@@Barncore watch Quincy documentary. It starts with Dre talking about quincy and how he learned a lot from him. Quincy used to use crappy speakers to mix so all those secrets have been passed down to nowadays producers.
yeah no cap only mix on headphones if it’s your only option. i have no studio monitors, and my laptop has garbage speakers. there are a lot of things you have to know if you’re gonna mix in headphones, and mono is probably the most important. still amateur as hell tho so it’s a learning process
I only mix with headphones because i don't have Monitors. But i have a EQ with mono function on my master, so I always mix in mono. My shit sounds amazing on phone speakers, on apple earbuds. That's how I know i'm mixing right.
Mixing in Mono is definitely the best tips you have ever given me. It's still so underrated. Thank you so much, Graham! Without your help I would never be able to mix my own songs today
@@alexisbangin Exactly. You mix in mono when you EQ, compress and try to get the balance right. And when you apply spatial effects like reverb and delay you turn in back to stereo. It just helps you to get more clarity
What I normally do is change the master to mono and then physically turn one speaker off, I like to mix in stereo and always double check in mono, its amazing what gets exposed.
This is going too sound strange, but Im curious, do you then look at the monitor so that your nose is pointed at the cone, or do you keep the live speaker on the side it's on, looking ahead for any reason? (almost like a mono pan) cheers.
So far the guidaline for me are. IN MONO: Balance/Volume/Amplitude EQ/Frequencies/Tonality Dynamics/Compression/Expasion/Gating/Limiting Saturation/Distortion/Tape/Tube emulators and so on. IN STEREO: Spacing/Panning/Phasing/Choruses/Flangers/Reverbs/Delays/Mid | Side or Left or Right EQ mostly(mid.side) And I when I doing spacing in stereo, if I have to eq or compress. I reference it again in Mono.
This is how old school mixers used to mix all the time. We start on the Auratone, then to NS10, then to the Genelecs, done! Auratone would take up 70% of the mixing duties, then the NS10's would take the next 20%, then the final 10% on the genelecs.
I don't mix in mono but I check in Mono often. I mix in headphones, but I do have crappy speakers and headphones and hecking in them does help. Another way to check the mids it's to put an EQ on the mix bus and put a HPF on 200Hz and a LPF on 6KHz.
I started doing the same thing about a year ago. Mixing on 2.1 Logitec speakers ~ $50, then when I'm happy with mix sounding "similar" to my reference mixes, then I turn on the big guns and listen for low end and low mids, get everything right and sounding as I want. Then I let go of music for two days (literally not listening to any music at all), come back and the first thing I play is on Apple earbuds. Then I really hear harsh stuff (due to rested ears) which I cut out then, adjust. Finally, finish on ATH M50x which are what usually entry level audiophiles listen to, and when it all translates across these, then I am happy. Never mixed on mono mix fully (I mix really dense metal mixes, so it's hard to get in mono popping everything I need), but I'll give it a go. Nice tips :)
@@alexisbangin like on a 6i6 its jack 3 one speaker i believe they are just listening to one speaker not mixing actually making the track mono i could be mistaken
@@alexisbangin When you are satisfied with a mix in mono, just revert back to stereo and you'll be amazed. Then do slight adjustments if needed for stereo, but usually, from mono mix to stereo, it translates wonderfully. Of course, if you can achieve a great mono mix. Sometimes it's not fully possible, but as said in the video, this is an awesome hack to jump start your mix or move out of the stuck mix.
@@alejandromagana1554 i love your process lol. I actually do something similar but I actually use beyerdynamic DT 880 pros instead. Was thinking about getting the m50x's. How do they perform?
Peaches Chrenko You should always test it on different speakers. studio ones are great and all but your average person is listening in the car, off their phone speaker, or through headphones. that's why I car test and phone test mixes. if it doesn't sound decent in the car or off my phone, its not decent imo
This is some good info that I needed to hear. I remember watchin a Robert Glasper interview talking about J Dilla and he was explaining how After Dilla finish a beat, he would take it in the car wit him and drive around and test out the sound in his car. He would do this because it was more important for him to hear how his music sounded in the regular everyday music players like cars and headphones than a big studio with expensive shit because that’s where the listeners are hearing their music.
Best tip I've used in my mixes by far! (Interesting that a tip is to not buy thousands of dollars worth of good speakers, but rather buy a "crappy" speaker, ha, its true though 😂)
@@alexisbangin yeah the idea is going back and forth, mix in mono for a bit, get balances correct, check in stereo... mix on crappy speakers, get it to sound good, check in good speakers. and ultimately when you're satisfied, final mixing on good speakers. at least that's how I try...
Wow man! Every time I watch a video of yours I just think “wow this guy really just broke the code!” Every video you send you I learn something new and learn further then the video initially has in store. I’ve only been recording for a couple weeks, but I’ve been watching you to learn how to record for about a year and everything I do is referred back to your videos. Thanks man
This Mono trick I discovered a few year ago. I love it! I'm not a professional by any means but I have noticed that my mono mixes have been sitting great, and as soon as I turn them to stereo the whole tune comes alive. Mix in mono! (This doesn't mean write your music in mono)
Coucou ! Mono tru the little Bluetooth speaker of my daughter just saved my life today. Eq and balance in mono was already a excellent trick but doing it with a tiny speaker is just incredibly easier ,especialy on drum and guitars in my case. We can also really hear the compression and reverb effect more precisely tru a little mono speaker . I didn't want to experiment this trick before because i was relying on my studio monitors and it's a great mistake! I discovered the real midrange and finally the" real sound " of my tracks. I 've done the "car test" and the mix was sweet and punchy as never ! You made confidence come to me again and it's such a great feeling :-) Thank u so much and take care !!! Vince from France
Thus is very, very true!!! I've been mixing mostly in mono more recently. When I mix in mono, I can clearly hear and eliminate any phase correlation issues that might occur with panned or stereo instruments. Also. I can get a really good balance between the vocals and the instruments for the most part because I can hear them more clearly. When widening the stereo field of your tracks, ALWAYS check in mono for compatibility. If elements drop out, you have a problem. NOW is the time to fix it. Now, it's hard for me to clearly hear the lower midrange on my monitors so in a case like this. a crappy mono speaker would really help me get better translations in that area. One other key point that was never mentioned in the video is to listen and mix at VERY low volume. This will help you get your balance right. Turn it down to the very bare minimum and what you hear the most is what will stick out front in the mix. If you're mixing rap or any other rhythm - heavy genre, you want the attack of the kickdrum, snare, and vocals up ftont, bass just under the kick and NOT masking the vocals, and everything else in the background leveled and eqed around these elements. Great video. Thanks for sharing!!!
The point is, if you can make it sound good on those $15 headphones, then its definitely going to sound good on everything else. And what are average people listening to music on anyway? (Crappy $15 headphones)
Around 3 years ago i started out with Lmms and basically all the sounds were mono. So when I converted to fl studio, I kept mixing in mono and then owning into stereo
You are absolutely an amazing guy! I'm just a hobbyist trying to make my mixdown and never thought about mono mixing. I have total respect for people like you who give your time to explain clearly and help so many people struggling out there. You are so real. Thank you!
