I disagree. All the Alexa devices play in mono. When I release a track and go to a party, someone tells Alexa to play my stuff. I've had entire sections of music sound "wrong" due to a major contributing part completely gone. Most cell phones (not through headphones) play in mono. It is important.
@Pitchfork Inc. 100% and if it were my place it would be totally immersive and borderline annoying (says my wife) :) it's the low tech locations that get a cringe factor when you haven't checked your mix for a good mono representation. Interesting (to me anyway) that I tried something different my new release th-cam.com/video/wrPuMobz4bY/w-d-xo.html and made the mono mix sound totally different than the stereo. All the important parts are there but rhythm guitars are dropped out to leave just a primarily drum and bass mix.
I totally agree with you. I just made a track with 3 guitars tracks 2 of them hardpanned left and right, which sound awesome in stereo, but completely disappers in mono. I became aware of this in my private car which has a stereo with 4 speakers, but...theres obviously different width of stereo on different setups and also (atleast here in Denmark) people are listening to music on a transportable speaker called a Soundbox (Danish invention) and it's completely mono, so my mix don't work at all on such a speaker 😔
You're prolly not double tracking or something silly. Most phones nowadays are stereo. Same with iPads. I'm having trouble finding a mono device in my house. I'm doubting your engineering abilities.
I didn't used to be bothered about balance in mono, till I realised that lots of people are listening to music on mono Bluetooth speakers. So I've been a bot worried about this too.
While the audio industry tries to sell the surround equipment people mostly listen to music on phone speakers, Bluetooth speakers and car audio. Luckily I have at home a Bluetooth speaker, so I can check my mixes on it and on my phone.
my first mixes had this issue a lot, whenever it's really bad I'll actually feed my stereo guitars to a mono bus just to give a bit of mono guitar to fill the mix out, I'll even EQ it differently so there's certain frequencies in the guitar that come up in mono, I used to feel like a hack for doing this but I recently found a Mix the Masters video of a big name producer mixing a Sum 41 song that uses a similar "mono guitar" trick to beefen up the rhythms, every time I find something like that I feel better experimenting and trying unorthodox tricks, if it works it works, it can be blended and automated in so it still feels balanced in stereo but with that little extra in your face
Mono is getting more common now due to the bluetooth speakers, sonos stuff not set up correctly etc. For me I think it's important to keep en eye (ear) on it.
Had this exact issue recently, so started referencing other tracks in mono, and the same thing was happening in 80% of the tracks I checked, so thought it’s not the big of a deal then
Try listening to rock tracks done pre 00s esp 80s metal - you hear them in clubs, bars which are always mono and they sound amazing. I heard a GnR track from the 90s and the guitars were almost completely lost in the bar.
I think checking balance in mono is not a bad idea, especially for vocals. Usually when I hear instruments well in mono and switch to stereo then I know it will work as a whole mix. I think the problem with hard panned rhythm guitars lies in their mids that not cut through enough and probably when they have too much low mids.
I’m doing like this when I run in to this problem, I make the hard panned guitars thinner in the mid range and pull up the volume and then make sure the bass fills out that space. Gives a great translation
Haha, I skipped this video this week thinking "that's not a problem I've encountered". In studio last night, and there it was! Had to come back and watch! Thanks Jordan!! Love it!
I panned guitars 70% left and right instead of hard-panning. You get stereo field, clarity in mono and blend of two guitar tones if you use different settings on left and right guitar.
Most people I know these days are listening through a mono Bluetooth speaker (like Alexa or whatever) and this happens to my mixes on them too. Guitars are almost gone.
Somewhat related, I learned a trick where if a hard panned track sounds too annoying in binaural, I’ll leave some of the bottom end of the track’s frequency range (whatever that means for that track) centered. After doing that, it still sounds hard panned in stereo, but no longer sounds weird in headphones.
A thought: triple track the guitars? Hard pan L/R, but then put the third take up the centre, pulled down in the mix. Flip to mono and might this give the guitars more presence in mono?
Ive done this and it works buttttt takes up space in the center and can mask the vocal a bit. Also takes away the width of the hard panned guitars. Give it a try though!
