Mixing in Mono - Save Your Stereo Mix! Video Lecture | Reason Tutorials: The Ultimate Guide - Video & Sound Editing

What you’re about to hear is nothing short
of a miracle.
Let’s actually start today at the very beginning
so that we’re all on the same page.
What do I mean when I say mono and stereo?
Well way back in the very beginning of the
recording arts musicians were often recorded
with a single microphone... ending up on a
single track of wax or vinyl, or broadcast
over AM radio’s single channel - where it
played back over a single speaker.
From initial capture to final presentation,
the sound was monophonic.
Coming from a single source.
And because of that engineers had a pretty
easy time predicting how their studio recordings
would translate to consumers.
However, reaching popular use in the 1960s,
stereo recordings included a second channel
of audio to simulate the directionality of
real world spaces.
Stereo mixes were awesome... except for one
thing...
You see, some people had stereo playback ability...
but some people still had mono systems...
The predictability was gone.
And if you think the 50 years since has removed
the uncertainty, well guess again.
That smartphone in your pocket... the tablet
you couch surf on... that Amazon Echo in your
living room?
Yeah, they’re still mono speakers.
So our job as mix engineers is no different
in 2016 than it was in 1966... we need to
check our mixes for mono compatibility.
But what if I told you that in the process,
not only would your mixes be safe across listening
environments but that even your stereo mixes
would get better as a result?
Let me show you what I mean.
And this should go without saying but if you’re
not listening on headphones or, even better,
studio monitors, everything we do here will
be tough to follow.
First of all, there’s a couple ways we can
get set up for mono mixing.
There’s a Rack Extension by selig audio
called Selig Gain.
It has a whole host of great gain-related
tools worth checking out on its front panel
but one of them is a mono button.
In my own mixing template I drag a Selig Gain
into the Master Section’s Insert FX, I enable
Keyboard Control, and turn on Keyboard Control
Edit Mode so I can double click the Mono button
and assign it to the “N” key on my computer
keyboard...
N as in Not-stereo but you could choose any
key you like that isn’t in use.
Now once I exit Keyboard Control Edit Mode
I’ve got a quick shortcut to toggle my master
output between mono and stereo.
Of course, if you’re the kinda person who
likes to make the most of what you’ve already
got, Reason comes standard with a mono summing
combinator.
If I go to the All Effects Patches Folder
on the Factory Sounds and search for “mono”...
there it is...
Stereo Flip & Mono.
And just like before I can assign the Mono
button on the Combinator to my Keyboard shortcut.
Now that we’re set up, let’s take a look
at a mix I’ve been working on to see how
checking our mono output can catch problems
in our stereo mix.
This is a song by an artist named Matt Tinsley.
It is an epic arrangement of instruments with
overdubs upon overdubs of charging percussion,
drums recorded with multiple microphones,
layers of guitars, pianos, and even a string
ensemble
all totaling a massive 81 channels in my mixer
that need to be balanced, eq’d, panned,
effected, and well... mixed.
But mixing in stereo can play tricks on you...
and it can let problems go by unnoticed, resulting
in a psychological condition that I’ll call
“Agoraphonia” - the unshakeable feeling
that your mixes don’t sound good when played
outside your own studio.
Mixing is about three things.
Relative volume, Relative frequencies, and
stereo position.
If we remove that last one from the equation,
we get a better sense of how we’re doing
with the first two.
This is because our brains are really good
at selectively hearing things as long as we
can determine directionality.
Allow me to demonstrate.
But listen to these voices in mono.
We instantly realize that in order to achieve
clarity, we need to adjust our mix’s volume.
That same decision making can be applied to
Matt’s song.
In the mix I’ve got going here I love the
interplay between Matt’s guitar in the beginning
and these piano chords.
When you add in his stellar vocal, our mix
is off to a great start.
But when we switch to mono... where’d our
piano go?
It’s lost... buried under the guitar, bass,
and vocal.
With stereo positioning out of the way to
fool us we’re left to consider the piano’s
overall volume and its frequency content.
On its own, our piano is a nice full range
sound... but what my ear tuned into and loved
while listening in stereo was the haunting
quality of its midrange attack.
