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Posted by Damie Mckeown on Nov-11-2003 03:58:

Making things Mono

Whats the easiest way of making something MONO?
?
I have Fl and Cool Edit 2

Posted by hey cheggy on Nov-11-2003 04:15:

wack it in cool edit and save it as mono?

Posted by Damie Mckeown on Nov-11-2003 08:05:

YOU CAN DO THAT?!

Posted by hey cheggy on Nov-11-2003 10:39:

I don't know. Just taking a guess. I've never used cool edit before.

In sound forge, you just right click on the "stereo" tab in the track properties and change it to mono.

Posted by Mr.Mystery on Nov-11-2003 14:04:

Yes you can.

What is it with you and all these questions?

Posted by Luke Terry on Nov-11-2003 14:11:

or use the fruity balance fx

Posted by Damie Mckeown on Nov-11-2003 22:40:

quote:
Originally posted by Mr.Mystery

What is it with you and all these questions?

I dont understand what you mean by all these questions, whats wrong with asking questions?

You get alot of ppl here asking how to start production and making threads that have been made 100 times before without searching the board.
I come here to ask questions, get tips, answer questions etc.
So, whats your point?

Posted by Chris Creator on Nov-12-2003 01:50:

Dude mono just means the audio is dead center. You don't need to convert to mono.

Posted by hey cheggy on Nov-12-2003 03:17:

That's not entirely true Chris. Stereo can sound a lot different to mono in some circumstances. For example, if I convert the sounds from my synth to mono, they sound a lot flatter after losing there spread. Mono also takes up half the space of stereo.

Posted by Pjotr G on Nov-12-2003 11:14:

I usually use the left channel for mono instead of a mixdown of both channels, as this can lead to phase artifacts. Or right channel, whichever one is louder or clearer of depending on how I feel that day.

Not advisable with full tracks, as panning is usually some way or another pretty important in them.

So read the above in sampling context

Posted by DJ Tequila on Nov-12-2003 13:17:

OK. stereo is very important - for listening at home, and in the shop. A good stereo image can mean the difference between 'Nice ideas' and 'Yeah! WICKED!!!'

Mono is also very important! consider:

Most radios are mono.
Most TVs are mono.
Most clubs are mono.

So, if you want your track to sound good on all these systems you're going to have to make sure you don't get any phasing/cancellation artifacts.

Also, if converting to mono kills all the power in your bass, this could indicate that you have negative phase problems that will cause big problems if you want to move to vinyl.

(Most engineers will drop to mono if this happens. Not good!)

So:

1: To test mono, see if your sequencer/mixer/sampler/whatever has a mono toggle. Most do, for the reasons stated above.

2: If not, mix the two channels together at equal levels.

3: Make sure everything is in its right place. If any sounds disappear, you have negative phase issues and they must be addressed (unless you're using it for effect and don't care about mono, like Nine Inch Nails did once).

Negative phase is simply one waveform of a stereo pair being inverted (turned upside down). You can fix this with a phase invert switch on a mixer channel, the 'Gainer' plugin in Logic, or by selecting and inverting one half of the wave in a sample editor. Or however you can.

(as an aside, you will be creating negative phase all the time if your speakers are wired incorrectly. Check it out. Play a speech sample, invert the waveform of one side of the stereo pair, and listen again. The in phase sound should come from the centre. The out of phase sound should come from 'outside' the range of the speakers. Your ears will feel strange as you move away from one speaker and towards the other. Negatively phased speakers lose a lot of bass power).

Negative phase can be caused by a balanced jack that hasn't been plugged in fully (full negative phase). Or big reverb/chorus/phaser effects on bass sounds (the sound will go in and out of phase over time). Or incorrect recording. Or several other things.

Negative phase in the bass region can cause a needle to flick itself out of a record groove. It's OK on CDs...

Get a vectorscope. This will give you a visual representation of the stereo image, as well as telling you if you're suffering from negative phase. There's one in Wavelab, called the Phasescope.

T*