I'm pretty sure Metalica did this with Master Of Puppets, (they had an extra rythem guitar straight up the middle about -6 db below the other tracks) which might explain how gen z kids can blast it out of their shit phone speakers, and are still able to listen to the guitars haha
You're always going to get phase loss when hard panning, it's just the nature of the beast, I would suggest what has helped me, is using different mics/positions on the L/R guitar tracks, with a third mic never moving to sit a bit under the hard L/R pan in the center or at 50%. Recently did a record, with a SM57 on the L, HEIL40 on the R, with an MD421, under those, less panned, and it sounds solid in mono but huge AF in stereo. Happy mixing all.
I think this could be solved by putting the Pan Depth (session setup in Pro Tools, or Pan Law in Cubase) to -3dB, -6dB or equal power. I guess you'll have to experiment with the different settings
I remember in the mid 2000s the local metal show in the TV was playing our first and last real music video. I was hyped up to see what we were doing in the TV and when it started playing and I could faintly hear the guitars it felt like a slap. "A step for my band! But way backwards?"
How about not hard-pan the guitars completly? You dont need a 100% hard panned guitars to sound wide. Usualy i don't like to pan more than 90% actually. The key is getting different IR's or different mic position (or amp or cab, but mostly different cab). You need to introduce some difference but keep things with some balance (otherwise can sound weird and too wide). Example, using two different cabs/irs that have a similar balance but shine at sligly different frequencies, so they are different (but not too much) but can complement each other when togheter. This alone will help make two guitar takes sound as wide in 80-90% as they were at 100%, and still get some center information (will sound quiter summed in mono anyway, but the difference won't be so huge. If this isn't enought for you, you can also eq both guitars differently. find some good frequencies to boost in on of them, and a differente and also interesting souding one in the other. Are you workinh with ampsims? Cleaning some static noisy frequencies also can help, as usualy they will sum toguether in mono and make two 100% hard-panned guitars sound less wide even listening to them in stereo. Another useful tip: use a mono maker plugin to make the lowend from guitars full mono (or at least more centered) Just avoid using stereo plugins to make things sound wider (unless you're going to apply a very subtle effect like 2 or 3% more widder
I had this same problem. What I've been doing now is to record a 3rd guitar, put it up the centre, make sure it's quieter than outer guitars and then take a listen in mono. Voilà audible guitars. I had to accept that anything that is panned will always sound quieter in mono. One question though: Say I have 2 different takes of the same part, played through the same guitar and same amp sim, same IR and hard-panned. Can that cause phase issues?
you will actually have momentary phase cancellation here and there when playing that in mono mode. Think about it this way: you have the exact same notes (with the exact same timbre, which effectively means the same waveforms) played simultaneously with slight variations in timing (due to a human player) between the takes.
I know it is a controversial subject, but my 2 cents on it are: after critically listening to a lot of 00's rock music I can hardly name a single PRO mix that has two hard-panned guitars (L&R). There's always some mono content in guitars, and this is not bass. P.S.: A goniometer plugin helps to prove this, too!
Thanks for the advice Jordan. This is something that I came across recently and although it is relieving to hear your thoughts on not worring too much (and checking it on some songs I love), improving mono compatibility of rock/metal rithm guitars is something I'd like to persue a bit. So far I used the exact same tone on both sides but I pressume using different amps and cabs for each side plus a bit of reverse EQ moves done on purpose may help. Any advice on that? And for those suggesting that changing the Pan Law settings on the DAW helps in that issue, I'd like to know how they think it is helping? IMHO Pan law cannot help with that as it's just a volume compensation during mixing so that the percieved volume of a track does not change dramatically when adjusting its panning. For example if you take a hard panned track to the center, with a 0 dB pan law the track may sound to loud and would require to adjust the fader to compensate whereas a -3dB pan law would do that fader compensation automatically to preserve better the percieved loudness when the audio is comming from both speakers trather than a single one.
Hey great video thank you. OK so EQ in Mono but set balances in stereo. Sounds like a great approach... I love IDLES!!! Is there a reason you chose them as the background music? ---- Edit: Hahaha, I had Spotify quietly in the background, sorry...