So so true, mono sums the two channels into one and exposes phase shifting issues, so certain frequences disappear because opposite sound waves get added up and cancel each other, while others using the same logic accentuate.
I've just tried to listen to many of my favourite tracks in Ableton switching mono-stereo back and forth including Kendrick's mixes and what I can say - they all sound good both in mono and stereo. And I can't say this about my mixes, haha. Now it makes big sense for me: to start from mono, then EQ your mix, and then go to panning.
Mixing in Mono it really gives me a big view of how everything sounds and i can easily find any errors on frequencies or panning that needs to be corrected...i used some crappy headphones just to see how it sounds and also in my car ...there are a lot of ways of how to get that pro sound and one of them is tobmix in mono 100 % agreed.👍👍👍🔥🔥
Mono mix reference has been around since the 60s when stereophonic recordings and record players first became more available. The fact is, the more a frequency is panned right or left the less presence it has in has in a monophonic field. The centered frequencies over power the panned frequencies. That's why in the 60's and 70's many albums were released in Mono and Stereo. For a while many radio stations usually only received mono versions of Rock and Pop singles until FM radio became more popular because in the U.S. FM stations usually played Classical and Jazz and AM stations (which only carried monophonic signals) played Pop, Rock and Country music.
I do about half my EQing in mono, check mono regularly, and do about half my mix on a pair of very small Genelec 8010A’s that are behind me at the back wall and so close to each other they are touching. The rest of the time I’m on full range high-end Barefoot MicroMain 27’s. Mixes translate to almost everything.
@@AkilisMusic I got the idea from top mixers like Michael Brauer and Chris Lord-Alge. They don't use the same speakers for this task, but instead they use a small boombox that they keep behind them. The idea is that you are listening to 2 rather small speakers that are so close together and far enough away from you that it's "almost" mono. This gives a perspective that is very similar to the way a lot of people listen to music... such as listening on a bluetooth speaker, laptop, computer speakers, boombox, etc., while you are in a different area of the room.
@@AkilisMusic I don't usually face them, I find that by having the sound come into the back of my ears it's much closer to the effect you get when you are listening on a small stereo as you move about the room. It's very rare that most music listeners have the speakers facing them directly so I need to know what that sounds like in contrast to my main monitors that have the optimal positioning in front of me.
I'm an audio engineer of 10+ years, and i have never really been interested in mixing mono until recently when my co engineer at my studio showed me that he mixes in mono, and his work speaks for its self! I thought id go out and see what all the uss was about and i have to say im definitely looking forward to trying it out and seeing how it comes out for me.
I half-discovered this when one of my krk speakers went bad and I still wanted to make music while the other one was sent back for repair. I heard this tip a few years later and it do it on every track now. It was one of the best tips I ever heard. I try telling my friends to do the same but they won't listen. Now I start every track with an Ableton utility with the width set to zero.
This is what makes the UAD Apollo system so amazing is that while you have your speakers plugged into the interface you can literally hit the MONO control on the front panel of the hardware and it sums down the mix INTO mono on the fly until you hit it again to revert back to stereo on both speakers, really life saving.
Ive been unintentionally been mixing in mono ever since I got my mackie big knob. I have four monitor pairs (Hs8's & Hs5's ). On the big knob they have five buttons, one of them happens to be a "mono" function. I originally got the big knob to switch in-between monitors, but now that I have this function It instantly makes mixing so much easier. Soon as you hit the mono button you can hear the sounds you are missing so much clearer. I have found going back & fourth between the mono button & stereo standard of protools so much helpful, my work time has been cut down & my sound is becoming more clearer. Just my input, cheers!
A friend of mine gave me a genuine Auratone he’s owned since the 70’s. I just got an amp for it and have been procrastinating with getting it hooked up. This video is even more of a reason to plug it in and get started. Thanks, Graham!
I learned this technique a few years back, and it really made a drastic improvement with my leveling skills. I love when you cover this subject. Thanks Graham.
Always mix in mono. And a big +1 for Airwindows Monitoring for those without treated rooms, it really helps to check on different setups and when mixing on cans to simulate crossfeed.
I never thought about mixing in mono but I usually mix in Mobile headphones first before I go to a Bluetooth speaker and scale up to monitors and even listen in a standard car stereo. You won’t believe how much of a change can be found doing that.
I stopped the video when he said that. It's like when you hear SM57 or SM58 are crap... it's a tool, if you don't know how to use it, don't say it doesn't work.
I do mix in mono but like you said "to check at the end" more or less but after you brought to light again I think I will increase the time I spend mixing in mono because it does really make sense. Everything you said... made perfect sense.
I find it really time consuming trying to mix in stereo rather than mono because I keep making adjustments. His points are really spot on in this video 👍🏻
I didn't realize that this was helping my music until now, but I just do a mono output when I'm producing out of my interface, then when I'm done I'm always blown away when I listen to the wave file in stereo.
Started doing this 2 years ago, really changed the way my mixes sound, specially when I play them in my friend’s cars, no more embarrassing bad mixes lol
I mix in stereo usually, but then I check my mix in mono to see if there is a difference or to identify problem areas. The reason that I usually prefer stereo first is that I tend to use alot of real time effects that have to do with space, which means that I usually have a plugin monitoring the sound field running. Once I get the mix sounding the way I want, then I check the mix in mono to see if it translates accurately. The reason why I don't start in mono first is that it may be impossible for me to hear certain elements accurately in mono because I mix with a subwoofer. So mixing in mono kind of prevents me from hearing the different ranges of bass that need to blend together from the monitors and the subs. The other part about mono that gets forgotten about is that most of the time people are listening in mono, and don't know it especially with streaming devices, especially smart televisions and phones. Many people think if they see multiple speakers then the device is producing stereo audio, but infact there is just one audio channel hitting an amplifier instead of two actual channels. Considering that and knowing that majority of people listen via a streaming service these days more attention has to be paid to both the mono and stereo versions of mixes at different sample rates with respect to the supported bit rates by the intended delivery platform. So the biggest thing in my opinon is to make sure that you get to a point where you are happy with the mix in stereo, then make sure it still sounds the same in mono using the panning trick that you described or an actual mono speaker. Don't stop there, but bounce stereo and mono versions of the mix listen to the mixes on different sets of stereo speakers, mono speakers like your television, video game consoles, cars, and computers. Make sure that your mono mixes hold up well on these devices just like stereo devices. Last but not least the most important thing that you can do is to upload both mono and stereo versions of the mix to a secure cloud space such as googledrive, then play both versions on speakers in your car or other bluetooth speakers to see how the sonic qualities change while streaming to identify changes that need to be made so that the mix translates properly compared to the non streaming versions of the mix. This is key because most music is streamed in mono with processing that often can create horrible masks that kill the dynamics in your mix especially when dealing with bass heavy music. So I paint it in stereo, check it in mono, and verify it for the delivery platform. Great video as always bro!
been mixing in mono for a year or so. absolutely love it. especially when i forget it's in mono and wonder why it doesn't sound as wide as it should be. then you take it off mono and it sounds amazing. no crappy speakers though, need to get/find some.
Idk how many people do this, but I go back and forth from mono to stereo while im mixing, and I also mix and master at the same time and get very VERY good quality sounding final products. Sometimes i’ll start the mastering chain after barely starting the mix so that way I can almost see the future as to how the mix is effecting the master and vice versa. Hard to explain but much easier to show in person. Thanks for your videos buddy!
