Big Thanks for all the info from the gigging engineers out there, I does appear from your testimonies this is much less of a problem than it used to be ,certainly at the top end. the advice is still solid for many reasons beyond club playback though. Also I found a free alt to arxone for MAC users www.whiteelephantaudio.com/plugins/monstr Also Also: dimension in serum and the stand alone xfer plugin is actually 'mono safe' either it was changed or I was confusing it with another one.
First of all, thank you for your teachings. I use a lot of reference tracks since I saw a previous video from your channel. My question is that running the correlometer on those reference tracks I notice a lot of this kind of correlation issues and I don't understand how this can be possible. For example, I am using Dmitry Molosh - Cascade as a ref and half of the spectrum is below cero. Is this a case of what you are explaining above in this comment? thx in advance.
Thanks for this video, one of the best videos I've seen on this subject, and I really appreciate you actually going through specific scenarios one by one to reveal your methodology for how you would approach it. I've always struggled a bit with things like detuned saw synths, Reese basses, brass, etc. I think you've helped to showcase a workflow that helps in tackling this. I definitely agree that doing your overall leveling is most ideal in mono, I just never really thought about doing some simple mid-side volume separately to pull back the sides if it's too hot when pushed to stand out in mono. Overthinking it most likely. I also instantly downloaded Correlometer, because I guess I didn't know I was missing multiband correlation metering in my life. Any thoughts on iZotope's Imager as an alternative to Arx One? It's also technically a free plugin, it's just the full Ozone version has a few extra bells and whistles. Guess whatever's most CPU efficient probably wins if the features are similar enough.
@LETTMusic thanks. arx one is multiband, ozone imager free is not, but the module inside the full ozone is multiband so that is equivalent. Are you on Mac? Why did you need one?
@@Bthelick I'm on Windows. I've got plenty of plugins, so was just curious if there were any benefits you saw in Arx One over anything else. I guess the phase rotate option and the ability to play with L, R or Sum of different bands separately does give it some extra flexibility. I know sometimes multi-band plugins can introduce slight phase issues around the band splits depending how steep the rolloffs of those bands are, but kind of hard to know without diving into something like Plugin Doctor to analyze. Also, I know a good number of plugins are trying to do some of that 'Safe Bass' approach. Brainworx/Plugin Alliance has a 'Monomaker' knob to roll off the low end and tighten up the bottom end. If you look at what those do under the hood in Plugin Doctor, it's simple mid-side volume, rolling off sides and slightly boosting mid to gain compensate. The 'trick' they use for Stereo Width knobs is simply more gain on the side signal only.
I'm glad I know of this little corner of youtube. I feel like I'm getting advice that isn't "use this compressor/limiter setting to get a louder mix." A lot of amateur "producers" fall for this clickbait drivle because they don't know any better. Here, I know I'm getting solid and nuanced advice.
Well everyone here is now dumber for listening to this guy, including you. Get off YT and go to University, study, get qualified, its the only place you'll learn
@@sgttoxiiczz I agree! Started watching a couple of years ago after lockdown, I believe. Since then I've learned so much from him. I remember the first video I watched being about piano house
@@sgttoxiiczz when another producer is familiar with this channel it tells me that they actually understand and care about the quality of their productions
@@lout9231 I probably know more about music than you would learn in a 100 years, Get yourself to a University and start studying, that's what i recommend. You have no idea what you are talking about
I am a club sound engineer and almost all club sound systems run in stereo (except for subs). But of course almost no one gets good stereo imaging in a club, so the techniques you mentioned are very good to get more even sound and less phasing :)
in our club we had following configuration so any place you would be in any rotation you want, you will hear stereo (maybe inverse sometimes, but still) :) L .................. R [dance floor] R ................. L
I also have run sound systems in clubs and small festivals for years and always ran it in stereo. I usually mono'd the bass off at 100hz or thereabouts
Yeah no clue why anyone would run in mono? Unless you're playing out of an aux output or something. I feel it would be harder to go to mono than it would be to set up stereo lol
@@Bthelick Been working as a live sound engineer on festivals and clubs for 20 years. We always run the PA's in stereo. Never seen a club that's running on mono.
I went to the biggest techno festival in Mexico this year and the sound was mega wide in every scenario, and I felt like the music was in 3D. Loved it.
@ALLforROME my friend this is a channel for music production and art enjoyment. If you come to this place to spit when somebody says they had a good concert experience, gosh that is sad.
senior sound engineer here; No line array at festivals are setup mono, its industry standard Left / Right / Subs(mono) / Fills (mono) / Delays (mono). The console mix is main LR, but then matrixed by the system tech to the areas of the PA, mono sum takes place at the drive rack. Yes in a nightclub there will be a distrobuted PA in many corners of the room that will be in MONO, but if there are Mains or Stacks they will be in stereo. however you are correct, making sure your mixes are compatibile in mono sum means; you have a mix that will translate well out in the field on all systems.
@@rollthetape88 yea u are correct. But as far as live band mixing. U never pan hard left/right. On a big stage. If u do the one side wil not get the full band. End fase it the crowd is never in the middel of the pa.
Nobody has explained mixing mono as clearly as this video has, and these tools are insane, I didn’t even know I needed them. Nothing sucks more than dropping a track on club speakers and they just die on the drop.
What most people don't realise is all multi zone systems are mono. Stadiums, malls, restaurants, hotels, clubs, bars. Anything that has music in the lobby and the bar and the toilet and the dancefloor etc. Needs to be in mono. When you have 200 speakers scattered around the venue, which ones get the right, which ones get the left. If there is just one speaker in the toilet which side does it get. The answer is every speaker gets everything, mono.
That's sort of not exactly true. Play a track on one of those speakers and compare it to you putting your mix in mono in your DAW with a stereo system for one.
This ignores summing as an option on literally every digital mixer for the last multiple decades. You can totally run your mains in stereo, and the rest of your matrixes in mono. In fact, many stadiums do this. Most engineers like having the stereo control despite rarely doing any stereo mixing live.
I dunno. I remember an internet gem where the bassist of bassists (Les Claypool) payed some nerds to put some speakers on a spinning platform. Is that 3D sound?
Most systems I have encountered and run are ,in fact, in stereo. Even the "mono stack" in my profile pic I ran in stereo. So not sure why this whole "the big clubs are all in mono!" Is still such common thing on youtube. HOWEVER, mono checks are absolutely still helpful and in live settings the left and right signal are not isolated to either ear on ANY system. So all the advice absolutely holds up, it just annoys me that people keep passing afound the "big systems are all mono" thing lol
I know some systems are run in stereo, but of all the live engineers I've spoken too and researched the majority said they summed to mono. I've found stereo is more common at the very top end of installations where room and system were designed together at the building stage. Like you say the advice is generally useful but I'm certainly willing to change the rhetoric if enough engineers say otherwise. Thanks for letting me know.
@@willstott5453 all the ones I work with, do stereo tops and mono bass Some use delays on some of the bass cabs to “steer” things and change the dispersion etc You can hear it, especially on outdoor gigs But yeah, mono compatibility is important, anyone off axis or close to one speaker, isn’t going to hear a stereo image, but having width artfully applied to the right elements can sound huge! But that’s why I think it’s important to play with width and not get too enthusiastic with panning. It should sound like all the elements are there when you’re near one speaker, and you don’t want it to sound like a combfiltery mess when it is summed (for whatever reason, maybe a Bluetooth speaker or one of these mono clubs)
@@willstott5453 Absolutely true. I know several techno clubs in Berlin, which run their systems in stereo. I also worked by myself as technician in a club. It might be true for some events but at my experience it is far from the "majority" here. Maybe it's a regional thing.