ALL cellphone speakers, MOST bluetooth speakers, and ALMOST all in-store/mall PA systems are mono. How huge a chunk of your audience is that, hmmmm? So mono very much IS relevant and has to be worried about, IMHO. (And widener plugins, stereo spreaders, making all decisions in gloriously wide stereo or even with poorly setup speakers in your room, LCR panning are your enemies). Food for thought...
Almost most cellphone speakers now are stereo dude. Most people listen with earphones/earpods or their car. Anyone listening to music on a single speakers, well sucks for them. *shrug*
I think you've got a point here with the bluetooth speakers. They're popular, they deliver a good sound quality (for the average consumer) and I see and hear them all the time and everywhere because people and kids bring them to the park or to the lake where they chill out with their friends in the summer. I can't exactly tell if all of the latest available ones have stereo but I've seen some around that were definitely mono. I own a JBL flip 4 that is mono as well. Yes, I know, we sound engineers (except myself lol) have impressive knowledge, skill and gear and we know that our music is best enjoyed in stereo. But we can't tell people how to listen to our mixes. It's not that a song comes with a manual with listening instructions. People decide to listen on whatever device they want and if our mixes sound bad on those devices, people don't get rid of those devices but of the song. We spend so much time referencing our mixes in our cars and with our earbuds and we put so much effort in our mixes to translate well on all that systems. I can't explain to myself why those widely used bletooth speakers are so much neglected. However I experience and I believe that it's completely normal that something will always get lost when you play a stereo mix on a mono device, to some extent. Maybe it's accepted, maybe it's not even noticed by the average listener. That's why I stopped caring too much about mono compability. I still reference on my JBL flip regularly but I try to focus on my mixes as a whole a lot more than on mono compability in particular and accept mono penalties to some extent. Never had the problem that something completely disappeared, though.
Oh. My. God. Thank you for this video. I needed to know this I really thought I was doing it all wrong; my guitars just drop almost by half in mono! Phew!!!!!
I have a mono bluetooth speaker. When I listen to Linkin park through it, the guitars sound loud. When I listen to my own mix, the guitars are pretty quiet (Sounds fine in stereo). What is it that was done differently that made those guitars in the LP reference mono compatible?
@pauliusmscichauskas558 you mean you recorded 2 different recordings of the same thing and panned hard left and right, right? Honestly I don't have any mono devices around, so I think the point is not to worry about it unless your music is going to play at a club.
I used to have the same problem all the time. He said he played “Exactly the same part on both sides”. When you play them too close to perfect, the punch can go into anti-phase and disappear. It’s more noticeable in mono, but either way something is getting lost. Try a different guitar, different fingerings, or chord voicing for each side. This is also a great way to clear out the middle. This is 4 guitars panned hard left and right with a different guitar on each side playing the same part: th-cam.com/video/Vqjm1PwQusU/w-d-xo.html
Mono your references, do the panned guitars drop out less then yours when in mono? Most likely the master nailed it better than your mix so your mix will drop out more. Figure out how to reduce the drop out level, many ways to do this. Might not solve it to a 100% match, but the effort WILL reduce the difference to an acceptable compromise. Just don't ignore it, fix it like anything else, the reference proves it possible.
Today i used a plug in to make my mix mono and the guitars droped in volume a lot. I made a mixdown of the stereo mix and playd it in my hi fi which is mono. The Guitars didnt drop in volume and the mix was fine. I think after years of youtube tutorials i just stick with that method. I play it with my mono hi fi and if it is ok i dont care.
If I may share how I solved this: I start any mixing session with my Pan Law at -6 (even -6.02 sometimes). Then I mix normally on stereo. No probs on mono compatibility. (Some DAWs even have auto gain on their Pan Law settings which is a great tool). ( Some peeps don't say Pan Law doesn't really matter, but try it if you haven't yet. Just set it to -6 before gain staging or mixing )
A total cancellation occurs when the two signals are a perfect 180 degrees out of phase. First thing to try is phase reversal of one of the channels. If the sound returns, double check your speaker input and if separate, the amplifier input and output wiring for proper phase connection. For some unknown reason some DAW software will flip phase on full left right panning. I suspect it is a flaw in the software coding. If flipping polarity returns audio and speakers are in phase, check audio output in stereo and if there are no issues then problem solved. If audio has issues in stereo after the phase flip then you need to make a choice to leave it UN-fliped in stereo and suffer with the mono dropout or explore other options like not using extreme left right, after all, we do not generally hear in extreme left right in the real world. There is almost always some sound from the source in both ears or you would not have a sense of direction of the sound source. We use this to set the sound stage of the mix and relative positioning of the sources in the mix.
