Is it worth releasing music in mono?

[Guy Hagen]

As of a few weeks ago, I have eight tracks that are ready to be mastered and released. Because I'm paying to have them mastered, I want them to be as good as they can be before I send them off. My main hesitation is that they are all in mono.

Everything I do, production-wise, is in mono. I do sound design in mono, I mix in mono, I save all of my samples and loops in mono. I even use a single speaker, even though I have two. I really enjoy working in mono because it forces me to focus on how the elements of a track work with one another, rather than focusing on how "wide" the track sounds.

I know many clubs sum everything to mono or use only one channel, and many great-sounding tracks can completely lose their character in either of those situations. Working in mono eliminates any potential phasing issues, and generally ensures the most consistent playback, wherever you are. I really like that security.

At the same time though, I don't live under a rock, and I know that almost everything released nowadays is in stereo. And I think that I AM gonna have to bite the bullet and produce in stereo at some point. Which brings me to my already prepared tracks. I'm confident in them and I really like how they sound in mono- but should I take the time to re-mix them in stereo?

I'm confident in my mono mixing, but I'm not so sure about my stereo mixing abilities. I know all the tricks to make a "wide" mix, but I'm generally out of practice when it comes to stereo. Plus, I don't think my listening environment would lend itself to a good stereo mix. But that might just be me making excuses.

So should I re-mix my tracks in stereo? Should I leave them in mono and work towards mixing in stereo in the future? Or should I forget about stereo and keep on working in mono? Would love to hear your thoughts- Cheers

[Tarekith]

I personally think anything that is 100% mono sounds very odd to most people, especially since the vast majority of them will be listening in stereo. I master hundreds of releases a year, and when something (rarely) comes in 100% mono, I always check with the producer to make sure it was intentional. 9 times out of 10 it wasn't, they just exported the files wrong.

Long story short, I know barely any examples of pure mono tracks out of the thousands I've received over the years. So I definitely think you're playing it too cautious for too small of an audience.

[Guy Hagen]

Thanks man- Already re-mixed two tracks since the last post. Only six to go!

[Nick V]

If you've got good mixes in mono you're most of the way there anyway. Just nudge the pan on a few tracks and sprinkle some stereo effects. Unless you're doing ambient or something, you should be keeping everything below them mids mono anyway. I mix all my tracks with the pan at 12oclock for 90% of the process. It's not until I get to polishing that I worry about how wide it sounds. Even then it's more of an after thought.

[AudioTactics]

Def go for stereo mixes!!

While summing down to mono using a plugin on your stereo master output can be helpful in evaluating a stereo mix to make sure that everything is cutting through, a mono finished project would just sound really odd!!

[User756]

If the tracks are not solely intended for usage on big PAs it is definitely stereo.