I work as a DJ at a club in Canada. I'm the closest thing the club has to an audio engineer so I tweak the sound system regularly. It's definitely a stereo system. Of course the subwoofers are sent a mono signal, but there are various ceiling speakers either being fed a left or right signal. The speakers are oriented with stereo image in mind.. not calling it a professional set up, but it sounds pretty good. I've never heard any of my mixes fall apart on that set up
It's all about that centre line yo. Dip in and out of stereo and mono when you mix to check every now and then. Even if you already have a good idea, it's not a bad habit to form.
@@WEHAVETHISDREAM Headphones only give you two parts of what is a four part picture you gotta work with. Without a drop on the centre line or the sub frequency content, mixing is on challenge mode. Not impossible, but you need a LOT of innate skill.
Everyone in EDM acts like they have the biggest bestest secrets meanwhile only a handful are successful. Just because you share your trade "secrets" it doesnt mean the people that find them have the actual talent and skill to implement them better than you or on a similar level. If more people finally realised that we would have so much more specialised knowledge available.
I think what’s worth mentioning in terms of why the level of some sounds drop in mono is that a the mono sound is exactly the sum of left and right divided by 2. so when a signal is panned to the right, it’s getting summed up with the quieter left signal and divided by 2. that results in a massive level drop. Ps I absolutely love your videos, I regained the motivation for music production ever since I found you. Couldn’t be more thankful
Careful with the terms though. What was presented here, was not mono v stereo, but mid v stereo. Mid/side processing is different from mono processing. mid is simply L + R, side is simply L - R. You divide the complete signal into the sum of both channels and their differences. The difference to mono becomes obvious when having an extreme example: A signal only on the right will result in mid = R and side = -R (!), whereas true mono results in 0.5 * R mid/side computing can cause phase issues (see extreme example). When not experienced, better use true mono conversion from your DAW rather than mid/side processing tools on the tracks.
@@sevenfifteen It also depends on what panning law you are using when mixing ... some panning laws will do +3db hard panned, others +6db (as well as inbetween, less, more and 0 change) ... some try and keep an equal volume as you pan it from center to left/right, so that number looks like a curve instead of a linear line dropping between center and hardpanned, like all the fixed values previously mentioned. These will all fold down to mono differently.
Indeed, this was very helpful. When I balance a mix, I use the core elements first and balance them: Kick, bass, main melodic element, main hi hat. The elements are balanced using the mono switch of the Utility in Ableton which I have on my master bus. All less important elements have to work around those core elements. Don't know if this is correct, but it works for me. Nevertheless, I currently work on a track where the main melodic element HAS TO use tons of reverb and delay as an artistic decision. Since I didn't hear of the Correlometer before, I quickly checked all elements in solo with the correlometer. Phew, no element went below "0". But there were a lot of useful tips in your video. Thank you very much for sharing.
Good point! I have heard before that clubs often play music in mono, and I check my mixes in mono, but I should probably make them more mono compatible. Super wide basses for example that sound great in stereo often collapse into tiny basses in mono.
this is crazy good advice. I have been so frustrated with my music since I started producing two years ago, because everything sounds horrible (or not what I intended) when it isnt at home. SO good
This was truly mixing Gold, especially for us guys that are making club type music. I don't ever remember being in a club and admiring the stereo image, just the power of the kick, bass and main elements, but mostly bass...The way forward is Mono !
This is easily one of the videos that has influenced my production the most. Before I never cared about mono compatibility and have noticed a lot of phase issues because of it. Now when I produce I always think about what elements I want in mono and what to be in stereo. I usually have my core important elements(kick, bass, leads, clap, hi hat) in mono and more atmospheric elements(chord layers, fx, some pads, reverb) in stereo. Overall I’ve only implemented this within the past few days and have noticed amazing results!
12:36 serum's hyper dimension, specifically the dimension module is mono compatible, it might've been an update or something but i just checked and it retains the mid signal while adding some delay(possibly more) to the sides
Mate, I have to comment again, because I don't think a lot understand what you did here with this video. This is one of those key turn around moments in music mixing. There are loads of videos on phase issues, but this is literally the first video I've seen where they're solved. Thank you man. I'd been on this issue for a looong time, so long, I'd convinced myself that it was probably not that important anyway. The funny part is I had and end removed voxengo plugins because I didn't use them the right way. The funny part is, I found this channel maybe 2-3 weeks ago. A lot of good channels here on YT are hard to find, but when you do, they impact your whole process. This is one of them, and this particular video is a gem. Please make more videos on these looked over topics. PS: I've been jamming on "Happy and Living the Good Life" on Spotify 😉
Thank you. I try not to dip into the engineering side too much as I think it's well covered on YT (or over saturated) and in truth IRL mix problems aren't the end of the world for music. But I will try to make videos on the topic if it's not been covered well or there's lots of misinformation out there
You probably saved my whole career as a future acid techno producer and live performer ! If I would have presented my track live in a club next year (2025) without this knowledge, my sound would have gone under. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Subscription and thumbs up as a minimal thanks. I've downloaded all the plug-ins and I'm now fundamentally changing my approach to width. Many thanks from Cologne/Germany!
everything is production issue, sound selection is the track fundation (even more in electronic music). If your sounds are great aswell as the arrangement, mixing is just a work of balance and giving more depth to the track instead of fixing thing. Lines are blury in electronic music cause producer/mixing & mastering engineer are often the same person, but it's the same as working with a band. If the producer/recording engineer make a good job choosing the right mic at the right position, tuning the right drum, using the right amp, then it makes the mixing engineer's work way more easier (but the band still need to be good to make a good song). Just like cooking, if the people in the garden take great care of their plant, they'll give the cooker the best ingredient, and it will give the best food :)
Simply put it's a skill-issue more than anything. "Vibe-driven" techno, produced by a dude who breaths creativity, but hates the science, should be close to mono. It's a safe path. Plenty of producers out there who understand the tech so well their mixes are spacious as shit, but still mono compatible. This video doesn't really do justice to them.
Hmmmm maybe? Depends on your definition. in my opinion the producer would not be the same person as the engineer. And it's the engineers job to do this. But I suppose you could argue it's the producers job to know the destination of the music, and they would be the one to inform the engineer of that intention.
@@Bthelick In my world you have to be everything, especially if you can't afford engineers to do the mixing / post production work. I've been a Trance and Progressive Producer for a majority of my 20+ year doing this, and I had to get in deep to learn mixing. I can't just produce the track. I have to mix as I go to know what I'm getting. Having said all this, this is a great video and I haven't done mono mixing enough especially as deep as this. You can't give A&Rs an excuse these days to find faults on your record which ultimately may be a pass for them.