I actually do about 50% of my mix using a cup at the end of a string. All the dopest producers do this and everyone should try it. I learned this from David Axelrod in 1937. Went to elementary school with him. Real talk.
I love watching Ali mix. I know he has splits his bass frequencies and side chains the higher frequencies.I still find it hard as hell to get the low end that he displays on Kendrick's album.
YES, I always mix in mono with my NS-10's, then compare it in stereo mode with headphones & other playback sources. Mono does not lie, on crappy speakers. Early "Beatle" mixes were in mono as well !
It took discipline to commit to mixing the majority of songs in mono, but the difference you get in clarity at the end result is well worth the struggle!!! I started using this technique after I saw the first video you did about mixing in mono!! So, Thanks Graham!!!
yes, i mix in mono for about 40 percent of the mix and it does really help to clearly identify the masking problems and helps in making decisions for eqing and compression
What I used to do instead of mixing on a crappy-midrangy speaker was exporting the mix and just playing the track on my phone‘s speaker. As stupid as it may sound, it actually helped me to find some things in the mix, that I could improve on. It’s so much more work though...
still remember seeing 40 on mtv talking about mixing thank me later out of laptop speakers cuz he said he believes that’s the way ppl will hear a new song now days for the first time. if u can make it sound good on cheap laptop speakers it’ll sound amazing on everything else.
I always start in stereo, I mix 90% on my Apple earbuds going back and forth on a pair of Yamaha HS-50’s and I use the iMac built in speakers to balance levels, the positioning of the speakers have a mono-like effect. I believe in mixing on earbuds because that’s what most people listen to music on
On the ns10: I believe the sole reason they're so good for mixing, is that the time-response is faster and drier than on any other speaker. Subsequent speaker designers at Yamaha haven't understood this, which is why they've made ported designs on subsequent models Edit: Here's the article I once read on that. It involves whitepapers and all kinds of stuff. There's also some history in there, which makes it a fun read: www.google.com/url?q=www.hificritic.com/uploads/2/8/8/0/28808909/excerpt-201903-2-yamaha_ns10_phenomenon_phil_ward-feature.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiRzKH5843rAhWrlYsKHes3CeQ4ChAWMAR6BAgEEAE&usg=AOvVaw2NH3Vvl266JBlz_ABBuSgn It also mentions that they are just as unforgiving when it comes to signal chain and positioning, which would account for why some say they sound like shit. Mind you: I'm not interested in a pair. I'm too much on the road to drag a pair +good amplifier with me, and I'm not a very good mixer anyway, so the moneez would be better spent paying for someone who is
I mix in stereo and check in mono along the mixing process. In the end I also listen to the song on my cell phone, because it's where a lot of people show their friends something they like.
I stumbled onto this a few years ago after getting frustrated with how my mixes would sound when I played them on a typical consumer Bluetooth speaker. So I just said screw it and started mixing primarily on one of those crappy speakers. Huge difference. Headphones and studio monitors don’t even come into play until the very end to get the polish and balance right on the highs and lows that are lost on the Bluetooth speaker. Sometimes I have to go back and forth a little few times with levels, especially to dial in the vocal just right, cause the vocal always pokes out more on the mid-rangy speakers.
Thanks for the video Graham! I saw the episode of Pensado's Place where Ali revealed this mono mixing method. I subsequently bought an Auratone and am preparing to use it for my first mix! To acclimate my ears to it, I've been listening to all my favorites through it so I will have a better frame of reference of what my final mix should sound like! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
I do mix in mono. I don't necessarily have a crappy mid range speaker, but my 003 interface has a mono button. I engage the mono button and mix that way. Then I test my mix on various speakers and headphones until I get it right.
Hi Graham, really appreciate everything you do. Just wanted to say thank you for your non click bait approach in this video title and thumbnail. Fair play 👏
Mono mixing allows you to better hear any phasing problems. My API Console has a mono button that instantly changes between mono and stereo. My old Ghost console has that button too. The Beatles mixed their records to mono first. Stereo mixes for the Beatles was an afterthought until they made Abby Road.
All waveforms are mono. How we chose to blend them determines their dual mono, stereo blend, 2:1, 4:1, 5:1, 7:1 and their spatial positioning algorithms to fill in the gaps.
Yes, I have been doing mono and stereo. My head phone are TASCAM and Im using some poop-worthy USB computer speakers for mono. Didn't know there was an advantage to my set-up. Gracias, señor!
Yes I agree Mixing in Mono is the best thing to me. I suggest more peopl6to mix in mono it helps your ear as well it helped me out alot when I was first starting out and was struggling with mixing it really does help with your final mix.
Mixing in mono is also great for checking for phase issues. The phase button on our daws doesn’t adjust the phase. The industry has this wrong. It multiplies the amplitude by -1. A*Sin(x+phi) where phi is phase and A is amplitude. Mathematically: -A*Sin(x) = A*Sin(x+180). This is where they got the “phase invert” button from. It should be labeled -A on the button in our daws. The situations where the phase invert button would work are when you record a drum head with two mics equidistant on each side of the drum head (top and bottom). The air pressure causes one amplitude to go positive and the other to go negative on a strike. As the drum head vibrates the air pressure changes polarity on each mic. In other situations you’ll still end up with a phase issues regardless of multiplying by -1.
Love Auratones! And yeah, I agree - it's really important to check your mix on unforgiving speakers, and check in mono! I use a plugin for checking in mono though. Thanks for another great video!
Great post man, mixing in mono is great because it allows you to focus on mixing frequencies first as opposed to using space to keep instruments from masking others in the same frequency range. I mean it works, but if you can use frequency cuts & boosts first, then you can basically use space & panning to it’s potential and really give your sound a whole nother dimension.🙏🏼 Turns a good mix into a great one.
You're totally right. I tend to mix with earphones. First, I always do it in plain mono. Second, I found out that nowadays the smartphone earbuds are actually too good, so I got myself some really crappy 2 dollar buds to do my initial mixes. It helps to detect all sorts of nasty things people normally hear when they listen to your product for the first time, usually on extremely crapy smartphone speakers because they do not have the earbuds with them, let alone some decent speakers. Moreover, I discovered that the pitch errors in singing are most easily discovered on crapy earbuds.
It also helps to listen to mixes where you regularly listen to music. Coz your ears are calibrated to you hearing music in a relaxed state. Like a car or speakers/earphones you used as a teen... etc
Great advice! I have used this setup for years. Avantone mid-range monitors and NS-10's (or HS-7's) routed through a Radial Engineering MC-3 Monitor Control. The MC3 lets me dial in either or both speaker pair and lets me go from stereo to mono with a button press. Not terribly expensive and very convenient. I can even connect crappy headphones through the same controller if I want the ultimate in crappy speakers. This also brings up the importance of making sure your stereo tracks are in phase.
Yes and Yes ! Yes I mix in mono, it's definitely one on the best thing to do to improve ! It allows me to mix faster with better results ! And yes I do have a small crappy speaker I use a lot during mixing too !
