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I ran upon an old post in another forum yesterday, quite by accident, where a guy was saying he always listened in mono instead of stereo. Said it let him concentrate on the music more, instead of the mix. It made it immateral where he sat in the room. This blew my mind at first. Since I was a kid and stereo became the norm one of the things I've held as an absolute true was that stereo was better than mono.
Last night I listened to "A Love Supreme" and some Johnny Mathias in mono, then Bird. It was different. It did seem a bit that my tiny brain had less to do not having to keep up with left and right. On the Coltrane album the sax is panned far left, which I wouldn't have done. In mono he's dead in front of me. My chair is almost in the center of the speakers, but if I lie on the couch I'm left of the left speaker. In mono it made little difference where I sat.
I'm not saying I'm a convert, but it was interesting and I might do it some more.
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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Joined: May 2000
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Always 'check' your mix in mono, it can be revealing..
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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I'm trying to wrap my head around how to convert a stereo track to mono?
It'll probably be a "DUH"! when someone answers, ...but I can't visualize how to do it right now. ( I haven't finished my coffee)
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Well, really you can't. You can only combine the L and R signals. Or you could reset all the pans to center but that's a lot of trouble.
My old stereo receivers have mono buttons. On a PC I'm not sure how you do it internally. On my work PC I go to control panel, sound and audio devices, audio, advanced, and select mono laptop speakers. Whether that affects the headphone jack I'm not yet certain, but it sounds like it does.
I've seen pro and con discussions before about making backing tracks in stereo to go into a PA. A lot of your audience will not be in the center of the speakers so one line of thinking is to go mono.
After a little investigation I find there's a growing cult of people who prefer listening in mono.
Wow, until yesterday it'd never occured to me. I was looking for a small mono hi-fi amp or kit and ran across mono-stereo discussions. Have an old Victrola that I don't have to time to restore properly so thinking I might fit a mono amp, one speaker, and an mp3 playing discman into it.
Now everything I was sure about listening to music is suspect.
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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PT and RB mixer has a mono button at bottom
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Thanks! Never noticed it.
Just checked and setting to mono speakers does not affect the headphone jack on my work PC. Might affect the line outs but no speakers here in the office.
Up until yesterday the world was 2-D, now I'm not so sure.
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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It works on audio tracks
It will not 'over ride' a softsynth or other midi generated sounds.
when the midi goes to those synths they get generated from a different source than what is 'inside' RB, so the mono button only works on audio tracks
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Check Control Panel, Sounds, or whatever they call it in your OS, and see if you can set the Speaker subset to mono. Some soundcard drivers allow that, some may call it "laptop mono" but will work whether on laptop or desktop. This typically applies to builtin soundcards and not aftermarket, though.
Bird recordings should all be mono anyway...
--Mac
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Thanks Bob...
As a side note...
My uncle Bill worked for RCA for many years. When I was a kid I remember him telling my parents about something they were working on called "Stereophonic Sound". One day he came over with a really weird record player. It had speakers that detached and went to the sides! They produced an album called "Sounds In Space". We listened in awe as the man walked from one speaker to the other, (voice & footsteps) to describe stereophonic sound! Will wonders never cease!!
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I was the sound effects man on stereophonics demos...even still had my wooden shoes I came over with.
I can remember that jet plane woosh...heck we hardly ever heard those dang machines yet.
Wooooooooooooosh...........................Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekk!!
Yamaha...Motif ES-8, Motif Rack, CS6X
Korg...Karma,Triton Classic, PA-80, M-1+
AkaiSampler-S5000, Roland.. X5080 Rack/G-1000 Arranger
Various Guitars/Basses Amps Pedals Rec.Equip.
Plus, BIAB 2015 and Sonar Platinum 2015 Upgrade from Cakewalk's Sonar X-3
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To make mono in my earbuds I just bought two Radio Shack adapters. 274-374 and 274-368. One is male stereo and female mono and the other male mono and female stereo. Really puzzled the clerk. He tried to talk out of buying them both, thinking I only needed one. But it works.
In mono, Bird did sound more like you'd think he ought to, if that makes any sense.
Now I got Trane in the middle of my head instead of just one ear.
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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Quote:
Bird recordings should all be mono anyway...
--Mac
That's what I was thinking. Unless it's some 'remaster' where they tried pseudo stereofying things, or like some of the early Beatles 'stereo' recordings which really weren't - just unique tracks hard panned left and right.
-Scott
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Yeah, they should definitely NOT re-master tracks recorded in mono and try to stereotize them. That's like colorzing "Casablanca".
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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