Yup, as an ex-live sound engineer I can confirm 99% of what we mix is mono-ed out, even if we get stereo sends from keys and racks and suchlike. Quite often that even extends to just using the left hand channel, completely ignoring the right, (or vice-versa, depending on what the stage end guy could be bothered to plug in). So beware! :-D
This explains a problem I've had for years when setting up my sound system for large beach parties. I never thought it was worth the time to fix because I didn't know it was diminishing our efforts to project sound down the beach further. It also explains why the crowd always gravitated to the same spot on the dance floor. Interesting, I'm glad I never needed to set up for indoor dancing, that requires math skills
I have worked in four three nightclubs in Berlin as a sound engineer and we run our sound systems in stereo. But I have heard this mono 'myth' a lot. Maybe it used to be the case? For example in an old pioneer dj mixer I have (DJM500) there is a switch on the master channel to convert the output signal to mono. But I have seen nothing like it on DJ mixers used in clubs nowadays (Allen and Heath Xone 92 and 96, Pionneer DJM900, A9 and V-10). So as far as my experience goes, clubs do use stereo sound. Of course this depends on room configuration. If you have an oddly shaped room for example, mono might make sense. But if you have a rectangular room with the main tops at one end of the room, and delay lines going along side of the walls, then why not use stereo? Most of the crowd will be in a position to enjoy the stereo field. And for the people right at the center, you can have a mono front fill. Edit: of course subs are always in mono. I don't mean to say I know everything or Im right, actually I would be curious to hear diverging opinions cos I guess there is a reason why people say clubs use mono playback
Thank you for the info. It's actually very hard to find concrete data for many clubs. Yes, I think mono was more common before, and less and less so today.
It’s quite clear that whenever the listener is moving or when there are multiple listeners spread throughout a room, a mono setup is often the best solution for consistent sound quality. That said, thank you for sharing the video-it’s a great resource, as I suspect many people don’t fully realize this.
I absolutely love that you show a solution using freebies. It's so great. Not only are the information very usefull but the solution is just there for everyone. luvely my brudda
This is great advice and I do occasionally still run into mono summed systems but rarely. My experience being an A1 in Atlanta is that most systems at least around here are full stereo and sometimes use front fills with summed mono feed. As a DJ I have played on many different systems including voids which in my case both times were stereo configured. I have only encountered one system that has been ran in mono for my entire career and I made a complaint about it as there is really no reason for mono summed audio any more especially with front fills. I have seen most line arrays for fests ran as a combo of stereo with some mono mixed in to maintain stereo image while making sure no audio is lost. Now granted, these are edm only shows, I play dubstep and run audio for techno and other genres but obviously these shows are ran different than bands which definitely I see more mono summing happening. It is always good practice to check mono imaging of your tracks to make sure they will play nice with any sound system but I don't think clubs would be the primary use case, instead I think it would be bluetooth speakers that are widely used now that have mono playback
"I have seen most line arrays for fests ran as a combo of stereo with some mono mixed in to maintain stereo image while making sure no audio is lost. Now granted, these are edm only shows" this. Most big (European) EDM festivals are (partially) in stereo. And is adds just a little more spice on the experience.
nah dude, the way you explain this is beyond amazing, I'm so thankful for learning all your solutions to this problem. I'm a bass producer and this mono, mid-side and stuff was messing with me so hard! my songs on the car mix are absolute shit, but in headphones or my studio speakers is so different! 10/10 video! BTW you really know your shit! I will be so thankful if you can make a video on why SoundCloud playback and instagram videos demolish the quality of high and low freq of the songs when I upload or promote them
I think soundcloud is 128kbs playback, it's just harsh amounts of data compression. Data compression algorithms like MP3 try to shave off the bits of info you won't notice, the first things to go are side channel, high frequencies and sometimes extreme lows, transients suffer too. It's still our job to make sure it survives in all destinations though.
I've been having a major issue with panning and stereo on the lead synth and this video randomly popped up and was full of great information. instant sub from me!
The whole point of a line array is to give the audience as close as possible to the same audio experience, wherever they may be in the crowd (while also keeping sound from being audible in other stages as much as possible).
Amazing content and excellent, easy to follow guidance! Gonna be listening back to some previous mixes to see how I can clean them up using these techniques!
Actually Sound Systems in Clubs and at Festivals Play in Stereo. Due to phasing issues Bass is kept in Mono, but mid and high frequencies are indeed stereo, Even at multiroom systems. Thats why clubs mostly hire expensive sound technician to correctly install and adjust their sound systems. Even festivals got multiple sound engineers running across the place to check if everything lines up in stereo. That doesnt mean your track shouldnt be compadible for mono systems, a good mix indeed is it, but i wanted to correct the first two minutes in the video.
whenever I touch dimension mix inside serum for my plucky leads I think "hmm it sounds better, but also doesn't sound better", eventually I always decide to turn it off and I'm glad I do now that you mention it. What I notice mostly when mono-ing the music I like (anjuna) is hats not being wide anymore, the rest sounds pretty normal and danceable another amazing video from Bthelick, thank you just noticed that in one of my favorite tracks I produced the plucky melody that makes the whole song is completely different because delay is basically what makes it what it is when mono it doesn't sound like 8 playful fun notes/hits, it sounds like 3 boring notes it will be fun fixing this haha so glad I keep learning instead of releasing, I always learn something important
yeah me too. it turns out though either I'm mis-remembering or at some point in history steve duda made it mono safe. I still don't use the effect much though.
I’ve been touring as live sound engineer for 14 years. Never have I come across a mono system. We tend to do less panning of instruments in live sound but stereo fx and stereo keys are always good.
@@Bthelick Both. I’m with an electronic act at the moment but in theory it shouldn’t make a difference whether it’s machines or acoustic instruments. Subs are generally driven in mono. That could be where this myth of mono systems originates from. Low frequencies are omni-directional, and unlike high frequencies they’re more difficult to locate in space so even if you had a left/right sub arrangement and hard panned your kick to the left no one would know the difference, you’d be just be driving with half the power of the system. The main reason we use less panning in a live context is that if it’s a wide stage half the audience will miss the elements panned to the other side. The other reason can relate to speakers hung close to the walls on either side and driving up reflections off one wall or the other.
@@kangaroosport5566 Yeah I think you're spot on with the observation that the subs often being fed a mono signal from a matrix out or simmilar is the main contributor to the "most PA systems are mono" myth that seems to have been floating around TH-cam and message boards for ages, especially in regards to content realted to electronic music. It makes the mixing advice for artists much easier, just ensure a reasonably consistent sub and you're good. I worked in live for a time, not as an FoH engineer but doing monitors and stage, and really the only time I ever encountred a "true" mono setup was when something had gone wrong with the setup. And a few LCR setups.
I’ve been a producer and sound engineer working in clubs, venues, raves, festivals, etc for well over a decade. I would say less than 10% of the sound systems that I have engineered or performed on are ran in mono. Especially with higher end systems like Funktion One, Void, Danley, etc… those systems specifically are known for having incredible stereo image.
Ok, in pausing at 30 seconds in .... Ive been always told club systems and festivals are in mono but ive only ever encountered mono systems maybe 2-3 times in my 15+ year dj career in Australia. Ive always thought the biggest myth of all music production is its pointless having a stereo image because clubs are mono. I deliberately check for this as its always sparked my curiosity. Perhaps its different in other parts of the world. Ok now ill watch the rest of the video lol
@@Bthelick From what I've heard from my friends, some who are amateur live mixers for local venues and professionals for festivals is that for the majority of gigs, they run LCR. (now, dont quote me on that, it's been a while since I've had this discussion so I have to ask them again) It also depends on the type of performance. Is it live music with musicians or playback or a DJ set? Mono for live musicians makes alot more sense as you want to hear both guitars left of stage, not just left guitar, but I cant for the life of me see any reason why you would run playback or DJ sets through mono. Most EDM music doesnt pan instruments, it's just wide mixes, so you're not going to miss anything if you're standing left of stage. Honestly, I think this is some hangup from back in the day, like pre 2000's when live tech was a bit more rudimentary and alot of clubs ran systems that was cobbled together with bits and pieces with satelite speakers all over the room. That said, having a mix that works in mono is just good practice and your stereo mix is going to sound better for it, so preaching the scripture of Mono Compatability isnt wrong.
this is amazing. in this video i feel like i am genuinely learning such new information, even if it doesn’t necessarily apply to my music. this is real, reliable advice. i’m going to be watching out for more videos.