Great tip Graeme, I bought a pair of Avantone’s about 5 years ago - yep they sound awful but I love them. Combine them with listening in Mono and they really make a massive difference to my mixing. You get to the point where you forget that your listening in Mono and when you kick back into Stereo your mix sounds amazing.
Checking in mono is great, but there's a catch that applies to mixing rock music. I record and mix my own songs that are something between pop punk and alt rock, so basically, most of the time I have distorted rhythm guitars double tracked and panned hard left and right. When I first heard this advice about mixing in mono, I instantly assumed that this should apply to any genre and if my mixes sound weak in mono, I'm doing something wrong. The problem was - in every single mix I made, when switching to mono, these huge roaring guitars just seemed to collapse and become small, no matter what I did - different EQ on left and right, inverting the phase or whatever, it just sounded weak. I started going insane about this thing, until I found someone on a gearslutz forum who said "Have you tried listening to professional mixes, songs from your favorite pop punk bands, in mono? See for yourself" So i checked about ten different tracks from 10 of my favorite bands and guess what? On every track the guitars sounded much weaker in mono. So I guess my advice for amateur musicians who play rock music and do the double track hard pan thing is - don't worry about mono in terms of rhythm guitar phase issues, it's a completely normal thing, even for professional mixes.
Thank you so much. I mix for the fun and have been doing this for 4 years. I have been mixing in mono for the past year and a half(because i found that it gives me a better perspective on the mix) and i have always used apple ear buds and reference the mix with my tv and car speakers. Although my mix sounds great in mono, i feel insecure about them because some of them sound great in stereo but others dont. Also i always felt that i needed to save up for state of the art monitors before i can offer my services to people. After watching this, i feel more confident about my mixes. Again, thank you.
I use a 9 Watt (5 inch single) bluetooth speaker that easily electronically distorts with high INPUT signal level, even on good mastered songs and that makes it really easy to spot problem areas in my mix when referencing tracks. (On my Yamaha HS7) I also check 100 % separation (for reverb issues), original stereo and 100 % merged (mono) back and forth (fl studio) for a good stereo sound balance => I go by the loose rule that the reverb should be slightly unveiled when going from mono to 100% separation and the dry track should almost sound the same when going back and forth. That's how I do it my way , anyway...
Mixing in mono is one of the best way to get your mix ready for any listening environement.In protools i just use the air stock plugins on my mix bus for all my EQuing and leveling decision and switch back to stereo for fx and final balance....great tips bro! Now i ll get myself some crappy computer speakers for experiencing that trick bro thx again...
I use a shitty ass IISB13 speaker for about 90% of my mixing ... whenever I take it to the car or at a party it always bangs and sounds radio ready ... something I always realized from day one is that a good mix is everything
I've been diving into mixing, and I have started pulling everything into mono more and more. I actually like it more, and find myself locked into mono for hours and forgetting about it.
Mixing in mono took my skills to the next level. I actually like the way mono sounds for some things and tend to leave a lot of stuff panned center anyway.
I got a pair of avantone active mix cubes and everyone says they sound crappy but I think they sound amazing and they have really really helped me mix better. I was basically mixing blind with everything else I was listening on.
I do mix in mono on a jbl flip 4 speaker. You are completely right about everything you said. You do have to be careful about over compensation though.
Mixing in mono is a yes from me. It’s definitely the way to go especially when it comes to achieving a great volume balance (including eq, etc), which is critical for the future of the mix. Now, working on a crappy speaker makes no sense to me at all. We need a reference speaker or set of speakers, otherwise we are not hearing what we recorded but a crappy attempt to reproduce what we recorded on a speaker that just can’t handle any level of accuracy. Originally the crappy mono speakers where used in the studios as a quick and cheap way to check mono compatibility but no one would work on them for prolonged amounts of time since it will produce frequencies that will get your ears fatigued, among many other reasons. Regarding the NS10’s... we all know the story why they were started to be used in the first place so that’s another no from me. That’s my personal opinion, I’ll leave it there since I am perfectly aware that there’s people who love them. So in short, guys, buy the best possible set of monitor speakers and try and make great sounding mixes there. Other than that approach... it makes no sense to me UNLESS your budget is so limited that you can’t afford good equipment, in which case... just nevermind the gear and keep on doing what you can until you can buy better gear. That’s my two cents. Peace out.
Mono is not just for balance, but it does help a lot for balancing. The fact is that pan is the single most power effect you have as a mixer, particularly changing the pan position of instruments in the arrangement. If you start with stuff panned right the way out, you’ve shown your hand too early, you know? You’ve go nowhere to go. Personally I also do most of my mixes in mono. Maybe the last 10% of the mix I will go to stereo.
![Chino Pacas - Modo Capone (with Drake & Fuerza Regida) [Video Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zjv8TQ0gBkg/mqdefault.jpg)
►► Create radio-worthy songs from your bedroom. Download my FREE Radio Ready Guide and learn my 6 step process → www.RadioReadyGuide.com
I even master in mono,only for loudness though
This was first passed down to Dre by Quincy Jones so we know this is gotta be something serious to consider.
that is some sick plug!
Is that true? Is there any link that can verify that?
@@Barncore watch Quincy documentary. It starts with Dre talking about quincy and how he learned a lot from him. Quincy used to use crappy speakers to mix so all those secrets have been passed down to nowadays producers.
eww this is so bad you should repent
Bruce Swedien
Never felt so proud of my low budget headset
😂 hi five
Hahahaha
I remember hearing "don't mix with headphones, they lie to you" and I never knew what it meant. Now I completely understand
yeah no cap only mix on headphones if it’s your only option. i have no studio monitors, and my laptop has garbage speakers. there are a lot of things you have to know if you’re gonna mix in headphones, and mono is probably the most important. still amateur as hell tho so it’s a learning process
minusign yep so true, as soon as you play it through some speakers everything sounds completely different
I only mix with headphones because i don't have Monitors. But i have a EQ with mono function on my master, so I always mix in mono. My shit sounds amazing on phone speakers, on apple earbuds. That's how I know i'm mixing right.
@@ottmarmiller5282 how do you get it to sound good on the phone?
@@flamersss mixing in mono
Mixing in Mono is definitely the best tips you have ever given me. It's still so underrated. Thank you so much, Graham! Without your help I would never be able to mix my own songs today
so u basically mix in monon but after u put it in stereo or what? Or u leave all the sounds in mono forever?
@@alexisbangin Exactly. You mix in mono when you EQ, compress and try to get the balance right. And when you apply spatial effects like reverb and delay you turn in back to stereo. It just helps you to get more clarity
Jonas Music so do you put all your tracks in mono or just the stereo bus?
@@hitz4days875 You put the Mix Buss/Stereo Out in Mono which turns all the tracks in Mono without doing it for each individual track
@@CaughtInTheLoop thanks for the knowledge.
What I normally do is change the master to mono and then physically turn one speaker off, I like to mix in stereo and always double check in mono, its amazing what gets exposed.
This is going too sound strange, but Im curious, do you then look at the monitor so that your nose is pointed at the cone, or do you keep the live speaker on the side it's on, looking ahead for any reason? (almost like a mono pan) cheers.
So far the guidaline for me are.
IN MONO:
Balance/Volume/Amplitude
EQ/Frequencies/Tonality
Dynamics/Compression/Expasion/Gating/Limiting
Saturation/Distortion/Tape/Tube emulators and so on.
