FL Mastering in Mono

[pets bud]

I have read in here that it is a good idea to master your stuff in mono to get the phasing right and get a better idea of instrument placing. I don't know how to accomplish this with FL, is it possible?

[Littlefoot]

I have read in here that it is a good idea to master your stuff in mono to get the phasing right and get a better idea of instrument placing. I don't know how to accomplish this with FL, is it possible?

this question again?

what a wierd way to think about mastering

unless you are talking about as a matter of referencing within your mix, but that still doesn't make sense

[phishu]

what he read is as below, says nothing about mastering in mono, but it does suggest, among other things, that stereo mixes will not be heard as such in a lot of clubs, therefore maybe it's an idea to optimise your mix to take advantage of this fact rather than trying to create intricate stereo mixes that will not translate well in a club environment. Reasons being: i) speaker placement ii) listener positioning relative to speaker placement iii) a mass of people iv) non existence of a sweet spot becasue of issues i,ii,&iii. Also, considering most of the energy in dubstep is in the low frequency domain directionality is not a concern. Personally, I would do different mixes for club tracks cut to vinyl relative to versions intended for digital distribution.



.......in the context of balancing a mix, mono is extremely useful, not least to check for phase cancellation. It's a rule of thumb that if a mix does not work in mono it most likely will suffer problems in stereo. Checking the balance of a mix in mono is still standard practice for commercial projects.

Also, in terms of mixing for cutting to vinyl, some mastering places advise that to achieve optimum results, it is mandatory for all signals below 500Hz to be in mono - owing to the limitation of certain stereo cutting heads - obviously there are no such limitations when mastering to a digital format. Note that in a lot of clubs you are not actually getting a true impression of a stereo mix so most of the time it may just as well be in mono. More on mono below.

SOS Forum Post

Question: I read recently that when top engineers check their mixes in mono, they don't just hit a mono switch, but instead route the mix through a single speaker to hear it in true mono. What's the difference between the two?

Technical Editor Hugh Robjohns replies: It's important to check the derived mono signal from a stereo mix to ensure that nothing unexpected or unacceptable will be heard by anyone listening in mono, as could be the case in poor FM radio reception areas, on portable radios, in clubs, on the Internet and so on. Mono compatibility, as it's called, is very important for commercial releases — the artist, producer and record company want the record to sound as good as possible in these less-than-ideal circumstances.

In addition to simply checking the finished product, mixing in mono, or regularly switching the monitoring to mono while mixing, is very useful and a good habit to get into. Summing to mono removes any misleading phasing between the left and right signals that can make a stereo mix sound artificially 'big'.

The crucial difference between auditioning the summed mono signal on a single speaker, as compared to a 'phantom' mono image between two speakers, relates to the perceived balance of the bass end of the frequency spectrum. When you listen to a mono signal on two speakers, you hear a false or 'phantom' image which seems to float midway between the speakers, but because both speakers are contributing to the sound, the impression is of a slightly over-inflated level of bass. Listening to mono via one speaker — the way everyone else will hear it — reveals the material in its true form!

Checking the derived mono is always best done in the monitoring section of the mixer or with a dedicated monitor controller. Although a mono signal can be derived in the output sections of a mixer (real or virtual), this is potentially dangerous — if you should forget to cancel the mono mixing, you'll end up with a very mono final mix. It does happen, believe me! Sadly, very few monitor controllers outside of broadcast desks and related equipment provide facilities to check mono on a single speaker. Most provide a phantom mono image, which is fine for checking imaging accuracy and phasing issues, but no good for checking the mono balance.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/a ... 1106_4.htm

P.S. the Bob Katz book is a must buy, but you can find a lot of articles from it on his site http://www.digido.com/articles/index.php

[pets bud]

what he read is as below, says nothing about mastering in mono, but it does suggest, among other things, that stereo mixes will not be heard as such in a lot of clubs, therefore maybe it's an idea to optimise your mix to take advantage of this fact rather than trying to create intricate stereo mixes that will not translate well in a club environment. Reasons being: i) speaker placement ii) listener positioning relative to speaker placement iii) a mass of people iv) non existence of a sweet spot becasue of issues i,ii,&iii. Also, considering most of the energy in dubstep is in the low frequency domain directionality is not a concern. Personally, I would do different mixes for club tracks cut to vinyl relative to versions intended for digital distribution.

That's exactly what I was referring to thanks. So now that that is settled the question is how can this be done in Fruity Loops? Is there a separate plugin that can be used to listen to your channels in mono? Or is there another ingenious way to do this? Thank you.

[phishu]

Sorry, have never used FL, and sorry there is no quick fix for learning how to balance a mix, it's not something any plug-in is going to do for you. As to monitoring the signal in mono, the issues relating to this are dealt with in the SOS item, other than this it's down to your signal routing, which can't be all that difficult to figure out, surely? Unless there is no such thing as bussing in FL in which case dump it and learn how to use better specified software.

[theonelikepaul]

what he read is as below, says nothing about mastering in mono, but it does suggest, among other things, that stereo mixes will not be heard as such in a lot of clubs, therefore maybe it's an idea to optimise your mix to take advantage of this fact rather than trying to create intricate stereo mixes that will not translate well in a club environment. Reasons being: i) speaker placement ii) listener positioning relative to speaker placement iii) a mass of people iv) non existence of a sweet spot becasue of issues i,ii,&iii. Also, considering most of the energy in dubstep is in the low frequency domain directionality is not a concern. Personally, I would do different mixes for club tracks cut to vinyl relative to versions intended for digital distribution.

That's exactly what I was referring to thanks. So now that that is settled the question is how can this be done in Fruity Loops? Is there a separate plugin that can be used to listen to your channels in mono? Or is there another ingenious way to do this? Thank you.

Within 'FL Studio' Listening to each channel or master mix in mono is easy. Just turn the 'stereo seperation' knob.

http://www.flstudio.com/help/html/effec ... kprops.htm

"Stereo separation ()- The stereo separation filter allows you to enhance or reduce differences in the audio between the left and right channels of a track. In the default position (middle), the stereo separation filter is disabled. Turn the knob right to decrease the stereo separation (sum L+R to mono), turn left to increase stereo separation. This control has no stereo effect on mono sounds as it works by taking the difference between the L and R channels, if there is no difference then there is nothing to enhance. "

Its allways worth checking to confirm your mix operates well in mono as well as stereo. Especially for DS where the bass (pure mono) is the main focus of the track.

However, using two speakers to check a mono mix will provide a false sense of stero width. Sum your L + R signals to one speaker using your soundcards mixer.