Thanks for this video. Well explained with good examples. Just when I thought I was starting to get the hang of mixing, I learn a whole new issue to account for…. Always more to improve on I suppose.
Such an interesting video! I often wonder why some of my mixes sound reasonably good in mono, and others...not so good 😅. This is definitely something I'll be paying more attention to now!
Top notch content! Certainly gives me the impetus to re-evaluate my understanding on the nuances of stereo field, and the extra 10% that gets the track further to completion.
It is one of the first things i learned, mix, master and check all in mono first & keep subs , kick and bass in mono , it will always be a listening game no matter how you do it , but the end result must match whit what is intended to create ,. You are a charm for the business , not all will like you bringing these massive little tips for free
I'm tired of keeping the smile into my chest... WOW! Thank you for the entire video... There are not many things we feel better and better watching... Thank you!
What a nice video. Finally i have learned how mono works and finally i do not think "eww mono, what do i need that for if i have Stereo Headphones". Can't wait to click that binaural Headphones Video
Huge subject nailed! Many thanks 🙏. Always enjoy your postings, not only is it fire education but highly entertaining. Fully appreciate the time spent putting this together…bows.
Another Great Video, Mixing Mono you hear about it but again Bthelick shows why, lets you hear it and the best part how to fix the various problems and with free tools. Anyone else feel like 80% of good music today is Mixing good sounds well for the all various playbacks?
Hi!! First time here!! I actually skipped the video a few seconds in.. But I came back right away, because the music you are working on is FIRE!! And after watching the entire tutorial, I learned stuff too!! I really hope you will release this banger!! Instant subscribe!! Looking forward to watch more!! Thank you!!
@@Bthelick Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, and also for you are releasing the track!! Now listening to and following you Spotify!! Have a great weekend!!
I've been experimenting clubs and festivals as an artist and only once I played in a club with mono soundsystem.. Luckily i was aware of those techniques you give that are in my opinion very important for a good mixing balance. Sometimes removing some side freq with the mid side EQ8 is enough to bring the wide elements where they belong. Thank you for this interesting video !
Amazing video! Great explanations and tempo of the video. I feel like I learned more in your 25 minutes than others hours. You just gained a SUB 👍🏻 Keep up the good work.
TY! This was the most understandable and explained reason why I abandoned a stereo guitar signal. I could never hear my part, but couldn't explain why.
I first got a hint at these problems when I was young watching a Metallica documentary, Bob Rock talked about a guitar technique called "the thickener" Which was simply a third guitar in the centre, so that the guitars planned left and right didn't die in mono.
At the end i think is the best to make one good balanced mix in mono, but have one very nice widened in stereo. More work, but what to do if there is places that your music will suffer because of the sound system. While i was listening your strings - they are so gentle and beautifull. why you should decide to lose them if your mix is colapsed in mono?! I think two mixes - mono and stereo - is the ultimate solution. Because why strugle making one mix sound good in stereo and the same time (more or less) good in mono? Just make it super cool in stereo, then put the mono buton on the master and "recreate" your track at mxing level once again... I dont know. Its just how i think. I will be happy to hear what you think! And thanks for the great tips in this video. They defenetly will help to inprove my mixes!!!
I agree with you 110%. One mono one stereo. New DJ here and so grateful to learn & apply this knowledge as a foundational LAW of producing high quality unbiased sets
The low end is probably a mono send using a matrix output or simmilar, but the tops are almost being sent 2-channel stereo audio from the FOH console via the amps, or direct to the cabs when using active speakers. This goes for clubs and festivals.
Big Thanks for all the info from the gigging engineers out there, I does appear from your testimonies this is much less of a problem than it used to be ,certainly at the top end. the advice is still solid for many reasons beyond club playback though.
Also I found a free alt to arxone for MAC users www.whiteelephantaudio.com/plugins/monstr
Also Also: dimension in serum and the stand alone xfer plugin is actually 'mono safe' either it was changed or I was confusing it with another one.
First of all, thank you for your teachings. I use a lot of reference tracks since I saw a previous video from your channel. My question is that running the correlometer on those reference tracks I notice a lot of this kind of correlation issues and I don't understand how this can be possible. For example, I am using Dmitry Molosh - Cascade as a ref and half of the spectrum is below cero. Is this a case of what you are explaining above in this comment? thx in advance.
@fitproteus it could be many things, either they or their engineer don't care, don't know, or know that they only play stereo venues
Thanks for this video, one of the best videos I've seen on this subject, and I really appreciate you actually going through specific scenarios one by one to reveal your methodology for how you would approach it. I've always struggled a bit with things like detuned saw synths, Reese basses, brass, etc. I think you've helped to showcase a workflow that helps in tackling this. I definitely agree that doing your overall leveling is most ideal in mono, I just never really thought about doing some simple mid-side volume separately to pull back the sides if it's too hot when pushed to stand out in mono. Overthinking it most likely. I also instantly downloaded Correlometer, because I guess I didn't know I was missing multiband correlation metering in my life.
Any thoughts on iZotope's Imager as an alternative to Arx One? It's also technically a free plugin, it's just the full Ozone version has a few extra bells and whistles. Guess whatever's most CPU efficient probably wins if the features are similar enough.
@LETTMusic thanks. arx one is multiband, ozone imager free is not, but the module inside the full ozone is multiband so that is equivalent. Are you on Mac? Why did you need one?
@@Bthelick I'm on Windows. I've got plenty of plugins, so was just curious if there were any benefits you saw in Arx One over anything else. I guess the phase rotate option and the ability to play with L, R or Sum of different bands separately does give it some extra flexibility.
I know sometimes multi-band plugins can introduce slight phase issues around the band splits depending how steep the rolloffs of those bands are, but kind of hard to know without diving into something like Plugin Doctor to analyze.
Also, I know a good number of plugins are trying to do some of that 'Safe Bass' approach. Brainworx/Plugin Alliance has a 'Monomaker' knob to roll off the low end and tighten up the bottom end. If you look at what those do under the hood in Plugin Doctor, it's simple mid-side volume, rolling off sides and slightly boosting mid to gain compensate. The 'trick' they use for Stereo Width knobs is simply more gain on the side signal only.
I'm glad I know of this little corner of youtube. I feel like I'm getting advice that isn't "use this compressor/limiter setting to get a louder mix." A lot of amateur "producers" fall for this clickbait drivle because they don't know any better. Here, I know I'm getting solid and nuanced advice.