IN STEREO:
Spacing/Panning/Phasing/Choruses/Flangers/Reverbs/Delays/Mid | Side or Left or Right EQ
mostly(mid.side)
And I when I doing spacing in stereo, if I have to eq or compress. I reference it again in Mono.
yep gotta have that mide side to address clashing phases from multiple frequencies
Underrated comment …
This is how old school mixers used to mix all the time. We start on the Auratone, then to NS10, then to the Genelecs, done! Auratone would take up 70% of the mixing duties, then the NS10's would take the next 20%, then the final 10% on the genelecs.
And then sit in the car and have a listen!
I don't mix in mono but I check in Mono often. I mix in headphones, but I do have crappy speakers and headphones and hecking in them does help.
Another way to check the mids it's to put an EQ on the mix bus and put a HPF on 200Hz and a LPF on 6KHz.
I started doing the same thing about a year ago. Mixing on 2.1 Logitec speakers ~ $50, then when I'm happy with mix sounding "similar" to my reference mixes, then I turn on the big guns and listen for low end and low mids, get everything right and sounding as I want. Then I let go of music for two days (literally not listening to any music at all), come back and the first thing I play is on Apple earbuds. Then I really hear harsh stuff (due to rested ears) which I cut out then, adjust. Finally, finish on ATH M50x which are what usually entry level audiophiles listen to, and when it all translates across these, then I am happy. Never mixed on mono mix fully (I mix really dense metal mixes, so it's hard to get in mono popping everything I need), but I'll give it a go. Nice tips :)
Tried not listening music for a week for ear relieve, t was extremely difficult! This is a pro tip avobe
so u basically mix in monon but after u put it in stereo or what? Or u leave all the sounds in mono forever?
@@alexisbangin like on a 6i6 its jack 3 one speaker i believe they are just listening to one speaker not mixing actually making the track mono i could be mistaken
@@alexisbangin When you are satisfied with a mix in mono, just revert back to stereo and you'll be amazed. Then do slight adjustments if needed for stereo, but usually, from mono mix to stereo, it translates wonderfully. Of course, if you can achieve a great mono mix. Sometimes it's not fully possible, but as said in the video, this is an awesome hack to jump start your mix or move out of the stuck mix.
@@alejandromagana1554 i love your process lol. I actually do something similar but I actually use beyerdynamic DT 880 pros instead. Was thinking about getting the m50x's. How do they perform?
No haven't mixed in mono or used a crappy speaker for mixing but I'm gonna try this. Maybe I'll finally not hate my mixes! Fingers crossed🙂
Mixing in mono will definitely help
@@RussTafari Good to know!
Peaches Chrenko You should always test it on different speakers. studio ones are great and all but your average person is listening in the car, off their phone speaker, or through headphones.
that's why I car test and phone test mixes. if it doesn't sound decent in the car or off my phone, its not decent imo
If you understand mixing it will
My left speakers been broken for months, this video makes me feel better about my life lol
I remember when I started to watch your channel, you always said to Mix in Mono. I’ll never forget this!
Mono mixing on JBL clip speaker for best mixes that translate to iphone - even the 808
Dantanya damn, I have one of those too and never use it. Now I will
I got a jbl xtreme and I gotta start mixing my songs on that and not just on my audio technica headphones and krks
As Im reading this comment and I am currently using a J.B.L clip speaker in my car.... craziness
This is exactly what I've been using 😎🤘
This is some good info that I needed to hear. I remember watchin a Robert Glasper interview talking about J Dilla and he was explaining how After Dilla finish a beat, he would take it in the car wit him and drive around and test out the sound in his car. He would do this because it was more important for him to hear how his music sounded in the regular everyday music players like cars and headphones than a big studio with expensive shit because that’s where the listeners are hearing their music.
I've heard Rick Rubin had a similar process in the 80s
Best tip I've used in my mixes by far! (Interesting that a tip is to not buy thousands of dollars worth of good speakers, but rather buy a "crappy" speaker, ha, its true though 😂)
so u basically mix in monon but after u put it in stereo or what? Or u leave all the sounds in mono forever?
@@alexisbangin yeah the idea is going back and forth, mix in mono for a bit, get balances correct, check in stereo... mix on crappy speakers, get it to sound good, check in good speakers. and ultimately when you're satisfied, final mixing on good speakers. at least that's how I try...
@@alexisbangin You just monitor in mono to hear the tonal balance.
I've thought about this a lot , I honestly never mix in mono but now I'll definitely go through it to see what it's like and make a difference .
"No one sits in between speakers perfectly"... 💡
Wow man! Every time I watch a video of yours I just think “wow this guy really just broke the code!” Every video you send you I learn something new and learn further then the video initially has in store. I’ve only been recording for a couple weeks, but I’ve been watching you to learn how to record for about a year and everything I do is referred back to your videos. Thanks man
This Mono trick I discovered a few year ago. I love it! I'm not a professional by any means but I have noticed that my mono mixes have been sitting great, and as soon as I turn them to stereo the whole tune comes alive.
Mix in mono! (This doesn't mean write your music in mono)
Coucou !
Mono tru the little Bluetooth speaker of my daughter just saved my life today.
Eq and balance in mono was already a excellent trick but doing it with a tiny speaker is just incredibly easier ,especialy on drum and guitars in my case.
We can also really hear the compression and reverb effect more precisely tru a little mono speaker .
I didn't want to experiment this trick before because i was relying on my studio monitors and it's a great mistake!
I discovered the real midrange and finally the" real sound " of my tracks.
I 've done the "car test" and the mix was sweet and punchy as never !
You made confidence come to me again and it's such a great feeling :-)
Thank u so much and take care !!!
Vince from France
YES I mix in mono, it changed my whole mixing quality. I would never go back on it, great video man
Thus is very, very true!!! I've been mixing mostly in mono more recently. When I mix in mono, I can clearly hear and eliminate any phase correlation issues that might occur with panned or stereo instruments. Also. I can get a really good balance between the vocals and the instruments for the most part because I can hear them more clearly. When widening the stereo field of your tracks, ALWAYS check in mono for compatibility. If elements drop out, you have a problem. NOW is the time to fix it.
Now, it's hard for me to clearly hear the lower midrange on my monitors so in a case like this. a crappy mono speaker would really help me get better translations in that area. One other key point that was never mentioned in the video is to listen and mix at VERY low volume. This will help you get your balance right. Turn it down to the very bare minimum and what you hear the most is what will stick out front in the mix. If you're mixing rap or any other rhythm - heavy genre, you want the attack of the kickdrum, snare, and vocals up ftont, bass just under the kick and NOT masking the vocals, and everything else in the background leveled and eqed around these elements.
Great video. Thanks for sharing!!!
Using crappy $15 earbuds is the modern equivalent of the Auratone imo.
My good Ole 20 dollar skullcandy earphones!!!
But that's still stereo and like he says it's good to start on mono
@@ryugawagatekiwrokerue8443 true but you can just make the mix mono in software
The point of the auratone here is to mix in mono, saying a stereo set is the same as mono makes no sense
The point is, if you can make it sound good on those $15 headphones, then its definitely going to sound good on everything else. And what are average people listening to music on anyway? (Crappy $15 headphones)
Yep, been mixing in mono since about the mid 90s. Works great!
