Hello,
 
I have a bunch of tracks with bass and kick drum sounds coming from softsynths.  These synths are stereo.  I want to make my bass sounds to be mono.  What is the best method to achieve this?
 
Thank You,
alewgro

There are several ways. You can use Channel Tools as a plug-in and pan the individual sides of the stereo channel anywhere you want, including to center.
 
Or from the Clips menu choose "Convert to Mono." Careful, though; this just sums the channels together, so they might distort when combined. You may need to choose Process > Gain and lower the gain before converting to mono.

Thank you Anderton.  I was hoping more for making a mono synth track or something.   I remember in older versions you could insert either a stereo or mono track.   

Maybe I'm not understanding what you want. Mono can be either a track with one channel, or a stereo track with two channels that each contain the same audio. The audible results are the same. Some plug-ins have difficulty with mono signals but that's the only difference that might get in your way.
 
What is it exactly you want to accomplish? Have the track exit the synth in mono, mix it as a mono track, or...?

If this is a soft synth then change the track to mono. If you're using a Simple Instrument Track (i.e. a single synth track which combines audio and MIDI) then you'll have to split the track into an audio and MIDI pair before you can make the switch. It's kind of crazy that Sonar removes the stereo interleave button on Simple Instrument Tracks, but what can you do. Just right click on the track, select "Split Instrument Track," then on the audio half of the track in the console (or in the inspector), there should be a stereo interleave button right above the mute button. It will show a two circle icon for stereo, and a one circle icon for mono.
 
If you then want to recombine the audio/MIDI pair into a Simple Instrument Track again, just right click on one of the tracks and select "Make Instrument Track." It's worth remembering that to combine an audio & MIDI track into a Simple Instrument Track, both tracks must point to the same synth. So if you change the routing of either track after splitting them, you won't be able to recombine them unless you change the routing back.
 
However there are other options too, in addition to the ones Craig mentioned above. There are plugins which can center bass frequencies below a certain threshold on a stereo track. TP Basslane is a free one that works very well and you can download it here: http://www.toneprojects.com/products/plug-ins/basslane/
 
A plugin like this would be ideal if, for example, you have a cool sounding bass patch that has some interesting stereo information in the higher frequencies. You could set the threshold on TP Basslane to something like 150Hz, then everything below that frequency (i.e. the bass part) would be perfectly centered while the higher frequency stuff would retain its stereo placement. You can really give your tracks a lot more "oomph" with this plugin, I love it. 

Anderton
There are several ways. You can use Channel Tools as a plug-in and pan the individual sides of the stereo channel anywhere you want, including to center.
 
Or from the Clips menu choose "Convert to Mono." Careful, though; this just sums the channels together, so they might distort when combined. You may need to choose Process > Gain and lower the gain before converting to mono.

Thanks for that tip Craig. Didn't know that could happen.

fitzj

Anderton
There are several ways. You can use Channel Tools as a plug-in and pan the individual sides of the stereo channel anywhere you want, including to center.
 
Or from the Clips menu choose "Convert to Mono." Careful, though; this just sums the channels together, so they might distort when combined. You may need to choose Process > Gain and lower the gain before converting to mono.

Thanks for that tip Craig. Didn't know that could happen.

Specifically, use Process > Apply Effect > Gain to drop the gain by 3dB prior to converting to mono.

change the tracks input from a stereo out to just a Left Out from the synth. 
 
 
i was was testing IK's Quad Imager yesterday vs Boz Digitals Mongoose. Both are multi-band stereo controls. In the end I preferred Quad Imager as it has 4 bands vs. 2, and doesnt boost the bass when monoing it. 
 
 

alewgro
Thank you Anderton.  I was hoping more for making a mono synth track or something.   I remember in older versions you could insert either a stereo or mono track.   

You still can. To create a mono track, select a mono input on your soundcard, like Audio L or Audio 1. To create a stereo track, select a stereo input, like Audio LR, Audio 1+2 or Audio Stereo (depending on your soundcard). 

alewgro
Hello,
 
I have a bunch of tracks with bass and kick drum sounds coming from softsynths.  These synths are stereo.  I want to make my bass sounds to be mono.  What is the best method to achieve this?
 
Thank You,
alewgro

To be way clear:
You have ONE midi track sent to a synth
The return from the synth is stereo
You have not rendered the synth output to a wav file (freeze)
You want the return from the synth to be mono
 
What synths?