Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Hey Dave, hope you don't think I hi-jacked your thread. Janice will tell you that I have a penchant for thinking out loud...often to a fault smile

Bud


No worries Bud! I'm enjoying reading all the comments smile

What started this for me was I submitted my latest song to this new facebook group where you can have people critique your mix. Lots of comments, but one very detailed one from someone who really knew his stuff, and one of the many things he mentioned was that my mix sounded like crap when played back in mono.
And sure enough, it does!

In my case as you know our songs feature guitar, sometimes lots of guitar tracks, plus a female vocalist. Both occupy the same frequency range. When I'm mixing in stereo that is not a problem, I handle it via panning so everything has it's own space in the stereo spectrum.

The key thing I got out of the article is the need to use eq to carve out space for the vocalist:

"Yet, when that great‑sounding stereo mix is collapsed to mono, you will often find it no longer works, because those sources occupy the same spectrum and end up trampling all over one another."

That is something I don't do, but I think I should be. It seems if I do that it will probably improve the stereo mix too, it won't be as muddy. Anyway it is something I'm going to spend some time learning more about.
Also I've been checking into izotope neutron, it seems like that may be a great solution.

Last edited by BlueAttitude; 08/03/17 12:59 AM.
Dave

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