Hello,
 
So I just finished recording some songs and wish to export the stems as someone else will be mixing them.  Right now, all my VST synths were recorded as stereo tracks (as that is just the default for them).   

Some of them I wish to keep as stereo for stereo type sounds, easy enough, just export the track as is.  
 
But some of my tracks (kick, snare, bass, etc...) I want to export as mono (kick and bass will be center) and stuff like the snare, hats, and other elements that don't have stereo information, I want the person mixing my track to decide on the panning, so therefore I will need those converted to mono.   

I see there are several ways to do this (or so I think) and I was wondering if there is a best way to do this for exporting them for a mixing engineer.

I see the "Interpolate" button, but also when bouncing I see there is an option for "Mono".  There is also "Convert track to mono" and maybe other ways that I am missing.
 
Simply put, what is the right/best way to take my stereo VST softsynth tracks and give them to a mix engineer as mono tracks?
 
Oh, and another thing which I believe has to do with Panning laws, but I noticed in the past, sometimes bouncing to mono adds 3dbs... but also changes the sonic quality of the sound.  How do I bounce to mono without this happening?
 
Thank You!

*bump*

another thing I am thinking, when I use session drummer, it puts out stereo tracks, but who wants a stereo kick drum?  once I bounce, it should go to mono right?  What is the best work flow for this?

Another thing I don't understand:  I see you can have a mono clip AND stereo clip in the same track....  so is there such a thing as a MONO or STEREO track?   
 

stereo mono interleave button

Session drummer's multiple outputs can be configured as stereo or mono.

If a stereo track contains the same information (audio) in both channels then if you convert it to mono and combine the two channels into a single mono track that track will be louder by 3dB. It's
Iike adding 1+1, the answer will always equal 2, not one. An easy way to see what's happening is to take a mono track containing audio and cloning it. Run both tracks into the same bus. With the track faders set to the same level the bus will be louder than either track. It will be as loud as the two tracks summed together.

Panning laws don't really come into this unless the balance control on the stereo track is not set centrally. Mono tracks have pan controls, but the same control becomes a balance (between left and right content) control on a stereo track.

As for a mono track sounding different to stereo, that can happen if the two stereo channels don't contain the same audio. Any phase differences between them can lead to some frequencies being boosted when added together and others cancelling each other out.

The easiest way to convert a stereo track to mono is to switch the track interleave button to mono. Then deal with any unwanted issues that appear. Boosted volume is easily compensated for by use of the track fader and if it turns out there's undesirable phase issues then it may be best to just leave the track in stereo.

You can also insert Audio FX -> Cakewalk -> Channel Tools and there double click on L and R sliders to center.
 

If you bounce the synth to track (which I do), select MONO from the dropdown in the options box that opens up.
 
For a mono signal, have it output in stereo shouldn't be much of a difference.  It just uses two WAV files (L and R) instead of a centred one.  You can still pan it wherever you like.

Exporting in mono can bump up the volume and if you're close to using up the available headroom, this can even result in distortion. It is the result of a design decision to include EVERYTHING downstream of the export. While this makes sense for stereo exports, it does not for mono.
 
Unless there is at least 6 dB of headroom in a track, the approach I use is to drop the master fader by -6 dB before doing a mono export, and select Mono in the export dialog. This allows including any downstream processing, but guarantees that any volume build up will not cause problems. Still, after doing an export, I recommend verifying that the resulting audio has at least some headroom.
 
Due to the confusion I often see in the forums, I wrote a pretty thorough article on exporting with SONAR for the March 2017 issue of Sound on Sound magazine.
 
 
 
 

Anderton
Exporting in mono can bump up the volume and if you're close to using up the available headroom, this can even result in distortion. It is the result of a design decision to include EVERYTHING downstream of the export. While this makes sense for stereo exports, it does not for mono.
 
Unless there is at least 6 dB of headroom in a track, the approach I use is to drop the master fader by -6 dB before doing a mono export, and select Mono in the export dialog. This allows including any downstream processing, but guarantees that any volume build up will not cause problems. Still, after doing an export, I recommend verifying that the resulting audio has at least some headroom.
 
Due to the confusion I often see in the forums, I wrote a pretty thorough article on exporting with SONAR for the March 2017 issue of Sound on Sound magazine.
 
 
 
 

 
Thanks for the explanation and the link to the SOS magazine.  That makes sense, but one thing I *think* i am noticing, besides the 3db boost, it also changes the tonality of the sound itself.  Even on stuff like kicks.  I think the reason must be there might be some SLIGHT stereo information creating a seperation, but when they are folded in together to mono they sound different?  for me this 909 style kick got a bit more boomy (not just louder).
 
The other dilemna here is this:
 
sometimes I don't know if the synth sound i am going to use is going to be a mono type sound or something with stereo information, so i always end up insert stereo outs for my softsynths.   However, if I decide to go with a sound that is more of a MONO sound, I then bounce to mono and like i said, it changes the sound slightly.
 
I use Battery 4 a lot for drums, which has its own panning inside, so I do stereo tracks there, but that means my KICK also must go out stereo, but then if I bounce to mono after it changes the sound.  So confused what the proper workflow is here.
 
Channel tools before the bounce to mono to emulate the mono sound?  I am unsure really.