Well everyone here is now dumber for listening to this guy, including you. Get off YT and go to University, study, get qualified, its the only place you'll learn
@@sgttoxiiczz I agree! Started watching a couple of years ago after lockdown, I believe. Since then I've learned so much from him. I remember the first video I watched being about piano house
@@sgttoxiiczz when another producer is familiar with this channel it tells me that they actually understand and care about the quality of their productions
No idea what you're on about but sounds like you've not been layering OTTs on your master for extra punch
@@lout9231 I probably know more about music than you would learn in a 100 years, Get yourself to a University and start studying, that's what i recommend. You have no idea what you are talking about
I am a club sound engineer and almost all club sound systems run in stereo (except for subs). But of course almost no one gets good stereo imaging in a club, so the techniques you mentioned are very good to get more even sound and less phasing :)
Thanks for the info, I think it's more common of late how long have you engineered?
in our club we had following configuration so any place you would be in any rotation you want, you will hear stereo (maybe inverse sometimes, but still) :)
L .................. R
[dance floor]
R ................. L
I also have run sound systems in clubs and small festivals for years and always ran it in stereo. I usually mono'd the bass off at 100hz or thereabouts
Yeah no clue why anyone would run in mono? Unless you're playing out of an aux output or something. I feel it would be harder to go to mono than it would be to set up stereo lol
@@Bthelick Been working as a live sound engineer on festivals and clubs for 20 years. We always run the PA's in stereo. Never seen a club that's running on mono.
I went to the biggest techno festival in Mexico this year and the sound was mega wide in every scenario, and I felt like the music was in 3D. Loved it.
@@kinetic-cybernetic techno fest in a 3rd world country that's controlled by drug Cartels. What could go wrong...shrugs 😂
@ALLforROME my friend this is a channel for music production and art enjoyment. If you come to this place to spit when somebody says they had a good concert experience, gosh that is sad.
@@ALLforROME What in the sad comment is this? They had fun and you make it a bad thing?
Techno&Trance events looks fantastic in South America! Check out the amazing techno sets on the YT channel called: "MedellinStyle" 👽
Take me there!!!
senior sound engineer here; No line array at festivals are setup mono, its industry standard Left / Right / Subs(mono) / Fills (mono) / Delays (mono). The console mix is main LR, but then matrixed by the system tech to the areas of the PA, mono sum takes place at the drive rack.
Yes in a nightclub there will be a distrobuted PA in many corners of the room that will be in MONO, but if there are Mains or Stacks they will be in stereo.
however you are correct, making sure your mixes are compatibile in mono sum means; you have a mix that will translate well out in the field on all systems.
Yes thanks this is what I was trying to say 🙏
@@rollthetape88 yea u are correct. But as far as live band mixing. U never pan hard left/right. On a big stage. If u do the one side wil not get the full band. End fase it the crowd is never in the middel of the pa.
Nobody has explained mixing mono as clearly as this video has, and these tools are insane, I didn’t even know I needed them. Nothing sucks more than dropping a track on club speakers and they just die on the drop.
What most people don't realise is all multi zone systems are mono. Stadiums, malls, restaurants, hotels, clubs, bars. Anything that has music in the lobby and the bar and the toilet and the dancefloor etc. Needs to be in mono. When you have 200 speakers scattered around the venue, which ones get the right, which ones get the left. If there is just one speaker in the toilet which side does it get. The answer is every speaker gets everything, mono.
great point
That's sort of not exactly true. Play a track on one of those speakers and compare it to you putting your mix in mono in your DAW with a stereo system for one.
This ignores summing as an option on literally every digital mixer for the last multiple decades. You can totally run your mains in stereo, and the rest of your matrixes in mono. In fact, many stadiums do this. Most engineers like having the stereo control despite rarely doing any stereo mixing live.
I dunno. I remember an internet gem where the bassist of bassists (Les Claypool) payed some nerds to put some speakers on a spinning platform.
Is that 3D sound?
Most systems I have encountered and run are ,in fact, in stereo. Even the "mono stack" in my profile pic I ran in stereo. So not sure why this whole "the big clubs are all in mono!" Is still such common thing on youtube. HOWEVER, mono checks are absolutely still helpful and in live settings the left and right signal are not isolated to either ear on ANY system. So all the advice absolutely holds up, it just annoys me that people keep passing afound the "big systems are all mono" thing lol
I know some systems are run in stereo, but of all the live engineers I've spoken too and researched the majority said they summed to mono. I've found stereo is more common at the very top end of installations where room and system were designed together at the building stage.
Like you say the advice is generally useful but I'm certainly willing to change the rhetoric if enough engineers say otherwise.
Thanks for letting me know.
Subs are usually mono. Sub is omnidirectional anyway, so pointless in stereo.
@@willstott5453 all the ones I work with, do stereo tops and mono bass
Some use delays on some of the bass cabs to “steer” things and change the dispersion etc
You can hear it, especially on outdoor gigs
But yeah, mono compatibility is important, anyone off axis or close to one speaker, isn’t going to hear a stereo image, but having width artfully applied to the right elements can sound huge!
But that’s why I think it’s important to play with width and not get too enthusiastic with panning. It should sound like all the elements are there when you’re near one speaker, and you don’t want it to sound like a combfiltery mess when it is summed (for whatever reason, maybe a Bluetooth speaker or one of these mono clubs)
@@willstott5453 Absolutely true. I know several techno clubs in Berlin, which run their systems in stereo. I also worked by myself as technician in a club. It might be true for some events but at my experience it is far from the "majority" here. Maybe it's a regional thing.
I work as a DJ at a club in Canada. I'm the closest thing the club has to an audio engineer so I tweak the sound system regularly. It's definitely a stereo system. Of course the subwoofers are sent a mono signal, but there are various ceiling speakers either being fed a left or right signal. The speakers are oriented with stereo image in mind.. not calling it a professional set up, but it sounds pretty good. I've never heard any of my mixes fall apart on that set up
Thank you. Cleared up why headphone mixes lost punch and wide sounds cancelled out in the monitors
Thanks so much Donald 🙏
It's all about that centre line yo. Dip in and out of stereo and mono when you mix to check every now and then. Even if you already have a good idea, it's not a bad habit to form.
For me, the headphones thing is a wake up call!
I knew that headphones are not stereo, BUT now i KNOW……….
@@WEHAVETHISDREAM Headphones only give you two parts of what is a four part picture you gotta work with. Without a drop on the centre line or the sub frequency content, mixing is on challenge mode. Not impossible, but you need a LOT of innate skill.
Others pay thousands to get this kind of teaching, but just give it away for free
Everyone in EDM acts like they have the biggest bestest secrets meanwhile only a handful are successful. Just because you share your trade "secrets" it doesnt mean the people that find them have the actual talent and skill to implement them better than you or on a similar level. If more people finally realised that we would have so much more specialised knowledge available.
I think what’s worth mentioning in terms of why the level of some sounds drop in mono is that a the mono sound is exactly the sum of left and right divided by 2. so when a signal is panned to the right, it’s getting summed up with the quieter left signal and divided by 2. that results in a massive level drop. Ps I absolutely love your videos, I regained the motivation for music production ever since I found you. Couldn’t be more thankful
Careful with the terms though. What was presented here, was not mono v stereo, but mid v stereo. Mid/side processing is different from mono processing. mid is simply L + R, side is simply L - R. You divide the complete signal into the sum of both channels and their differences. The difference to mono becomes obvious when having an extreme example: A signal only on the right will result in mid = R and side = -R (!), whereas true mono results in 0.5 * R
mid/side computing can cause phase issues (see extreme example). When not experienced, better use true mono conversion from your DAW rather than mid/side processing tools on the tracks.
@@karllagerfeld6823 3dB pan law makes this statement untrue
@ thx for the clarification!
