Review – Why Mixing In Mono Is The Secret
Every month, dozens of music tech videos go up on the internet. SoundGym combs through them so you don’t have to – bringing you the very best over on our ‘Learn’ page. Each month we will pick out one that we think is especially worthy of your attention, and explain why we like it, while also discussing any problems we may identify.
This month we look at a very nicely put together video, in which Graham from The Recording Revolution attempts to explain why “mixing in mono is the secret to churning out a killer mix”. Have you ever mixed a track that sounds great on your monitors or headphones, but terrible when you listen to it in the car or on your TV? If your mix isn’t translating well to other systems, then mixing in mono could be the cure for this problem.
Graham states that people don’t like listening to their mixes in mono – they sound less clear, less punchy… Well, this is the heart of the problem. When we mix in stereo we can separate mix elements out in the stereo field to make them easier to hear. When we collapse the mix to mono, these different elements start to obscure each other again. The fact is, that if your mix isn’t clear and punchy in mono – it just “isn’t ready yet”. You need to improve your EQing, compression and automation until the mono mix sounds great – and this way your mix should translate well to other systems that don’t represent stereo that accurately – TVs and car stereos for example.
One thing that Graham doesn’t mention is that when you collapse a mix to mono, mix elements that are panned centrally seem louder than those panned out wide. This is worth bearing in mind if you are flipping between stereo and mono mixes. The rule to remember is that if you listen to a stereo mix in mono, central mix elements will sound approximately 3dB louder than those panned wide to the left or right. This is only a small niggle though – and the video is certainly worth ten minutes of your time.
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