Around 3 years ago i started out with Lmms and basically all the sounds were mono. So when I converted to fl studio, I kept mixing in mono and then owning into stereo
i learned this from Conny Plank in the mid 80´s...still relevant!
You are absolutely an amazing guy! I'm just a hobbyist trying to make my mixdown and never thought about mono mixing. I have total respect for people like you who give your time to explain clearly and help so many people struggling out there. You are so real. Thank you!
So so true, mono sums the two channels into one and exposes phase shifting issues, so certain frequences disappear because opposite sound waves get added up and cancel each other, while others using the same logic accentuate.
I've just tried to listen to many of my favourite tracks in Ableton switching mono-stereo back and forth including Kendrick's mixes and what I can say - they all sound good both in mono and stereo. And I can't say this about my mixes, haha. Now it makes big sense for me: to start from mono, then EQ your mix, and then go to panning.
Mixing in Mono it really gives me a big view of how everything sounds and i can easily find any errors on frequencies or panning that needs to be corrected...i used some crappy headphones just to see how it sounds and also in my car ...there are a lot of ways of how to get that pro sound and one of them is tobmix in mono 100 % agreed.👍👍👍🔥🔥
*Mixing in Mono is good for checking the balance, but you still need to check in stereo though*
Mono mix reference has been around since the 60s when stereophonic recordings and record players first became more available. The fact is, the more a frequency is panned right or left the less presence it has in has in a monophonic field. The centered frequencies over power the panned frequencies. That's why in the 60's and 70's many albums were released in Mono and Stereo. For a while many radio stations usually only received mono versions of Rock and Pop singles until FM radio became more popular because in the U.S. FM stations usually played Classical and Jazz and AM stations (which only carried monophonic signals) played Pop, Rock and Country music.
I do about half my EQing in mono, check mono regularly, and do about half my mix on a pair of very small Genelec 8010A’s that are behind me at the back wall and so close to each other they are touching. The rest of the time I’m on full range high-end Barefoot MicroMain 27’s. Mixes translate to almost everything.
Whats the reason to position the genelecs behind you so closed together if i may ask?
@@AkilisMusic I got the idea from top mixers like Michael Brauer and Chris Lord-Alge. They don't use the same speakers for this task, but instead they use a small boombox that they keep behind them. The idea is that you are listening to 2 rather small speakers that are so close together and far enough away from you that it's "almost" mono. This gives a perspective that is very similar to the way a lot of people listen to music... such as listening on a bluetooth speaker, laptop, computer speakers, boombox, etc., while you are in a different area of the room.
@@DanDuskin wow that sounds pretty interesting, but do you face the speakers or have your back turned on them while mixing?
@@AkilisMusic I don't usually face them, I find that by having the sound come into the back of my ears it's much closer to the effect you get when you are listening on a small stereo as you move about the room. It's very rare that most music listeners have the speakers facing them directly so I need to know what that sounds like in contrast to my main monitors that have the optimal positioning in front of me.
@@DanDuskin nice that's very interesting stuff thanks for sharing that i'll give this a shot in the future!
I'm an audio engineer of 10+ years, and i have never really been interested in mixing mono until recently when my co engineer at my studio showed me that he mixes in mono, and his work speaks for its self! I thought id go out and see what all the uss was about and i have to say im definitely looking forward to trying it out and seeing how it comes out for me.
I half-discovered this when one of my krk speakers went bad and I still wanted to make music while the other one was sent back for repair. I heard this tip a few years later and it do it on every track now. It was one of the best tips I ever heard. I try telling my friends to do the same but they won't listen. Now I start every track with an Ableton utility with the width set to zero.
This is what makes the UAD Apollo system so amazing is that while you have your speakers plugged into the interface you can literally hit the MONO control on the front panel of the hardware and it sums down the mix INTO mono on the fly until you hit it again to revert back to stereo on both speakers, really life saving.
Ive been unintentionally been mixing in mono ever since I got my mackie big knob. I have four monitor pairs (Hs8's & Hs5's ). On the big knob they have five buttons, one of them happens to be a "mono" function. I originally got the big knob to switch in-between monitors, but now that I have this function It instantly makes mixing so much easier. Soon as you hit the mono button you can hear the sounds you are missing so much clearer. I have found going back & fourth between the mono button & stereo standard of protools so much helpful, my work time has been cut down & my sound is becoming more clearer. Just my input, cheers!
A friend of mine gave me a genuine Auratone he’s owned since the 70’s. I just got an amp for it and have been procrastinating with getting it hooked up. This video is even more of a reason to plug it in and get started. Thanks, Graham!
I learned this technique a few years back, and it really made a drastic improvement with my leveling skills. I love when you cover this subject. Thanks Graham.
Always mix in mono. And a big +1 for Airwindows Monitoring for those without treated rooms, it really helps to check on different setups and when mixing on cans to simulate crossfeed.
I never thought about mixing in mono but I usually mix in Mobile headphones first before I go to a Bluetooth speaker and scale up to monitors and even listen in a standard car stereo. You won’t believe how much of a change can be found doing that.
Says NS 10's sound crappy
Uses KRK monitors
I stopped the video when he said that. It's like when you hear SM57 or SM58 are crap... it's a tool, if you don't know how to use it, don't say it doesn't work.
Ns10s are my favourite monitors ever
@@Naindurth MAMADAS
NS 10's are well known for sounding like total dog shit. Yes those KRKs do sound more pleasing to the ear than a harsh high mid vomiting NS 10.
You may not like ns but they krk 5s are not better than ns10s ... sorry guys
I do mix in mono but like you said "to check at the end" more or less but after you brought to light again I think I will increase the time I spend mixing in mono because it does really make sense. Everything you said... made perfect sense.
I find it really time consuming trying to mix in stereo rather than mono because I keep making adjustments. His points are really spot on in this video 👍🏻
Yes I do have mid-range desktop speakers. I use them a lot to check and double check my mixes, and it works.
I didn't realize that this was helping my music until now, but I just do a mono output when I'm producing out of my interface, then when I'm done I'm always blown away when I listen to the wave file in stereo.