The quick answer... Doing most/all of your EQ moves when your mix is summed to mono allows you to hear tones and/or frequencies that may be overlapping or clashing with each other.
Well most phones nowdays actually have stereo speakers, and even if they dont... I mean come on, listening to music on a tiny treble only speaker where you can hear sh**t anyway...
this guy is actually solving problems that i come accross regularly, i don't think anyone else is doing this man
I disagree. All the Alexa devices play in mono. When I release a track and go to a party, someone tells Alexa to play my stuff. I've had entire sections of music sound "wrong" due to a major contributing part completely gone. Most cell phones (not through headphones) play in mono. It is important.
Old comment but I completely agree, while it shouldn't be the main focus how the mix sounds the mix in mono is important.
@Pitchfork Inc. 100% and if it were my place it would be totally immersive and borderline annoying (says my wife) :) it's the low tech locations that get a cringe factor when you haven't checked your mix for a good mono representation. Interesting (to me anyway) that I tried something different my new release th-cam.com/video/wrPuMobz4bY/w-d-xo.html and made the mono mix sound totally different than the stereo. All the important parts are there but rhythm guitars are dropped out to leave just a primarily drum and bass mix.
I totally agree with you. I just made a track with 3 guitars tracks 2 of them hardpanned left and right, which sound awesome in stereo, but completely disappers in mono. I became aware of this in my private car which has a stereo with 4 speakers, but...theres obviously different width of stereo on different setups and also (atleast here in Denmark) people are listening to music on a transportable speaker called a Soundbox (Danish invention) and it's completely mono, so my mix don't work at all on such a speaker 😔
@tdichow are you properly double tracking or copy pasting?
You're prolly not double tracking or something silly. Most phones nowadays are stereo. Same with iPads. I'm having trouble finding a mono device in my house. I'm doubting your engineering abilities.
I didn't used to be bothered about balance in mono, till I realised that lots of people are listening to music on mono Bluetooth speakers. So I've been a bot worried about this too.
While the audio industry tries to sell the surround equipment people mostly listen to music on phone speakers, Bluetooth speakers and car audio. Luckily I have at home a Bluetooth speaker, so I can check my mixes on it and on my phone.
my first mixes had this issue a lot, whenever it's really bad I'll actually feed my stereo guitars to a mono bus just to give a bit of mono guitar to fill the mix out, I'll even EQ it differently so there's certain frequencies in the guitar that come up in mono, I used to feel like a hack for doing this but I recently found a Mix the Masters video of a big name producer mixing a Sum 41 song that uses a similar "mono guitar" trick to beefen up the rhythms, every time I find something like that I feel better experimenting and trying unorthodox tricks, if it works it works, it can be blended and automated in so it still feels balanced in stereo but with that little extra in your face
Mono is getting more common now due to the bluetooth speakers, sonos stuff not set up correctly etc. For me I think it's important to keep en eye (ear) on it.
Had this exact issue recently, so started referencing other tracks in mono, and the same thing was happening in 80% of the tracks I checked, so thought it’s not the big of a deal then
Try listening to rock tracks done pre 00s esp 80s metal - you hear them in clubs, bars which are always mono and they sound amazing. I heard a GnR track from the 90s and the guitars were almost completely lost in the bar.
I think checking balance in mono is not a bad idea, especially for vocals. Usually when I hear instruments well in mono and switch to stereo then I know it will work as a whole mix. I think the problem with hard panned rhythm guitars lies in their mids that not cut through enough and probably when they have too much low mids.
Set your balance in stereo. EQ in mono. Sounds about right. That's what I came up with through years of trial-and-error.
