quick question about Mono summing

[Kilo beats]

hey

just a quick question..

im just wondering what happens when a stereo signal is made mono, for example when i use abletons utility plug set to mono on a bass with chorus on it.

the question is what happens to the signal? is the left and right summed to the center, or is it only the left OR right that is played through both speakers

i hope im being clear, production stuff is sometime hard for me to explain, i could figure it out myself but that would take time and im sure someone here already knows the answer...


cheers

[NinjaEdit]

Both.

[itzDetrimental]

In utility, I believe you can set if you want left,right or both to be mono.

[Attila]

Don't use your vs840 for this forum anymore please.

[RandoRando]

abletons utility cant make something mono.

when you set the width to 0% your just deleting the sides, and leaving the middle. which is not the definition of mono.

mono is when the sides and the middle, are only played in the middle. both left and right speakers playing the same exact thing.

being SUMMED to mono.
look up stereo-width plugins on kvr, most of them have a sum to mono preset.

[arktrix45hz]

i could figure it out myself but that would take time and im sure someone here already knows the answer...


cheers

[mitchAUS]

abletons utility cant make something mono.

when you set the width to 0% your just deleting the sides, and leaving the middle. which is not the definition of mono.

mono is when the sides and the middle, are only played in the middle. both left and right speakers playing the same exact thing.

being SUMMED to mono.
look up stereo-width plugins on kvr, most of them have a sum to mono preset.

This helped me more then you could ever imagine...

Was having trouble getting my mix to be mono compatible, spent hours trying to work out why so much disappeared when "summed to mono" by setting utility's width to 0% on my master channel. Now it makes sense

[Kilo beats]

abletons utility cant make something mono.

when you set the width to 0% your just deleting the sides, and leaving the middle. which is not the definition of mono.

mono is when the sides and the middle, are only played in the middle. both left and right speakers playing the same exact thing.

being SUMMED to mono.
look up stereo-width plugins on kvr, most of them have a sum to mono preset.

ahhh interesting, but i still dont understand when i should use one over the other (kvr instead of ableton gain utility set to mono)

so when would you use the kvr instead of abletons utility? which one for example would be more suited to making a stereo kick mono so it sits in the center, (just an example as this is my most common use for the utility)

i expect i am wrong but i assume the kvr would introduce some kind of phasing, because your taking the sides and merging them with the center... ?

[NinjaEdit]

Try a true mono effect (like GMono?), and try setting up a mid/side control like (utility or) GStereo before the mono effect, to control the amount of mid and side material in the final mono mix.

The final answer to everything is not 42 but "whatever sounds best."

[skimpi]

abletons utility cant make something mono.

when you set the width to 0% your just deleting the sides, and leaving the middle. which is not the definition of mono.

mono is when the sides and the middle, are only played in the middle. both left and right speakers playing the same exact thing.

being SUMMED to mono.
look up stereo-width plugins on kvr, most of them have a sum to mono preset.

This helped me more then you could ever imagine...

Was having trouble getting my mix to be mono compatible, spent hours trying to work out why so much disappeared when "summed to mono" by setting utility's width to 0% on my master channel. Now it makes sense

That may be becaus eof phasing though, I dont know about abletons utility but I would have thought it would just sum the two channel, but if you have chorus or summat it will probs sound shit and it just phases. I dont get what you mean by it deletes the sides and keeps the middle. there is only two channels, how can it get rid of the sides? and what is in the middle? the middle should just be sounds that are played equally in the left and right channel no?

[Hostile Invasion]

abletons utility cant make something mono.

when you set the width to 0% your just deleting the sides, and leaving the middle. which is not the definition of mono.

Whaaaat?! My monoing technique has been a lie this whole time...

[RandoRando]

ok i just did some experiments and i stand corrected, to an extent though. It does seem that setting the width to 0% on the utiliy does in fact sum the sides to mono.

i had 3 samples of a voice saying 1 , 2, 3

i panned "1" hard left, "2" at default pan, and "3" hard right

setting the utility (on the master) to 0% had all the voices playing in the middle,

BUT, even though its off topic from the thread, setting to 200% WILL delete the middle, it wont move whats in the middle to the sides.

[NinjaEdit]

Yes the mid channel is what plays through both L and R, and the side is everything else. You'll have look up the math, I don't remember it.

[Ghost of Muttley]

Utility on 0% will only let through whatever has info on both sides as opposed to combining the signal and sending it out one channel afaik.

Get the flux stereo tool, has individual pans so you can sum to mono by reducing each one.

[Electric_Head]

Doesn't Ableton just have a sum to mono shortcut?

[Ghost of Muttley]

Don't think so, you can bounce a track in mono, that's about it.
Think it's being introduced in 9 though.

[Electric_Head]

Reaper gives you options of splitting channels, summing to mono etc.

But this isn't a reaper discussion so I'll keep quite.

[itzDetrimental]

Don't use your vs840 for this forum anymore please.

oops

[RandoRando]

Utility on 0% will only let through whatever has info on both sides as opposed to combining the signal and sending it out one channel afaik.

Get the flux stereo tool, has individual pans so you can sum to mono by reducing each one.

How do you explain something that is panned hard left beforethe utility to still play when it's set to zero percent?

[Ghost of Muttley]

Can't, pretty sure it doesn't use the alternative method of summing everything to one channel though..otherwise you wouldn't be able to use it to isolate sounds.

Doesn't compute either way.