Producing in Mono?
Laidback Luke says he produces in mono to “get the levels” right first and then listens to it in stereo during the mixdown. Can you guys explain a little more in detail why it would be beneficial to begin your tracks in mono and not stereo? Thanks.
His comment was based on little other than his own workflow. Panning is kind of an awesome thing for making space in your mixdown for all the elements, and can be used to great effect depending on the type of music.
What he means is that he leaves everything panned dead center until after he sets levels for everything. There’s no wrong way to do things, but I don’t like doing it that way.
That’s how I work as well honestly. If you can mix everything down in mono you’re making sure it has enough space and that there’s no masking issues. Once you start to pan your just making the mix down wider with out worrying about if things are going to be masking each other.
Just makes the whole process smoother and less complicated I’d say, other wise you’ll end up chasing your own tail around and get nothing done.
Also, a lot of smaller clubs sound systems are in mono as well so that helps to make sure it sounds good when it’s folded back down to mono
most clubs/etc.. are in mono so its important to know your bass doesn’t phase cancel and stuff (amongst other things). providing you at least check your mixdown sounds in ok that should be fine
I got a Mackie Bigknob to use to switch monitors and do a mono sum. Mono summing is different to having everything panned into the middle. I find that sometimes you lose your clap/snare entirely in a mono sum due to the level of your kick or phasing issues.
Leads also sound more forward because the spatial features from the reverb get folded in too. Bass jumps out more as well.
I always do 2-3 listens through in mono whilst mixing for levels.
When you pan, you’re not moving sound to the left or right, you’re simply quietning the level of the other side. Thats not true panning.
Which gives the illusion of the sound being located to the left or right within the stereo sound field.
Someone made the comment above about producing in mono, then going and panning things around. Having all your sounds/channels with the pan set to the centre is NOT mono.
Mono is when the left and right channels are summed.
The reason you should check your stuff in a mono sum is to ensure that phasing issues don’t cause you to lose elements of your production when they are summed by something like a radio, crappy sound system or any number of reasons.
People had to do this back in the day because many radios and record players only had one speaker. Vinyl until the 60s used to primarily be in mono too.
An example being “OMG! AWESOME TRIPPY PAD SOUND SWIRLS AROUND MY HEAD!!!”
sums in mono
“WHAT? PAD DISAPPEARD??? OH NOES!!!”
Cos the swirly phasey pad cancels itself out in mono - works in stereo, not in mono.
Yes I forgot to add that - having all your tracks panned dead centre is not mono LOL!
Sometimes I will flip the phase on some sounds, just take them out of
Phase slightly to achieve a thicker sound, that’s usually with synth sounds, again tho - when you start doing things like that, then check the results in mono. Like Biru said - things can disappear quickly.