I’m doing like this when I run in to this problem, I make the hard panned guitars thinner in the mid range and pull up the volume and then make sure the bass fills out that space. Gives a great translation
I'm never stopping thanking you for all that you do and teach us, Jordan. You're a blessing
ya same here. Ive learned more on his free content then all other content put together
Haha, I skipped this video this week thinking "that's not a problem I've encountered". In studio last night, and there it was! Had to come back and watch! Thanks Jordan!! Love it!
I panned guitars 70% left and right instead of hard-panning. You get stereo field, clarity in mono and blend of two guitar tones if you use different settings on left and right guitar.
I panned for 60 and in quadro (doubled track same amp but a Little gain for more crunch sound) for 30-40
Most people I know these days are listening through a mono Bluetooth speaker (like Alexa or whatever) and this happens to my mixes on them too. Guitars are almost gone.
Double track
I have literally lost sleep over this. Thank you so much for the tips Jordan!
Somewhat related, I learned a trick where if a hard panned track sounds too annoying in binaural, I’ll leave some of the bottom end of the track’s frequency range (whatever that means for that track) centered. After doing that, it still sounds hard panned in stereo, but no longer sounds weird in headphones.
Great video! I've been using your 'Mixing Heavy Music' book as a guide and recently noticed the same issue. Thanks for clearing that up!
A thought: triple track the guitars? Hard pan L/R, but then put the third take up the centre, pulled down in the mix. Flip to mono and might this give the guitars more presence in mono?
Ive done this and it works buttttt takes up space in the center and can mask the vocal a bit. Also takes away the width of the hard panned guitars. Give it a try though!
I'm pretty sure Metalica did this with Master Of Puppets, (they had an extra rythem guitar straight up the middle about -6 db below the other tracks) which might explain how gen z kids can blast it out of their shit phone speakers, and are still able to listen to the guitars haha
You're always going to get phase loss when hard panning, it's just the nature of the beast, I would suggest what has helped me, is using different mics/positions on the L/R guitar tracks, with a third mic never moving to sit a bit under the hard L/R pan in the center or at 50%.
Recently did a record, with a SM57 on the L, HEIL40 on the R, with an MD421, under those, less panned, and it sounds solid in mono but huge AF in stereo.
Happy mixing all.
I think this could be solved by putting the Pan Depth (session setup in Pro Tools, or Pan Law in Cubase) to -3dB, -6dB or equal power. I guess you'll have to experiment with the different settings
so glad he finally addressed this. Been asking this for years. Great explanation related to panlaw
Absolutely perfect answer- Don't balance in Mono- find masking in mono :O)
nice one, Thanks for providing amazing free content Jordan 👍
I remember in the mid 2000s the local metal show in the TV was playing our first and last real music video. I was hyped up to see what we were doing in the TV and when it started playing and I could faintly hear the guitars it felt like a slap. "A step for my band! But way backwards?"
Set your ProTools session to -6 pan law and your stereo to mono compatibility will easily transfer in Pro Tools. Easy. Fix.
How about not hard-pan the guitars completly?
You dont need a 100% hard panned guitars to sound wide.
Usualy i don't like to pan more than 90% actually.
The key is getting different IR's or different mic position (or amp or cab, but mostly different cab). You need to introduce some difference but keep things with some balance (otherwise can sound weird and too wide). Example, using two different cabs/irs that have a similar balance but shine at sligly different frequencies, so they are different (but not too much) but can complement each other when togheter. This alone will help make two guitar takes sound as wide in 80-90% as they were at 100%, and still get some center information (will sound quiter summed in mono anyway, but the difference won't be so huge.
If this isn't enought for you, you can also eq both guitars differently. find some good frequencies to boost in on of them, and a differente and also interesting souding one in the other.
Are you workinh with ampsims? Cleaning some static noisy frequencies also can help, as usualy they will sum toguether in mono and make two 100% hard-panned guitars sound less wide even listening to them in stereo.
Another useful tip: use a mono maker plugin to make the lowend from guitars full mono (or at least more centered)
Just avoid using stereo plugins to make things sound wider (unless you're going to apply a very subtle effect like 2 or 3% more widder
I had this same problem. What I've been doing now is to record a 3rd guitar, put it up the centre, make sure it's quieter than outer guitars and then take a listen in mono. Voilà audible guitars. I had to accept that anything that is panned will always sound quieter in mono.
