Mono Compatibility, Part 2

Last time in this series, we talked about what mono compatibility means, and why it’s important.

Now, here’s some solutions to make great mono compatible mixes on your own.

This is all a fairly delicate balancing act that changes on every mix.

Solutions for making an expansive, mono compatible mix

Here’s some solutions for nice expansive mixes that don't also sacrifice depth and focus:

1) Save your hard pans for special effects, and other items that you want to draw special attention to.

2) Check your mixes in mono often during mixing, and watch out for disappearing parts.

3) Keep your low end instruments, especially kick drum and bass, coming straight down the center, in almost every situation.

4) Challenge yourself to achieve a focused, expansive sounding mix keeping all your pan pots between 9 and 3 on the dial.

5) Creative and/or subtle use of reverb can help w this.

EQ your reverbs! Often times, the character of a reverb doesn't depend much on the subs, lows, or even low-mid frequencies.

You can cut out this unnecessary information using EQ, allowing you to maintain a focused sound while still achieving a sense of space.

6) Use a phase correlation meter at all points in the mixing process, and learn how to read it correctly.

7) Be very careful when using any type of spreading or stereo width plugin-these are cool to use sometimes, but go easy.

8) Mid-side EQ can allow you to control the amount of low end information that's blobbing around the stereo field, without adversely affecting the sound of the entire instrument. If you want to hard pan synths, this can be a great way to get a huge expansive sound, without throwing your mix completely out of phase.

For acoustic guitars, same goes: a lot of low end info isn't often helpful on this instrument. So, you can cut some of that out using EQ, which then unlocks the ability to pan your mics a little more aggressively. Now, you've got a wider sounding instrument that shimmers, yet doesn't sacrifice ambience and depth.