The lower end frequencies aren’t critical
to achieving that and in mono, we can hear
them occupying the same range as the bass
guitar.
The result, even in a simple two instrument
mix, is a muddy sound.
So let's use Low pass and high pass filters
to focus our piano into the mid-range... and
we’ll use our channel EQ to enhance that
mid attack even more.
Even with just the bass and piano you can
hear separation and the definition.
Bring in the guitars... and our piano still
holds its own space in the mix.
Back to the full mix... okay we can hear our
piano but now we can make uncompromised decisions
about the overall volume... and to my taste
I want to hear more of it.
To me, this sounds nice.
If I now switch between stereo and mono you’ll
notice that our mix doesn’t sound different...
just wider.
Those types of decisions will play out all
through your mixing.
In fact, one of the trickiest balances to
find in your mix where to sit your vocal.
There’s a lot of techniques that go into
getting a good sounding vocal, some of which
I’ve covered in another tutorial but once
you’ve got your vocal sounding nice on its
own you’ll ultimately want to balance it
against your overall mix... and mono referencing
is great for that.
Matt’s lead vocal is really nice.
And I want to feature it but I don’t want
it to sound like he’s singing Karaoke over
an instrumental.
Listen to the second verse... lots of percussion
and strings have entered the arrangement and
in stereo mixing I’ve pushed Matt’s vocal
up to sit above all that.
Switch over to mono...
He is undeniably too loud.
In mono, I can pull his vocal down to a point
where it is understandable but cohesive with
my instrumental... ... but in doing so, I
also notice that one of the reasons I must
have pushed it so much while mixing in stereo
is that the strings are also too loud.
After adjusting, my mono and stereo comparison
once again feels similar despite the stereo
mix’s obviously wider sound.
But mono doesn’t just help us decide matters
of taste.
It can reveal real problems in your mix too.
Matt’s acoustic guitar was recorded using
two microphones for stereo imaging.
And to an untrained ear, this probably does
sound nice and wide... but listen in mono...
where’d the low end go?
Mono referencing has revealed a classic phase
problem in our guitar recording.
So what is phase, why is it a problem, and
how do we fix it?
All good questions.
The recording process is nothing more than
the conversion of sound vibrations, in this
case a guitar string, into electrical signals
which are stored digitally.
When you combine those electrical signals
during mixing, if they contain conflicting
information they can work against each other.
Zoom into our waveform and you can even see
the problem with your own eyes.
Here’s the electrical waveforms captured
by our two microphones on the guitar.
You can see the electrical signal oscillating
up and down in what’s called the signal’s
“phase.”
The signal captured by the first microphone
goes up while the other one goes down.
They’re traveling in nearly opposite phases.
And this can happen from simple things like
the distance between each microphone while
recording, the angle they were pointing, or
even the electronics inside the microphone.
But out of phase signals cancel each other
out when summed, the same way in math that
4 plus -4 = 0.
Our guitar are signals aren’t perfectly
out of phase... so you could say our sonic
equation is more like 4 plus -3 = 1 ... some
of our sound is audible but it’s thinner
and quieter.
What would be great is if we could flip one
our signals around so that they aren’t working
against each other.
Well we can, and we do that up at the top
of the mix channel using the phase invert
button which does exactly what it’s name
implies.
It inverts, or in other words flips, the phase
of our signal.
Listen to our guitars in mono when I invert
the phase of either microphone.
Of course, I only want to invert one of them.
If I invert both we’re back where we started.
In stereo, our acoustic still sounds good
but in mono we no longer have phase cancellation
messing up our mono mix.
So this raises the question: when should you
be checking your mix in mono?
When you’ve got the perfect stereo mix ready
to go and want a safety check?
No.
I’d recommend that you’re jumping back
and forth all along through the mixing process
to catch problems and make decisions as they
come up.
Other engineers might even say you should
spend most of your time in mono because if
you can get a good sounding mono mix you won’t
have a hard time with your stereo mix.
And the same can’t be said the other way
around.
In short, the best remedy for your agoraphonia
affliction is to get mono... no not that mono...
yeah that mono...
So good luck mixing, and I’ll see you soon
with another pick for quick mix fix tricks.