One question though: Say I have 2 different takes of the same part, played through the same guitar and same amp sim, same IR and hard-panned. Can that cause phase issues?
Yep. You can switch pickups or amp channels or maybe even a different cabinet ir. Usually, the greater the difference, the less likely phasing appears
It can, yeah... But the player would have to be SUPER tight. Even then, it wouldn't be consistently. I doubt you'll have this issue.
you will actually have momentary phase cancellation here and there when playing that in mono mode. Think about it this way: you have the exact same notes (with the exact same timbre, which effectively means the same waveforms) played simultaneously with slight variations in timing (due to a human player) between the takes.
Guess I'll just use a different IR to be on the safe side
@@Yanthungbemo usually ir changes work. Sometimes a different amp is better
Thank you for all the helpful content you put out
I know it is a controversial subject, but my 2 cents on it are: after critically listening to a lot of 00's rock music I can hardly name a single PRO mix that has two hard-panned guitars (L&R). There's always some mono content in guitars, and this is not bass. P.S.: A goniometer plugin helps to prove this, too!
They all have double tracked guitars... all of them
great answer to that question - great question also - good stuff man
Thanks for the advice Jordan. This is something that I came across recently and although it is relieving to hear your thoughts on not worring too much (and checking it on some songs I love), improving mono compatibility of rock/metal rithm guitars is something I'd like to persue a bit. So far I used the exact same tone on both sides but I pressume using different amps and cabs for each side plus a bit of reverse EQ moves done on purpose may help. Any advice on that?
And for those suggesting that changing the Pan Law settings on the DAW helps in that issue, I'd like to know how they think it is helping? IMHO Pan law cannot help with that as it's just a volume compensation during mixing so that the percieved volume of a track does not change dramatically when adjusting its panning. For example if you take a hard panned track to the center, with a 0 dB pan law the track may sound to loud and would require to adjust the fader to compensate whereas a -3dB pan law would do that fader compensation automatically to preserve better the percieved loudness when the audio is comming from both speakers trather than a single one.
Hey great video thank you. OK so EQ in Mono but set balances in stereo. Sounds like a great approach... I love IDLES!!! Is there a reason you chose them as the background music? ---- Edit: Hahaha, I had Spotify quietly in the background, sorry...
Thanks 🙌🏽 Needed this one.
And what about a mid side eq? It could be help with the mono compatibility?
Isn’t it played mono when playing through a small Bluetooth speaker?
ALL cellphone speakers, MOST bluetooth speakers, and ALMOST all in-store/mall PA systems are mono.
How huge a chunk of your audience is that, hmmmm?
So mono very much IS relevant and has to be worried about, IMHO.
(And widener plugins, stereo spreaders, making all decisions in gloriously wide stereo or even with poorly setup speakers in your room, LCR panning are your enemies).
Food for thought...
Almost most cellphone speakers now are stereo dude. Most people listen with earphones/earpods or their car.
Anyone listening to music on a single speakers, well sucks for them. *shrug*
@@lodougherty Brilliamt approach.
👏👏
I think you've got a point here with the bluetooth speakers. They're popular, they deliver a good sound quality (for the average consumer) and I see and hear them all the time and everywhere because people and kids bring them to the park or to the lake where they chill out with their friends in the summer. I can't exactly tell if all of the latest available ones have stereo but I've seen some around that were definitely mono. I own a JBL flip 4 that is mono as well.
Yes, I know, we sound engineers (except myself lol) have impressive knowledge, skill and gear and we know that our music is best enjoyed in stereo. But we can't tell people how to listen to our mixes. It's not that a song comes with a manual with listening instructions. People decide to listen on whatever device they want and if our mixes sound bad on those devices, people don't get rid of those devices but of the song.
We spend so much time referencing our mixes in our cars and with our earbuds and we put so much effort in our mixes to translate well on all that systems. I can't explain to myself why those widely used bletooth speakers are so much neglected.