@@sevenfifteen It also depends on what panning law you are using when mixing ... some panning laws will do +3db hard panned, others +6db (as well as inbetween, less, more and 0 change) ... some try and keep an equal volume as you pan it from center to left/right, so that number looks like a curve instead of a linear line dropping between center and hardpanned, like all the fixed values previously mentioned. These will all fold down to mono differently.
What a title…. Now we’re compelled to watch! 😊
@@BradyBeatsandTheTokenGirl Not his first rodeo.
I'm getting better at the TH-cam thing eh?
@@Bthelick LOLOLOLOL.... you always been better tho - Seriously you're doing the lords work and were thankful
Indeed, this was very helpful. When I balance a mix, I use the core elements first and balance them: Kick, bass, main melodic element, main hi hat. The elements are balanced using the mono switch of the Utility in Ableton which I have on my master bus. All less important elements have to work around those core elements. Don't know if this is correct, but it works for me.
Nevertheless, I currently work on a track where the main melodic element HAS TO use tons of reverb and delay as an artistic decision. Since I didn't hear of the Correlometer before, I quickly checked all elements in solo with the correlometer. Phew, no element went below "0".
But there were a lot of useful tips in your video. Thank you very much for sharing.
Good point! I have heard before that clubs often play music in mono, and I check my mixes in mono, but I should probably make them more mono compatible. Super wide basses for example that sound great in stereo often collapse into tiny basses in mono.
this is crazy good advice. I have been so frustrated with my music since I started producing two years ago, because everything sounds horrible (or not what I intended) when it isnt at home. SO good
This was truly mixing Gold, especially for us guys that are making club type music. I don't ever remember being in a club and admiring the stereo image, just the power of the kick, bass and main elements, but mostly bass...The way forward is Mono !
All my homies love bthelick. ❤
same with mine
T Shirt Tho
Best basic learning ever… from a beatmaker view without deep knowledge in mixing, it’s really important. So cheers from France
This is easily one of the videos that has influenced my production the most. Before I never cared about mono compatibility and have noticed a lot of phase issues because of it. Now when I produce I always think about what elements I want in mono and what to be in stereo. I usually have my core important elements(kick, bass, leads, clap, hi hat) in mono and more atmospheric elements(chord layers, fx, some pads, reverb) in stereo. Overall I’ve only implemented this within the past few days and have noticed amazing results!
Not a single video on youtube comes close to your quality of teaching. Thank you for these gems 🙏
12:36 serum's hyper dimension, specifically the dimension module is mono compatible, it might've been an update or something but i just checked and it retains the mid signal while adding some delay(possibly more) to the sides
Ah right I was about to check that because I remembered the stand alone xfer expander was mono compatible and wondered if he would update it
I will be putting great big warning labels on any tracks I produce. "DO NOT PLAY IN MONO!"
lmao
hahaha
@@NickT6630 same lol
what do you mean?
Nine Inch Nails literally had a "not mono compatible" warning sticker on their album once. It should totally be a thing!
its eye opening to watch an advanced tutorial 🤘🏻
Probably the most important video I’ve ever watched. This is huge for me personally 🙏🙏🙏
You've literally just solved so many issues for me in this video thank you so much 🙏
Mate, I have to comment again, because I don't think a lot understand what you did here with this video. This is one of those key turn around moments in music mixing. There are loads of videos on phase issues, but this is literally the first video I've seen where they're solved. Thank you man. I'd been on this issue for a looong time, so long, I'd convinced myself that it was probably not that important anyway. The funny part is I had and end removed voxengo plugins because I didn't use them the right way.
The funny part is, I found this channel maybe 2-3 weeks ago. A lot of good channels here on YT are hard to find, but when you do, they impact your whole process. This is one of them, and this particular video is a gem. Please make more videos on these looked over topics.
PS: I've been jamming on "Happy and Living the Good Life" on Spotify 😉
Thank you. I try not to dip into the engineering side too much as I think it's well covered on YT (or over saturated) and in truth IRL mix problems aren't the end of the world for music. But I will try to make videos on the topic if it's not been covered well or there's lots of misinformation out there
We understand , dont be so superior
You probably saved my whole career as a future acid techno producer and live performer ! If I would have presented my track live in a club next year (2025) without this knowledge, my sound would have gone under.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Subscription and thumbs up as a minimal thanks.
I've downloaded all the plug-ins and I'm now fundamentally changing my approach to width.
Many thanks from Cologne/Germany!
this is great, particularly the trick with msed balancing the mid then bringing up the side. fantastic
I look forward to my weekly 'you're doing that wrong' tutorial. I learn so much... Cheers :)
So many useful tricks on this one. For one of the trickiest and most pernicious topics. Thanks so much, brother!
So, it’s really a production issue more than a mixing issue. Producers should focus on mono compatible sounds. Great, great video!
everything is production issue, sound selection is the track fundation (even more in electronic music). If your sounds are great aswell as the arrangement, mixing is just a work of balance and giving more depth to the track instead of fixing thing.
Lines are blury in electronic music cause producer/mixing & mastering engineer are often the same person, but it's the same as working with a band. If the producer/recording engineer make a good job choosing the right mic at the right position, tuning the right drum, using the right amp, then it makes the mixing engineer's work way more easier (but the band still need to be good to make a good song).
Just like cooking, if the people in the garden take great care of their plant, they'll give the cooker the best ingredient, and it will give the best food :)
Simply put it's a skill-issue more than anything. "Vibe-driven" techno, produced by a dude who breaths creativity, but hates the science, should be close to mono. It's a safe path.
Plenty of producers out there who understand the tech so well their mixes are spacious as shit, but still mono compatible. This video doesn't really do justice to them.
Hmmmm maybe? Depends on your definition. in my opinion the producer would not be the same person as the engineer. And it's the engineers job to do this.
But I suppose you could argue it's the producers job to know the destination of the music, and they would be the one to inform the engineer of that intention.
@@Bthelick In my world you have to be everything, especially if you can't afford engineers to do the mixing / post production work. I've been a Trance and Progressive Producer for a majority of my 20+ year doing this, and I had to get in deep to learn mixing. I can't just produce the track. I have to mix as I go to know what I'm getting.
Having said all this, this is a great video and I haven't done mono mixing enough especially as deep as this. You can't give A&Rs an excuse these days to find faults on your record which ultimately may be a pass for them.
Yup, as an ex-live sound engineer I can confirm 99% of what we mix is mono-ed out, even if we get stereo sends from keys and racks and suchlike. Quite often that even extends to just using the left hand channel, completely ignoring the right, (or vice-versa, depending on what the stage end guy could be bothered to plug in). So beware! :-D
This explains a problem I've had for years when setting up my sound system for large beach parties. I never thought it was worth the time to fix because I didn't know it was diminishing our efforts to project sound down the beach further. It also explains why the crowd always gravitated to the same spot on the dance floor. Interesting, I'm glad I never needed to set up for indoor dancing, that requires math skills
I have worked in four three nightclubs in Berlin as a sound engineer and we run our sound systems in stereo. But I have heard this mono 'myth' a lot. Maybe it used to be the case? For example in an old pioneer dj mixer I have (DJM500) there is a switch on the master channel to convert the output signal to mono. But I have seen nothing like it on DJ mixers used in clubs nowadays (Allen and Heath Xone 92 and 96, Pionneer DJM900, A9 and V-10). So as far as my experience goes, clubs do use stereo sound. Of course this depends on room configuration. If you have an oddly shaped room for example, mono might make sense. But if you have a rectangular room with the main tops at one end of the room, and delay lines going along side of the walls, then why not use stereo? Most of the crowd will be in a position to enjoy the stereo field. And for the people right at the center, you can have a mono front fill.
