Structured
Ever feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time? Slipping into procrastination way too often? Employing this simple practice into your day could change your life.
Mixing in mono
by Will Jackson
Ever find that a mix sounds overly cluttered but you can’t find the reason(s) why?
In dense productions this can be a common problem. It can sometimes lead to a flat, lifeless mix in which crucial elements get masked.
There’s a cracking tip I learned a few years ago you can try though, that alleviates a lot of confusion and frustration.
Try switching your mix bus into mono.
Simplify things
Mixing in mono takes away the easy separation of elements that panning can bring in stereo – something that won’t work one bit when you listen to you mix back (in mono) on a phone let’s say…
Instead it helps you to make the correct EQ and compression decisions, as the different elements will be sitting right on top of each other.
If one hard-panned guitar track is masking another of a similar ilk in the upper mids say, it’ll become much clearer to hear.
I find this trick actually forces you to become a better mixer. Stereo summing flatters your mix in a way. You can to a degree cover up bad mixing decisions by taking advantage of the stereo panning spectrum.
We want our mixes to stand up in stereo and mono though!
Stereo is a luxury
When mixing in mono, you get the added benefit that when you switch back into stereo, the icing on the cake is applied.
Your mixes come to life with the gift of stereo, however sound so much better than they would if you’d only mixed in stereo.
The best way to approach EQ’ing once you’ve flipped your mix bus to mono (and this applies to EQ’ing in general) is to prioritise certain tracks for certain areas of the frequency spectrum. Pick the most prominent and crucial part of a tracks frequency response and carve out space for that by cutting in the same area on other tracks that compete for the same set of frequencies.
Like many methods of mixing that I talk about, this is something that takes practice, but with a bit of time and perseverance, this method can become second nature. You ears will improve, and thus, your mixing decisions.
Related posts
Read More »
Take a larger break from creation
Sometimes seeing the bigger picture on a project can be difficult when you’re too close to it! Doing less could be the answer to your problems…
Avoid writers block – take breaks!
Writers block is never fun. But it can be so easily avoided by implementing a bit of structure into your process. Find out how…
