quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover Hello everyone just a quick question about after ive bounced my base from stereo to mono... i can defo hear the difference and also looking at the snapshot from my ozone i can see the low end has dropped loads from the transfer to mono! Now i know all base need to be mono, and is it correct that i use a stereo imaging/wideing tool to get that stereo feel again??/ also what should i do to replace the missing freq in the mono??? just increase that freq on the eq or??? or is it a case and just not having the right base sound in the 1st place?? any tips would be great thanks

Stereo information tends to get cancelled out when converting to mono, which is why you're not hearing it. What you can do though if you want to make your bass end mono is use only one band in the stereo imager module and only reduce the width of frequencies below, say 100 or 200 Hz - try thereabouts and see what sounds best. Also note that the crossover type will have quite a different effect on the sound - see which sounds best in the options.

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hi Atlantis thanks for the tips! im just reading up about it now and wanted to make sure im doing the right thing...so your saying that i dont need to bounce down to mono just keep the stereo file and use the imaginer to reduce the low end width??

cheers

quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover hi Atlantis thanks for the tips! im just reading up about it now and wanted to make sure im doing the right thing...so your saying that i dont need to bounce down to mono just keep the stereo file and use the imaginer to reduce the low end width?? cheers

Why are you trying to bounce to mono? Reducing low end width was an issue only when working with vinyl, so unless you're doing that then you can widen or narrow it however you want, though you will probably still want the low end to tend towards mono (i.e. having no width) for various aesthetic reasons.

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quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover Hello everyone just a quick question about after ive bounced my base from stereo to mono... i can defo hear the difference and also looking at the snapshot from my ozone i can see the low end has dropped loads from the transfer to mono! Now i know all base need to be mono, and is it correct that i use a stereo imaging/wideing tool to get that stereo feel again??/ also what should i do to replace the missing freq in the mono??? just increase that freq on the eq or??? or is it a case and just not having the right base sound in the 1st place?? any tips would be great thanks

your bassline doesn't have to be mono, it just needs to sound good in mono in case the club systems aren't set up for stereo. It sounds like your bassline though when collapsed to mono is phasing out? is your bassline really even stereo? what sequencer are you using? do you see your volume meter hitting left & right channels unevenly? like this:



or does it look like this all the time:

What is making your bassline stereo? Is it chorus, delay, phaser???
If so then try and reduce the amount of fx and the bass should start to appear less stereo, but it may not sound as fancy as it was

Another thing you can do is maybe employ some Mid/Side processing, i do this with chorus on bass so if the mix is collapsed to mono the chorus disappears

Sometimes you have to make a trade off if you want really effected sounds but also mono compatibility

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thanks for the reply ppl...im really glad i asked this question as im still learning and i was doing it wrong haha.

yes i was bouncing down straight from stereo to mono thinking that was the norm! just started on the whole stereo imaging etc so im going to get my head down and start mixing it this way (the right way : )

anyway im using cubase 4 and the bass is defo like the 2nd image! the track is defo stereo (direct from the vst)

im on the right track now guys so big thanks for the tips : )

quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover thanks for the reply ppl...im really glad i asked this question as im still learning and i was doing it wrong haha. yes i was bouncing down straight from stereo to mono thinking that was the norm! just started on the whole stereo imaging etc so im going to get my head down and start mixing it this way (the right way : ) anyway im using cubase 4 and the bass is defo like the 2nd image! the track is defo stereo (direct from the vst) im on the right track now guys so big thanks for the tips : )

if the track is like the second image then it's already mono (just commonly referred to as dual mono), no need to collapse it you're all set!

arh right thats great news...thats how all my vst's look though. cubase converts them all to dual mono then?? hmmm need to look into that.

thanks

quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover arh right thats great news...thats how all my vst's look though. cubase converts them all to dual mono then?? hmmm need to look into that. thanks

that's pretty accurate, most synths (pre-FX) don't have a lot of stereo image to them, i rarely see patches w/ panned osc or panned filters (though it does come up). it's usually when a patch has delay, reverb, chorus, phaser etc that you see it have much more of an image.

quote:

Originally posted by themonkeylover Now i know all base need to be mono, and is it correct that i use a stereo imaging/wideing tool to get that stereo feel again??

First off, basses don't NEED to be mono, but very often are (as are kicks) to provide a solid centred bass foundation for the song.

Secondly, mono means mono - it doesn't mean starting with a mono sound and then turning it into a stereo sound. It means starting with a mono sound and leaving it as a mono sound. Otherwise, depending on the stereo widening process you use, there's absolutely no difference from using a stereo bass in the first place.

Having said that, often it sounds fine to add some stereo width to the high frequencies. This can be done by widening the whole sound, then using a processor like otiumFx BassLane to bring the low frequencies back to mono.

It's a good idea to check your mixes in mono to see if any sounds disappear. In a lot of listening situations things will be fine, but you're not always going to be on hand to control how people are listening to your songs, so it's a good idea to make adjustments to the stereo processing so the left and right sides aren't quite so out of phase with each other.

No one's mentioned yet, but if your bass is dissapearing when you convert it to mono, you have big problems. Subs are in mono, so that means that if you play the track through a system with a sub, you'll lose all that bass in the reproduction. Which is why bass is usually either checked for mono compatability, and generally made completely mono, as it increases the headroom available on both channels by removing information that would cancel out anyway.

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