Mono-Compatible Width Explained
Studio expert Larry Holcombe present in-depth Mono-mixing tutorials! Mono compatibility is tricky business, but if you want your music to sound its best regardless of setting, then it's something you have to consider. You never know where someone is going to hear your music! Larry Holcombe teaches you several different strategies for creating width that won't collapse in mono. With numerous examples demonstrated on various sources, you'll be armed with effective tips that can help you create stellar mono-compatible mixes of your own. These videos are for those new to mixing in mono.
Videos
• Kick/Snare (14:21) - This first video deals with increasing the kick's mono compatibility using imaging and multi-band dynamics and also making the snare mono. We also introduce a free correlation meter to help you visualize phase problems between the left and right channels.
• Creating Mono-Compatible Bass (12:27) - Here, we focus on creating mono-compatible low end width. This covers mono, unison modes, oscillator phase considerations, and artificial width generation.
• Haas Effect Shakers (07:55) - Next up, we manage the stereo width of the shakers, creating a natural Haas Effect width program that works in mono.
• Stereo Claps (12:18) - Explore the advantage of ProQ-3's ability to split left and right while using a high pass filter. This creates phase discrepancies between left and right causing stereo width again. We also demonstrate the advantage of using two performances panned left and right and shifted in time.
• Stereo Synth Brass (07:55) - We investigate a combination of chorus and mid-side eq next to inject some width into the synth brass stabs.
• Guitars (04:37) - In this video, we use Waves CLA Guitars to add some lovely mono-compatible stereo width to the guitar parts.
• Electric Piano (09:59) - We dive into sound designing a stereo electric piano patch that has the right amount of width while retaining a strong center image.
• Mono-Focused EQ & Compression (12:25) - Discover the benefits of making EQ and compression decisions in mono, forcing you to make more focused choices without having the luxury of stereo width to call on for separation.
• Mono & Stereo Reverb (13:22) - This video deals with strategies for creating width using reverb in both mono and stereo to add contrast between different sounds in the mix.
• Extra Wide Channels (09:34) - Sometimes we just want things to be extremely wide! We explore ways to achieve that effect in this video using a combination of chorus, sample delay, stereo delay, and mid-side trickery to encode a super wide yet mono-compatible guitar delay effect.
• Mastering Imaging & Metering Tips (08:55) - In this final video, we utilize the free Voxengo Span metering tool to understand the correlation and blend between the mid and side bands of the track. We also use an imager to "mono-ize" the low frequencies and spread the high frequencies above 10k.