Started doing this 2 years ago, really changed the way my mixes sound, specially when I play them in my friend’s cars, no more embarrassing bad mixes lol
I mix in stereo usually, but then I check my mix in mono to see if there is a difference or to identify problem areas. The reason that I usually prefer stereo first is that I tend to use alot of real time effects that have to do with space, which means that I usually have a plugin monitoring the sound field running. Once I get the mix sounding the way I want, then I check the mix in mono to see if it translates accurately. The reason why I don't start in mono first is that it may be impossible for me to hear certain elements accurately in mono because I mix with a subwoofer. So mixing in mono kind of prevents me from hearing the different ranges of bass that need to blend together from the monitors and the subs. The other part about mono that gets forgotten about is that most of the time people are listening in mono, and don't know it especially with streaming devices, especially smart televisions and phones. Many people think if they see multiple speakers then the device is producing stereo audio, but infact there is just one audio channel hitting an amplifier instead of two actual channels. Considering that and knowing that majority of people listen via a streaming service these days more attention has to be paid to both the mono and stereo versions of mixes at different sample rates with respect to the supported bit rates by the intended delivery platform. So the biggest thing in my opinon is to make sure that you get to a point where you are happy with the mix in stereo, then make sure it still sounds the same in mono using the panning trick that you described or an actual mono speaker. Don't stop there, but bounce stereo and mono versions of the mix listen to the mixes on different sets of stereo speakers, mono speakers like your television, video game consoles, cars, and computers. Make sure that your mono mixes hold up well on these devices just like stereo devices. Last but not least the most important thing that you can do is to upload both mono and stereo versions of the mix to a secure cloud space such as googledrive, then play both versions on speakers in your car or other bluetooth speakers to see how the sonic qualities change while streaming to identify changes that need to be made so that the mix translates properly compared to the non streaming versions of the mix. This is key because most music is streamed in mono with processing that often can create horrible masks that kill the dynamics in your mix especially when dealing with bass heavy music. So I paint it in stereo, check it in mono, and verify it for the delivery platform. Great video as always bro!
been mixing in mono for a year or so. absolutely love it. especially when i forget it's in mono and wonder why it doesn't sound as wide as it should be. then you take it off mono and it sounds amazing. no crappy speakers though, need to get/find some.
Idk how many people do this, but I go back and forth from mono to stereo while im mixing, and I also mix and master at the same time and get very VERY good quality sounding final products. Sometimes i’ll start the mastering chain after barely starting the mix so that way I can almost see the future as to how the mix is effecting the master and vice versa. Hard to explain but much easier to show in person. Thanks for your videos buddy!
I actually do about 50% of my mix using a cup at the end of a string. All the dopest producers do this and everyone should try it. I learned this from David Axelrod in 1937. Went to elementary school with him. Real talk.
Lol
I love watching Ali mix. I know he has splits his bass frequencies and side chains the higher frequencies.I still find it hard as hell to get the low end that he displays on Kendrick's album.
YES, I always mix in mono with my NS-10's, then compare it in stereo mode with headphones & other playback sources. Mono does not lie, on crappy speakers. Early "Beatle" mixes were in mono as well !
I just started mixing in mono. Dude. It brought so much clarity to my mix. Everything sounded a lot cleaner.
Absolutely right. Especially when mixing pianos (in stereo). MIx in mono first, then adjust to stereo.
It took discipline to commit to mixing the majority of songs in mono, but the difference you get in clarity at the end result is well worth the struggle!!! I started using this technique after I saw the first video you did about mixing in mono!! So, Thanks Graham!!!
yes, i mix in mono for about 40 percent of the mix and it does really help to clearly identify the masking problems and helps in making decisions for eqing and compression
What I used to do instead of mixing on a crappy-midrangy speaker was exporting the mix and just playing the track on my phone‘s speaker. As stupid as it may sound, it actually helped me to find some things in the mix, that I could improve on. It’s so much more work though...
Sliced there’s apps for that to play music from the daw straight to your phone. Airfoil etc... I use it in the studio all the time.
still remember seeing 40 on mtv talking about mixing thank me later out of laptop speakers cuz he said he believes that’s the way ppl will hear a new song now days for the first time. if u can make it sound good on cheap laptop speakers it’ll sound amazing on everything else.
It's true. Since I started mixing in mono, I have a much better results. One of the best tips ever.
I always start in stereo, I mix 90% on my Apple earbuds going back and forth on a pair of Yamaha HS-50’s and I use the iMac built in speakers to balance levels, the positioning of the speakers have a mono-like effect. I believe in mixing on earbuds because that’s what most people listen to music on
On the ns10: I believe the sole reason they're so good for mixing, is that the time-response is faster and drier than on any other speaker. Subsequent speaker designers at Yamaha haven't understood this, which is why they've made ported designs on subsequent models
Edit:
Here's the article I once read on that. It involves whitepapers and all kinds of stuff. There's also some history in there, which makes it a fun read: www.google.com/url?q=www.hificritic.com/uploads/2/8/8/0/28808909/excerpt-201903-2-yamaha_ns10_phenomenon_phil_ward-feature.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiRzKH5843rAhWrlYsKHes3CeQ4ChAWMAR6BAgEEAE&usg=AOvVaw2NH3Vvl266JBlz_ABBuSgn
It also mentions that they are just as unforgiving when it comes to signal chain and positioning, which would account for why some say they sound like shit.
Mind you: I'm not interested in a pair. I'm too much on the road to drag a pair +good amplifier with me, and I'm not a very good mixer anyway, so the moneez would be better spent paying for someone who is
I mix in stereo and check in mono along the mixing process. In the end I also listen to the song on my cell phone, because it's where a lot of people show their friends something they like.
I stumbled onto this a few years ago after getting frustrated with how my mixes would sound when I played them on a typical consumer Bluetooth speaker. So I just said screw it and started mixing primarily on one of those crappy speakers. Huge difference. Headphones and studio monitors don’t even come into play until the very end to get the polish and balance right on the highs and lows that are lost on the Bluetooth speaker. Sometimes I have to go back and forth a little few times with levels, especially to dial in the vocal just right, cause the vocal always pokes out more on the mid-rangy speakers.
Thanks for the video Graham! I saw the episode of Pensado's Place where Ali revealed this mono mixing method. I subsequently bought an Auratone and am preparing to use it for my first mix! To acclimate my ears to it, I've been listening to all my favorites through it so I will have a better frame of reference of what my final mix should sound like! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
perfect timing to get this as a recommendation
I do mix in mono. I don't necessarily have a crappy mid range speaker, but my 003 interface has a mono button. I engage the mono button and mix that way. Then I test my mix on various speakers and headphones until I get it right.
Hi Graham, really appreciate everything you do. Just wanted to say thank you for your non click bait approach in this video title and thumbnail. Fair play 👏
I Never did in audio school. I started and bought a Behringer Behritone glossy black used after you mentioned it in a video! I knew because of Graham.
Mono mixing allows you to better hear any phasing problems. My API Console has a mono button that instantly changes between mono and stereo. My old Ghost console has that button too. The Beatles mixed their records to mono first. Stereo mixes for the Beatles was an afterthought until they made Abby Road.
I have a old ass 15 inch house speaker from the 80s and a receiver. Glad I never trashed them. Cant wait till tommorow to try this
Yes I do mixing in mono. It helps to know & adjust the elements volume level perfectly which gives better result after taking out from mono.
All waveforms are mono. How we chose to blend them determines their dual mono, stereo blend, 2:1, 4:1, 5:1, 7:1 and their spatial positioning algorithms to fill in the gaps.
Yes, I have been doing mono and stereo. My head phone are TASCAM and Im using some poop-worthy USB computer speakers for mono. Didn't know there was an advantage to my set-up. Gracias, señor!
I don't mix in mono currently but I totally see the benefit and plan to add this to my workflow immediately. Thanks Graham!
Ive been mixing in mono for years. It's a game changer. Great info bro.
I do mix in mono 1st. It is a great strategy. It can be tricky if you don't know what to listen for on each track!!! Salute Graham
Yes I agree Mixing in Mono is the best thing to me. I suggest more peopl6to mix in mono it helps your ear as well it helped me out alot when I was first starting out and was struggling with mixing it really does help with your final mix.
