Mono Monitoring (the temporary fix?)

[massplanck]

i was just thinking after reading RDRs post about dodgy room & bass going missing etc. I just moved house and for whatever shagging reason my new music room is a nightmare to make music in. Its nearly square (bad for reflections) and to make matter worse I think my speakers are slightly out of phase. To hear any decent bass I have to get up off my chair walk over to the door.

My quick fix (whilst i get new monitors & sort out the room) is just to forget about stereo monitoring. I am just using one speaker and I am actually shocked how much better things are. Less refections from the room, no interference\cancelling out each other from either speaker which means I am hearing a v good representation of my bass despite the fact the room is a bad shape. The bass is consistent now wherever I stand in the room
My tunes were sounding so much better last night after some rerferencing (commerical cds like DB says) and a bit of fixing/tweaking.

They even sounded much bassier & clearer than normal when i switched back over to stereo (just for a listen).

Since most techno is made for the club.. and club systems are in mono. I think this could be a good fix for the person with serious monitoring problems. You can always do a bit of stereo wizardry at a friends house later if needs be?

Thoughts?

[Jay Pace]

A tight mix in mono is tricky but if you can do it its rock solid. And like you said, if its destined for clubs all your stereo will be lost anyway, and in some cases might end up doing weird things to your mix. Always a good idea to check a stereo mix to see how it does in mono, sometimes really prominant elements disappear to the back of the mix once they run in mono.

[massplanck]

sometimes really prominant elements disappear to the back of the mix once they run in mono.


Thats true. I had a couple of those moments last night. But fixed them. Only time will tell. But its a good solution for me at the moment

[Jay Pace]

I've never thought of using just one monitor in mono. Its a cool idea, will try it out.

Also suffer from a small square room, which I am sat neatly in the middle of. Rubbish!

[stjohn]

id probably prefer to work on a nice set of headfones rather than one speaker i think! or maybe you could switch from both hfones and the mono out. i suppose its how you look at it tho... i just dont know if i see the point in making tracks for mono systems.. when there is so much more technology available...

either way if u spend the time working on mono... or just spent it making loops, paches etc... youre going to have to go back and rework them someway when u get sorted.

[massplanck]

Actually Rory. Ronan Dunne got an absolutely savage set of headphones for his birthday from one of the lads. ADG or something, i'll find the link. They cost shitloads but man put these on your head and you may never want to go back to using normal monitors again. I know , i know , i know what people say about using headphones & stereo space etc but these are unreal for production.

Oh. And i visted your reverb unit in mullingar last night and its doing well. I shall be up in dublin either this weekend & or next and will deliver. I promise!

[massplanck]

i just dont know if i see the point in making tracks for mono systems.. when there is so much more technology available...



Ist not about that. Its about sorting out really bad refections\monitoring in my room. You can do all the stereo wizardry\widening ect somewhere else at a later stage.

[massplanck]

AKG Headphones.

http://www.akg.com/personal/cproducts/powerslave,id,250,pcategory,6,nodeid,11,_language, EN.html

[massplanck]

I've never thought of using just one monitor in mono. Its a cool idea, will try it out.

Also suffer from a small square room, which I am sat neatly in the middle of. Rubbish!

Let me know how you get on. My room isnt small, but i have a wooden floor & glass\window on two sides.

Maybe just try and quickly re do the mix one of your tracks which you think sounds good in stereo. And then flick back to stereo and see if it does actually sound much better after adjusting it in mono. I have to say I was amazed last night. But this could be down to speaker problems i think i am having. But its sounded pretty damn good in stereo too so i am confused. Make sure you reference with some CD or somthing first to see what a good track should sound like in mono too before you start off.

Please report back Jay.

[BloodStar]

personally I would first try to work on room accoustics. Too much of bass can be solved more easily than lack of bass which was discussed in the other thread. Make a few basstrap panels and hang the around your room, to corners, etc,. you will see.
Once I will move to new flat, in March I hope, I will have to do same, which is bit complicated but on the other hand I am sure it will help a lot.

[stjohn]

fran has a lovely set of akg open back ones too.. he lent them to me last week..and they were lovely.!!

[massplanck]

Thats the ones.

[dirty_bass]

Workin in mono is a good fix, although it won`t alter standing waves etc.

Still much better than working on headphones as you never get a good representation of bass energy.
You cant` feel the sound. No good for dance music.

[supergroover]

i recommend to fix your room acoustics before resorting to other options like mono mixing or headphones. Most people will hear your music through an ipod or a home stereo. It will also need to sound good there, not just in a club.

[massplanck]

Well its a temporary fix. Everything shall be sorted out in time

[Jay Pace]

Tested this out using one monitor, its a good method to check nothing is horribly amiss. Especially if you're using spacey stereo sounds, they can sound very odd when you bounce down to mono if your room is giving weird feedback on where sounds are in the mix.

[massplanck]

well i found what the problem was. One of my speakers was out of phase\cabled arseways. someone switched the standard black & red cable to that of the I havent a clue which is which variety.

:(