Edit: of course subs are always in mono.
I don't mean to say I know everything or Im right, actually I would be curious to hear diverging opinions cos I guess there is a reason why people say clubs use mono playback
Thank you for the info. It's actually very hard to find concrete data for many clubs.
Yes, I think mono was more common before, and less and less so today.
"I don't mean to say I know everything or Im right," - says person who is right.
This is what is called valuable content…a real Masterclass….Thank you Maestro
“Do not use panning to solve mix issues.” Brilliant! Great video, cheers.
It’s quite clear that whenever the listener is moving or when there are multiple listeners spread throughout a room, a mono setup is often the best solution for consistent sound quality. That said, thank you for sharing the video-it’s a great resource, as I suspect many people don’t fully realize this.
I absolutely love that you show a solution using freebies. It's so great. Not only are the information very usefull but the solution is just there for everyone. luvely my brudda
This video is incredible, blown away by your method of explaining and solution!! Thanks so much
This is great advice and I do occasionally still run into mono summed systems but rarely. My experience being an A1 in Atlanta is that most systems at least around here are full stereo and sometimes use front fills with summed mono feed. As a DJ I have played on many different systems including voids which in my case both times were stereo configured. I have only encountered one system that has been ran in mono for my entire career and I made a complaint about it as there is really no reason for mono summed audio any more especially with front fills. I have seen most line arrays for fests ran as a combo of stereo with some mono mixed in to maintain stereo image while making sure no audio is lost. Now granted, these are edm only shows, I play dubstep and run audio for techno and other genres but obviously these shows are ran different than bands which definitely I see more mono summing happening. It is always good practice to check mono imaging of your tracks to make sure they will play nice with any sound system but I don't think clubs would be the primary use case, instead I think it would be bluetooth speakers that are widely used now that have mono playback
"I have seen most line arrays for fests ran as a combo of stereo with some mono mixed in to maintain stereo image while making sure no audio is lost. Now granted, these are edm only shows" this.
Most big (European) EDM festivals are (partially) in stereo.
And is adds just a little more spice on the experience.
nah dude, the way you explain this is beyond amazing, I'm so thankful for learning all your solutions to this problem. I'm a bass producer and this mono, mid-side and stuff was messing with me so hard! my songs on the car mix are absolute shit, but in headphones or my studio speakers is so different! 10/10 video!
BTW you really know your shit! I will be so thankful if you can make a video on why SoundCloud playback and instagram videos demolish the quality of high and low freq of the songs when I upload or promote them
also, you earn a like and a sub. im an audio engineer and i could never find the spot on how to solve the artificial wide/panning
I think soundcloud is 128kbs playback, it's just harsh amounts of data compression.
Data compression algorithms like MP3 try to shave off the bits of info you won't notice, the first things to go are side channel, high frequencies and sometimes extreme lows, transients suffer too.
It's still our job to make sure it survives in all destinations though.
Best in the game, solid video yet again
I've been having a major issue with panning and stereo on the lead synth and this video randomly popped up and was full of great information. instant sub from me!
The whole point of a line array is to give the audience as close as possible to the same audio experience, wherever they may be in the crowd (while also keeping sound from being audible in other stages as much as possible).
Amazing content and excellent, easy to follow guidance! Gonna be listening back to some previous mixes to see how I can clean them up using these techniques!
Actually Sound Systems in Clubs and at Festivals Play in Stereo. Due to phasing issues Bass is kept in Mono, but mid and high frequencies are indeed stereo, Even at multiroom systems. Thats why clubs mostly hire expensive sound technician to correctly install and adjust their sound systems. Even festivals got multiple sound engineers running across the place to check if everything lines up in stereo.
That doesnt mean your track shouldnt be compadible for mono systems, a good mix indeed is it, but i wanted to correct the first two minutes in the video.
the example track is a certified BANGER
whenever I touch dimension mix inside serum for my plucky leads I think "hmm it sounds better, but also doesn't sound better", eventually I always decide to turn it off and I'm glad I do now that you mention it. What I notice mostly when mono-ing the music I like (anjuna) is hats not being wide anymore, the rest sounds pretty normal and danceable
another amazing video from Bthelick, thank you
just noticed that in one of my favorite tracks I produced the plucky melody that makes the whole song is completely different because delay is basically what makes it what it is
when mono it doesn't sound like 8 playful fun notes/hits, it sounds like 3 boring notes it will be fun fixing this haha so glad I keep learning instead of releasing, I always learn something important
yeah me too. it turns out though either I'm mis-remembering or at some point in history steve duda made it mono safe.
I still don't use the effect much though.
One of the most underrated advices EVER!
I’ve been touring as live sound engineer for 14 years. Never have I come across a mono system. We tend to do less panning of instruments in live sound but stereo fx and stereo keys are always good.
Thanks for the info. Is that dance stuff or bands?
@@Bthelick crickets
@@Bthelick Both. I’m with an electronic act at the moment but in theory it shouldn’t make a difference whether it’s machines or acoustic instruments. Subs are generally driven in mono. That could be where this myth of mono systems originates from. Low frequencies are omni-directional, and unlike high frequencies they’re more difficult to locate in space so even if you had a left/right sub arrangement and hard panned your kick to the left no one would know the difference, you’d be just be driving with half the power of the system. The main reason we use less panning in a live context is that if it’s a wide stage half the audience will miss the elements panned to the other side. The other reason can relate to speakers hung close to the walls on either side and driving up reflections off one wall or the other.
@@kangaroosport5566 Yeah I think you're spot on with the observation that the subs often being fed a mono signal from a matrix out or simmilar is the main contributor to the "most PA systems are mono" myth that seems to have been floating around TH-cam and message boards for ages, especially in regards to content realted to electronic music. It makes the mixing advice for artists much easier, just ensure a reasonably consistent sub and you're good. I worked in live for a time, not as an FoH engineer but doing monitors and stage, and really the only time I ever encountred a "true" mono setup was when something had gone wrong with the setup. And a few LCR setups.
And subs n bass will out phase way easier than highs
i bet no one thinks of this that isn’t high level professional .. great video!!
I’ve been a producer and sound engineer working in clubs, venues, raves, festivals, etc for well over a decade. I would say less than 10% of the sound systems that I have engineered or performed on are ran in mono. Especially with higher end systems like Funktion One, Void, Danley, etc… those systems specifically are known for having incredible stereo image.
Thanks for the info, yes it seems to be much less common for high end installations as you would expect.
This is the EXACT issue I am (was?) having with a project I'm working on!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!
Where I can hear this song in full length? It´s great and I am repeating the Video again and again to hear this song 🤩🤩🤩
SECONDED! I NEED IT RIGHT NOW!
Thanks. It's called "flashing lights" The 2 minute instrumental edit is out already the vocal and extended will follow 🙏
I finally understand what the correlation meter does……….. THANK YOU!
Ok, in pausing at 30 seconds in .... Ive been always told club systems and festivals are in mono but ive only ever encountered mono systems maybe 2-3 times in my 15+ year dj career in Australia. Ive always thought the biggest myth of all music production is its pointless having a stereo image because clubs are mono. I deliberately check for this as its always sparked my curiosity. Perhaps its different in other parts of the world.
Ok now ill watch the rest of the video lol
Great video 👍
Interesting, I wonder if it is more of a territorial trend?
