Mastering In Mono

Tips & Tricks
1

Hey!

I’ve read somewhere that checking if a mix sounds good in mono is a good idea.

Does anyone in here do this?
And if you do, what do you listen for?

Thanks

2

One thing this does, is to make sure there’s no big phase-problems.
So if your song gets played on the radio, your lead doesn’t get cancelled out for everyone listening on one speaker.

Thanks for reminding me of this. Anyone else got good reasons for doing this?

3

I was reading an article from Martin Walker, a professional audio engineer, and he had suggested to review final mixes in different conditions, and one of them was reviewing in mono. The others were reviewing using headphones, reviewing from a distance (for example from outside the studio room where monitors are located) and reviewing with low volume. The interesting part was the suggestion to relax your ears for one hour before doing the mix, and also reviewing the mix the other day!

4

I’d rather look for a winamp plugin or something to simulate that?

5

I do this when mastering. But only to check, not to do the mix or levels. Phase and width are the major issues, but there are other oddities that come out from time to time.

6

I’ve never heard checking the mix in mono before, just different sources, but I wouldn’t rule out a mono source to check on would come up under normal circumstances…

Generally, I listen to mix on:
Crappy 45$ PC speakers
Sony Headphones (I compose with these)
Car Stereo (factory stereo, not some super awesome setup)
Built in Laptop Speaker (you know, that tinny, tiny thing? :) )

One of these will usually catch something that’s way out of wack (usually my drums because I’m such a rhythm junkie!). Otherwise, I just keep close tabs on the spec-an so that I get a decent curve…

But mono…great idea! :D

7

you can also call a friend and let him listen it by the phone speaker

8

dblue has coded a little mono plugin, allowing to preview left, right and mixed.

http://illformed.org/users/dblue/vst/dblue_Monophob_v1.0.zip

9

Very nice VST especially for this particular purpose. :) Thanks for sharing, and thanks to dblue.