However I experience and I believe that it's completely normal that something will always get lost when you play a stereo mix on a mono device, to some extent. Maybe it's accepted, maybe it's not even noticed by the average listener. That's why I stopped caring too much about mono compability. I still reference on my JBL flip regularly but I try to focus on my mixes as a whole a lot more than on mono compability in particular and accept mono penalties to some extent.
Never had the problem that something completely disappeared, though.
Oh. My. God. Thank you for this video. I needed to know this I really thought I was doing it all wrong; my guitars just drop almost by half in mono! Phew!!!!!
I have a mono bluetooth speaker.
When I listen to Linkin park through it, the guitars sound loud.
When I listen to my own mix, the guitars are pretty quiet (Sounds fine in stereo).
What is it that was done differently that made those guitars in the LP reference mono compatible?
Did you double track?
@@greghillmusic Yes. Two different performances at once.
@pauliusmscichauskas558 you mean you recorded 2 different recordings of the same thing and panned hard left and right, right? Honestly I don't have any mono devices around, so I think the point is not to worry about it unless your music is going to play at a club.
What does EQ in mono even mean?
I used to have the same problem all the time. He said he played “Exactly the same part on both sides”. When you play them too close to perfect, the punch can go into anti-phase and disappear. It’s more noticeable in mono, but either way something is getting lost. Try a different guitar, different fingerings, or chord voicing for each side. This is also a great way to clear out the middle.
This is 4 guitars panned hard left and right with a different guitar on each side playing the same part:
th-cam.com/video/Vqjm1PwQusU/w-d-xo.html
I listen in mono a lot, just with my phone speaker outside, please care about mono compatibility
Why not have guitar LR and C?
Thx alot
Mono your references, do the panned guitars drop out less then yours when in mono? Most likely the master nailed it better than your mix so your mix will drop out more. Figure out how to reduce the drop out level, many ways to do this. Might not solve it to a 100% match, but the effort WILL reduce the difference to an acceptable compromise. Just don't ignore it, fix it like anything else, the reference proves it possible.
Today i used a plug in to make my mix mono and the guitars droped in volume a lot. I made a mixdown of the stereo mix and playd it in my hi fi which is mono. The Guitars didnt drop in volume and the mix was fine.
I think after years of youtube tutorials i just stick with that method. I play it with my mono hi fi and if it is ok i dont care.
If they are two separate guitar performances they are not phase coherent so there can't be a phase problem.
If they are cancelling they are out of phase. Invert one of them and they should sum properly.
If I may share how I solved this: I start any mixing session with my Pan Law at -6 (even -6.02 sometimes). Then I mix normally on stereo. No probs on mono compatibility. (Some DAWs even have auto gain on their Pan Law settings which is a great tool).
( Some peeps don't say Pan Law doesn't really matter, but try it if you haven't yet. Just set it to -6 before gain staging or mixing )
A total cancellation occurs when the two signals are a perfect 180 degrees out of phase. First thing to try is phase reversal of one of the channels. If the sound returns, double check your speaker input and if separate, the amplifier input and output wiring for proper phase connection. For some unknown reason some DAW software will flip phase on full left right panning. I suspect it is a flaw in the software coding. If flipping polarity returns audio and speakers are in phase, check audio output in stereo and if there are no issues then problem solved. If audio has issues in stereo after the phase flip then you need to make a choice to leave it UN-fliped in stereo and suffer with the mono dropout or explore other options like not using extreme left right, after all, we do not generally hear in extreme left right in the real world. There is almost always some sound from the source in both ears or you would not have a sense of direction of the sound source. We use this to set the sound stage of the mix and relative positioning of the sources in the mix.
🙏🏻
william faith is that you ?? :o
Noob question: why WOULD you mixdown in mono?
The quick answer...
Doing most/all of your EQ moves when your mix is summed to mono allows you to hear tones and/or frequencies that may be overlapping or clashing with each other.
@@lordhammerwind cheers mate. Much appreciated
So I guess people with cell phones just aren't allowed to listen to metal then lmao
Well most phones nowdays actually have stereo speakers, and even if they dont... I mean come on, listening to music on a tiny treble only speaker where you can hear sh**t anyway...
Nope. Mono matters.