will always be one on most interfaces as well.
 
The best way to do it is to sum the L and R channels in a small passive mixer perhaps and feed a single channel amplifier and a single mono speaker.  The speaker can be smaller too eg Auratone type size.  NOT your two main speakers in mono.  That is nowhere near as effective as one speaker.  Mono means one not two producing the same output.  Even two speakers producing mono will give you some stereo imaging due to the nature of sound arriving at both ears at slightly different times.  It adds to the mono confusion.
 
A different mono speaker also increases the number of systems you are hearing your mix on which is never a bad thing.  And a small speaker shows up all sorts of mix issues too.  It is also good down at low volume too but that is another story I guess.
 
The reason why this works is you never have to put anything on your masterbuss or switch it into mono etc.  It is just a simple matter of turning up the headphone level feeding the mono system.
 
All your sounds now will line up behind each other in the small mono speaker.  If they are too similar in sound and musical parts then they blend and will not sound separated.  If you want to similar parts to be more separated then making them that way in a mono speaker goes a long way once they are panned etc..in stereo.
 
Any wide chorus effects etc may also sum badly in mono and therefore you will know you have to rectify that by possibly doing polarity reversals on one side and checking again etc.. Some very wide synth sounds don't collapse well in mono either alerting you to make adjustments etc..Using tight delays to create stereo width (which IMO is a slack thing to do) often performs badly in mono too. eg comb filtering etc..
 
You never know when you music will be summed to mono.  It happens all the time.  Be ready for it.  Never just assume your mixes will always be heard in a wide stereo situation.
 
You can also use it very creatively too.  I have heard some great mixes that start out in mono (and sound great) then they just smoothly spread out to stereo over time. They can jump back into mono for a short period etc..