Mixing in mono is also great for checking for phase issues. The phase button on our daws doesn’t adjust the phase. The industry has this wrong. It multiplies the amplitude by -1. A*Sin(x+phi) where phi is phase and A is amplitude. Mathematically:
-A*Sin(x) = A*Sin(x+180). This is where they got the “phase invert” button from. It should be labeled -A on the button in our daws. The situations where the phase invert button would work are when you record a drum head with two mics equidistant on each side of the drum head (top and bottom). The air pressure causes one amplitude to go positive and the other to go negative on a strike. As the drum head vibrates the air pressure changes polarity on each mic. In other situations you’ll still end up with a phase issues regardless of multiplying by -1.
Love Auratones! And yeah, I agree - it's really important to check your mix on unforgiving speakers, and check in mono! I use a plugin for checking in mono though. Thanks for another great video!
Great post man, mixing in mono is great because it allows you to focus on mixing frequencies first as opposed to using space to keep instruments from masking others in the same frequency range. I mean it works, but if you can use frequency cuts & boosts first, then you can basically use space & panning to it’s potential and really give your sound a whole nother dimension.🙏🏼 Turns a good mix into a great one.
You're totally right. I tend to mix with earphones. First, I always do it in plain mono. Second, I found out that nowadays the smartphone earbuds are actually too good, so I got myself some really crappy 2 dollar buds to do my initial mixes. It helps to detect all sorts of nasty things people normally hear when they listen to your product for the first time, usually on extremely crapy smartphone speakers because they do not have the earbuds with them, let alone some decent speakers. Moreover, I discovered that the pitch errors in singing are most easily discovered on crapy earbuds.
It also helps to listen to mixes where you regularly listen to music. Coz your ears are calibrated to you hearing music in a relaxed state. Like a car or speakers/earphones you used as a teen... etc
Great advice! I have used this setup for years. Avantone mid-range monitors and NS-10's (or HS-7's) routed through a Radial Engineering MC-3 Monitor Control. The MC3 lets me dial in either or both speaker pair and lets me go from stereo to mono with a button press. Not terribly expensive and very convenient. I can even connect crappy headphones through the same controller if I want the ultimate in crappy speakers. This also brings up the importance of making sure your stereo tracks are in phase.
Yes and Yes ! Yes I mix in mono, it's definitely one on the best thing to do to improve ! It allows me to mix faster with better results ! And yes I do have a small crappy speaker I use a lot during mixing too !
Great tip Graeme, I bought a pair of Avantone’s about 5 years ago - yep they sound awful but I love them. Combine them with listening in Mono and they really make a massive difference to my mixing. You get to the point where you forget that your listening in Mono and when you kick back into Stereo your mix sounds amazing.
Checking in mono is great, but there's a catch that applies to mixing rock music.
I record and mix my own songs that are something between pop punk and alt rock, so basically, most of the time I have distorted rhythm guitars double tracked and panned hard left and right. When I first heard this advice about mixing in mono, I instantly assumed that this should apply to any genre and if my mixes sound weak in mono, I'm doing something wrong.
The problem was - in every single mix I made, when switching to mono, these huge roaring guitars just seemed to collapse and become small, no matter what I did - different EQ on left and right, inverting the phase or whatever, it just sounded weak.
I started going insane about this thing, until I found someone on a gearslutz forum who said "Have you tried listening to professional mixes, songs from your favorite pop punk bands, in mono? See for yourself"
So i checked about ten different tracks from 10 of my favorite bands and guess what? On every track the guitars sounded much weaker in mono.
So I guess my advice for amateur musicians who play rock music and do the double track hard pan thing is - don't worry about mono in terms of rhythm guitar phase issues, it's a completely normal thing, even for professional mixes.
Thank you so much. I mix for the fun and have been doing this for 4 years. I have been mixing in mono for the past year and a half(because i found that it gives me a better perspective on the mix) and i have always used apple ear buds and reference the mix with my tv and car speakers. Although my mix sounds great in mono, i feel insecure about them because some of them sound great in stereo but others dont. Also i always felt that i needed to save up for state of the art monitors before i can offer my services to people. After watching this, i feel more confident about my mixes. Again, thank you.
You can also use your Bluetooth speakers !! I use the wonderboom
I use a 9 Watt (5 inch single) bluetooth speaker that easily electronically distorts with high INPUT signal level, even on good mastered songs and that makes it really easy to spot problem areas in my mix when referencing tracks. (On my Yamaha HS7) I also check 100 % separation (for reverb issues), original stereo and 100 % merged (mono) back and forth (fl studio) for a good stereo sound balance => I go by the loose rule that the reverb should be slightly unveiled when going from mono to 100% separation and the dry track should almost sound the same when going back and forth. That's how I do it my way , anyway...
Mixing in mono is one of the best way to get your mix ready for any listening environement.In protools i just use the air stock plugins on my mix bus for all my EQuing and leveling decision and switch back to stereo for fx and final balance....great tips bro! Now i ll get myself some crappy computer speakers for experiencing that trick bro thx again...
I use a shitty ass IISB13 speaker for about 90% of my mixing ... whenever I take it to the car or at a party it always bangs and sounds radio ready ... something I always realized from day one is that a good mix is everything
I've been diving into mixing, and I have started pulling everything into mono more and more. I actually like it more, and find myself locked into mono for hours and forgetting about it.
Mixing in mono took my skills to the next level. I actually like the way mono sounds for some things and tend to leave a lot of stuff panned center anyway.
I got a pair of avantone active mix cubes and everyone says they sound crappy but I think they sound amazing and they have really really helped me mix better. I was basically mixing blind with everything else I was listening on.
I do mix in mono on a jbl flip 4 speaker. You are completely right about everything you said. You do have to be careful about over compensation though.
Mixing in mono is a yes from me. It’s definitely the way to go especially when it comes to achieving a great volume balance (including eq, etc), which is critical for the future of the mix.
Now, working on a crappy speaker makes no sense to me at all. We need a reference speaker or set of speakers, otherwise we are not hearing what we recorded but a crappy attempt to reproduce what we recorded on a speaker that just can’t handle any level of accuracy. Originally the crappy mono speakers where used in the studios as a quick and cheap way to check mono compatibility but no one would work on them for prolonged amounts of time since it will produce frequencies that will get your ears fatigued, among many other reasons.
Regarding the NS10’s... we all know the story why they were started to be used in the first place so that’s another no from me. That’s my personal opinion, I’ll leave it there since I am perfectly aware that there’s people who love them.
So in short, guys, buy the best possible set of monitor speakers and try and make great sounding mixes there. Other than that approach... it makes no sense to me UNLESS your budget is so limited that you can’t afford good equipment, in which case... just nevermind the gear and keep on doing what you can until you can buy better gear.
That’s my two cents. Peace out.
Mono is not just for balance, but it does help a lot for balancing. The fact is that pan is the single most power effect you have as a mixer, particularly changing the pan position of instruments in the arrangement. If you start with stuff panned right the way out, you’ve shown your hand too early, you know? You’ve go nowhere to go.
Personally I also do most of my mixes in mono. Maybe the last 10% of the mix I will go to stereo.
I just switch the mediums of what im listening to. speakers -> headphones -> my phone then all over again.