I need to pole more live engineers
@@Bthelick From what I've heard from my friends, some who are amateur live mixers for local venues and professionals for festivals is that for the majority of gigs, they run LCR. (now, dont quote me on that, it's been a while since I've had this discussion so I have to ask them again)
It also depends on the type of performance. Is it live music with musicians or playback or a DJ set? Mono for live musicians makes alot more sense as you want to hear both guitars left of stage, not just left guitar, but I cant for the life of me see any reason why you would run playback or DJ sets through mono. Most EDM music doesnt pan instruments, it's just wide mixes, so you're not going to miss anything if you're standing left of stage.
Honestly, I think this is some hangup from back in the day, like pre 2000's when live tech was a bit more rudimentary and alot of clubs ran systems that was cobbled together with bits and pieces with satelite speakers all over the room.
That said, having a mix that works in mono is just good practice and your stereo mix is going to sound better for it, so preaching the scripture of Mono Compatability isnt wrong.
My fav teacher just found you last week
i remember back in the day when i was starting i saw many times people saying "mix in mono" and they were right.
Epic, answered some questions I didn't even know I had. Truly epic. Thank you!
Yet, Apple is pushing for spatial audio mixes. Anyway...
@@ettiennelane9173 yeah it’s so stupid lol
I don’t get the whole industry push for Dolby
It’s terrible for music but could be good for theatres
@miguelseabra5834 It's just a cash grab to sell 'special headphones' and other over priced devices. It's the Apple 'big bully' way.
Yeah exactly
There’s no point to it
Oooosh don't get me started!
I watched quite some videos about electronic music production and mixing but never heard of that mono issue so far, very informative!
I knew the basics of everything you're talking about, yet the simple solutions and free plugin tips are priceless (no pun). Excellent video! 👍
this is amazing. in this video i feel like i am genuinely learning such new information, even if it doesn’t necessarily apply to my music. this is real, reliable advice. i’m going to be watching out for more videos.
I've been writing music since the 90s phased out stereo sound still frys my brains great knowledge as always
The only useful mixing advice on YT. This is amazing
New DJ here and what a blessing to learn this now!! Instant subscription to this channel. Thank you so much for the early Christmas gift!
Great advice, and an amazing track you've made (even when it was too wide).
Thanks for this video. Well explained with good examples.
Just when I thought I was starting to get the hang of mixing, I learn a whole new issue to account for…. Always more to improve on I suppose.
Such an interesting video! I often wonder why some of my mixes sound reasonably good in mono, and others...not so good 😅. This is definitely something I'll be paying more attention to now!
Oh my God your voice tembre even like a Hollywood production, best teacher in the world. Bravo
Top notch content! Certainly gives me the impetus to re-evaluate my understanding on the nuances of stereo field, and the extra 10% that gets the track further to completion.
It is one of the first things i learned, mix, master and check all in mono first & keep subs , kick and bass in mono , it will always be a listening game no matter how you do it , but the end result must match whit what is intended to create ,. You are a charm for the business , not all will like you bringing these massive little tips for free
I'm tired of keeping the smile into my chest... WOW!
Thank you for the entire video...
There are not many things we feel better and better watching...
Thank you!
I'm not very good at mixing and this is the best mixing video I think I've ever watched!
Just to tell, this video fixed/saved my last track - 1000000000 times, thank you!
Not only the amount of knowledge to get from that is insane but the song is absolute fire too 🔥
This is absolute Gold so much knowledge shared in a short concise manner, I'll be back
What a nice video. Finally i have learned how mono works and finally i do not think "eww mono, what do i need that for if i have Stereo Headphones". Can't wait to click that binaural Headphones Video
It is the BEST tutorial I have seen to fix things
This is a great masterclass. Thanks for this in-depth look at this serious problem and demystifying it.
Huge subject nailed! Many thanks 🙏. Always enjoy your postings, not only is it fire education but highly entertaining. Fully appreciate the time spent putting this together…bows.
that's why i asked the question hahah
Another Great Video, Mixing Mono you hear about it but again Bthelick shows why, lets you hear it and the best part how to fix the various problems and with free tools. Anyone else feel like 80% of good music today is Mixing good sounds well for the all various playbacks?
it is about sound selection, Ben says it a lot pick the right sounds and mixing is easy
Probably one of the awesomest mixing video that I saw for years! Thanks a lot!!
Really great stuff! I've been struggling with this for a couple months now. Your videos always come at the perfect time. Thank you!
Very useful info! I've been working with a dynamic EQ, but the Voxengo plugins make it much easier!! Thanks!
Thank you!
Hi!! First time here!! I actually skipped the video a few seconds in.. But I came back right away, because the music you are working on is FIRE!! And after watching the entire tutorial, I learned stuff too!! I really hope you will release this banger!! Instant subscribe!! Looking forward to watch more!! Thank you!!
Thanks. It's called "flashing lights" The 2 minute instrumental edit is out already the vocal and extended will follow 🙏
@@Bthelick Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, and also for you are releasing the track!! Now listening to and following you Spotify!! Have a great weekend!!
Awesome thanks, you’ve made me completely reconsider my use of panning.
love your voice. it's so calming
Pressing them buttons and praising the content once again! This one reminds me of an episode of Red Dwarf ;)
I've been experimenting clubs and festivals as an artist and only once I played in a club with mono soundsystem.. Luckily i was aware of those techniques you give that are in my opinion very important for a good mixing balance. Sometimes removing some side freq with the mid side EQ8 is enough to bring the wide elements where they belong. Thank you for this interesting video !
Amazing video! Great explanations and tempo of the video. I feel like I learned more in your 25 minutes than others hours. You just gained a SUB 👍🏻 Keep up the good work.
TY! This was the most understandable and explained reason why I abandoned a stereo guitar signal. I could never hear
my part, but couldn't explain why.
I first got a hint at these problems when I was young watching a Metallica documentary, Bob Rock talked about a guitar technique called "the thickener" Which was simply a third guitar in the centre, so that the guitars planned left and right didn't die in mono.
@@Bthelick I know I have shared this to 20 + friends to prove I'm not crazy, I can just "listen" better than them ;) TY
One of the most valuable videos i' ve ever seen. Thank you so much.
You have the perfect radio voice sir. :D Thanks for this interesting explanation!
At the end i think is the best to make one good balanced mix in mono, but have one very nice widened in stereo. More work, but what to do if there is places that your music will suffer because of the sound system. While i was listening your strings - they are so gentle and beautifull. why you should decide to lose them if your mix is colapsed in mono?! I think two mixes - mono and stereo - is the ultimate solution. Because why strugle making one mix sound good in stereo and the same time (more or less) good in mono? Just make it super cool in stereo, then put the mono buton on the master and "recreate" your track at mxing level once again... I dont know. Its just how i think. I will be happy to hear what you think!
And thanks for the great tips in this video. They defenetly will help to inprove my mixes!!!
I agree with you 110%. One mono one stereo. New DJ here and so grateful to learn & apply this knowledge as a foundational LAW of producing high quality unbiased sets
This has been the most educational vid I’ve seen at random. So much good info. Keep it up 👍🏼
Man, what a good video! I was already using some of the Voxengo plugins, but Arx one is a new one for me.
Thank you for the constant insightful videos!
The low end is probably a mono send using a matrix output or simmilar, but the tops are almost being sent 2-channel stereo audio from the FOH console via the amps, or direct to the cabs when using active speakers. This goes for clubs and festivals.