Don't Make This Stereo Mixing Mistake 

I do like these "mistake" videos, actually. Very interesting lesson in the basics of "mono and stereo", so very helpful to learn from! Thanks Joe!

Thank you Joe! I don't want my guitars to disappear. I want my vocals to disappear.

Thanks for those zoom ins. That really helps

Watching this in my mono phone, I could almost never hear the guitar. Point well made!

If you know how to use the stock Phase Corellation meter in Studio One, it gives you great information about mono, stereo and phase issues. Joe, may be you can do a video on how to use & and read this meter.

Hey Joe, have you ever heard of Tri dimensional wiring? Cars used to have a center speaker in the dashboard that reveal "the mystical hidden mid channel". In my home I have 3 speakers wired up where the middle one acts like a center speaker in the dashboard of a car. In order to accomplish this you preferably need a stereo amp that can play four speakers, an A and B stereo output. You regularly wire the left and right speaker but the center speaker is wired on your stereos B channel, taking the POSITIVE lead from left and the POSITIVE lead from the right channel. I know this sounds awkward, but then you are able to hear the "mystery mid channel". The reason I don't use four speakers is that my brother fkd up one of the 4 speakers he'd gave to me. KEF model 104ab reference series. I know they're old but do a perfect job in my apartment. And I can preferably turn off the center speaker that is fed on the B channel.

Excellent video, Joe. Thanks for making this!

Joe wbt. duplicate the track panning L/R and make one track 1ms delay ? Is this cause the same issue?

Amazing one! Thank you so much Joe

I'm loving it

Yep I like these kind of videos

Something that might confuse people is "complementary eq". Back when Elemental Audio Systems (EAS) was around (before being bought by Roger Nichols Digital), the had 3 great plug-ins: Equim, Firium, and Neodynium (I had them all). Equim had a "pseudo-stereo" preset, where if it raised 1k on one channel, it lowered it on the other.That preset did that for several frequencies, in harmonic intervals. Visually, it LOOKS like the idea of inverting phase, but it isn't, and it (complementary eq) is actually a great way to fit things into a mix.

Although it maybe a mistake. I can see this trick being a nifty little Easter egg sorta thing. If I recall correctly it used to be a thing where songs would be released in stereo and mono. Well one would be released, then the other would be released on say the b-side of an album, or even on another album.

great video with one proviso, if your recording Mid/Side acoustic guitar its a very easy way of setting up the track without all that duplicating it then panning one left and one right

First thing I did while hearing the guitars for the first time in this video was to click the mono button on my Studio1824c. My prediction was right 😂

Joe do you still have a membership for engineering? I don’t see the link!

My phone has a mono speaker and I couldn't hear the guitar with the phase reversed, regardless of whether you played it in stereo or mono mode. That's weird, I never experienced such an issue listening to music through my phone speaker! (hence why I prefer phones with a mono speaker over those that get stereo by amplifying the earpiece speaker which has a completely different sound than the actual loudspeaker)

Interesting!

Interesting lesson. This is also the same concept that is used by some to create DIY acapella vocals or remove sounds from original tracks.

You have inadvertently demonstrated how balanced audio signals cancel noise. Note if you still want that out of phase stereo effect the user was going for simply add a little delay to one channel. Copy the mono track to a new track and slide it slightly one way or the other. That way there will be no mono cancellation issue and as a bonus you get an even wider stereo effect.

Yay!, no I know how to chk my mic on Mono!..thank you You can make a “split” ( duplicate track, one hard pan to L the other hard pan to R , but one with delay of at least 8mm sec). That would make it really wide

Hi Joe. Can you please help. I listened to you and recorded 2 mono tracks background vocal. However, When I pan left and the second track to the right....I still have phase issue. However, the Phase inverter does not work on mono source. What do I need to do? Thanks.

Hey Joe, Love these analysis! I would love to see a video or series on mixing, taking into account different file types and/or playback media. I spend hours sometimes getting what I think is a perfect mix in my studio, then render the track to MP3 (I know, inherent problems with the format) because that's what a lot of people listen to and find I need to go back and tweek the mix to get it to sound better (or even sometimes just acceptable) in this format.

What about doubling the track one right, one left BUT delay one of them for ~1ms? What that solve the problem too?

So, if I want to keep the mono track mono, I shouldn't open the Stereo per track? As in my opinion, it remains mono, but its not in the middle like The bass/kick

Thanks

I can’t get stereo.. even if it’s on stereo it records mono.. each of my channels on my audio interface are independent.. what am I doing wrong?

Thanx Joe. That's a mistake I'm sure I made back in my teens. -BiG Pluck

Joe, Awesome - I don’t comment much but you do an awesome job explaining things Thanks again sharing your expertise Jerry

Question on a different subject. Is there a way to categorize sessions? I’m an analog user for years and just started using digital a couple years ago. When I have multiple sessions how do I work on one clients songs without seeing everything I have in my DAW?

Does Studio One come with Voodoo Magic?

I found iZotope Ozone Imager useful, especially for processing entire mono mixes into something nice.

I was wondering what was wrong, because I was watching this on my phone and I could not hear any guitars at all when you said the guitars were coming in. Fascinating. Good to know.

Am I the only one who didnt hear the guitar on the first run at all.

Hello Joe!Can you tell me how to avoid this big annoying noise like a wind blowing in my Guitar Amp when i plug the behind jack output with the back output of my Scarlett Focusrite 2i4 to play in Studio One 5 and add my plugins?Thank you very much!

If you Bounce the track with polarity flipped (or duplicate it first, then Bounce to New Track), wouldn't that allow the stereo effect and retain the guitars in mono? Doubling the track with another guitar is of course another approach.

Thanks Joe!!! I'm remembering the oscilloscope from when I was in school learning about phase cancelation! :)

I'd like to add something here. Even if you have 2 speakers depending on where they are positioned in the room and you to them you will create pockets where in some locations you will hear the guitar and in others you will not hear the guitar at all. You can make a fun experiment with the same frequency fazed opposite from each speaker and find in the room where you cannot hear it and where you will hear it louder.

I cant believe how hot that guitar track was on the level marker! yet sounded quiet in the mix.

Gem of a topic... I suppose then that adding crossover complicates this. Thanks for the insight.

I’m probably way off here but for about the last year or so I just take all my individual instruments and create stereo busses for each of them and put all the plugins on the busses. Sounds pretty good to me and it’s super easy. I also only have bass, maybe 2 guitars, acoustic, a little keys, and drums so not a lot to worry about.

yes, duplicate the mono track ,pan it left and right with effects, I did it!

Mind blown!

I get stereo from twin mono tracks by making one of them milliseconds behind the other.

🙋: How do we convert a stereo track to mono? I got a session from a client and I noticed 2 instruments - 1 labelled R and the other labelled L- I'm assuming left and right. But here's the kicker, both are stereo tracks - 🤦‍♂️. I can't find a way to flip one or both stereo to mono - any ideas?

try to following

Sound cancelling headphones in industry do this.

your the best

Nice!!

Yep, this happened to me just the other day. Thanks

Wow. So cool thanks for sharing.

Keep these videos coming!!!!

What I noticed is if you leave it in the center then of course cancellation will happen. But panning it hard left or right does not.

Good info, Joe. Important to know.

So, Joe, are there any plugins you could recommend that would be able to more effectively process a mono sound to make it stereo?? I.e. without simply inverting the phase? What for example happens with plugins that have mid/side conversions?

First one, great going Joe

Love these videos. Thank Joe.

Thanks Joe

Good thing I have a mono button on my monitor controller

That red track clipped enough?

My top part of the channel in Studio One 5 does not have gain and phase buttons. Is there a way to enable them? Thanks

💪

Don't make this clickbait mistake.