Mixing in mono is fucking HARD

[AudioGeekZine]

PA systems are often run in mono though I think a stereo input from a cd or mp3 player would still be stereo. ???
They'd still be using 2 outs of the console.

do not care about audio quality.

I'm exaggerating.

I'm sure there are a lot of venues that sound good and run their mixes in mono. In a huge venue you don't want something hard panned to not be heard by the opposite side of the audience. Different topic though.

 

[arv_foh]

don't clubs use mono systems? the reasoning that they're not trying to build a stereo image in a room surrounded by speakers.

just about any rig that is worth a shit is in stereo... most people just choose to mix relatively mono to make sure everyone in the crowd can hear everything

 

[egan.]

Please bear with me, as I'm trying to remember something I read ages ago, so I might be a bit wrong.

Monitoring a mono signal with 2 speakers causes phase cancellations in the 3kHz area, leading to a lack of presence. This is part of the reason that vocal mic's have generally evolved to have a boost in this area, to compensate for the cancellations caused by having something panned centre in a stereo speaker setup.

As I said I'm half remembering something from a while back, so don't hang me if it's bullshit.

Yeah, that's not true however, it certainly is true that you can get comb filtering (at any frequency) with a mono signal and multiple sources.

 

[TheSoulsRemain]

PA systems are often run in mono though I think a stereo input from a cd or mp3 player would still be stereo. ???
They'd still be using 2 outs of the console.


I'm exaggerating.

I'm sure there are a lot of venues that sound good and run their mixes in mono. In a huge venue you don't want something hard panned to not be heard by the opposite side of the audience. Different topic though.

You have right. A lot FOH terchnician mix in L/R.
Some others mix L/R + Subs.
It's in the technical sheet of the band I'm working with. When I'm not welcome at festivals (where the FOH is setup for a lot of different FOH technician) it's mandatory to drive subs with Aux send.
But when the venue is too big and the Left PA is too far from the right PA : I mix only in mono.
Live console like soundcraft Serie 5 or Midas have a Pan pot and a balance pot wich is very different. It depends if you have a center cluster or not.
But in the case of more than L/R+S PA, I'm using Matrix.
When I'm mixing, I don't touch to the master, I'm mixing with VCA (or DCA when I'm on PM5D) And VCA are send to Matrix.
So the person who setup the PA is the person which tell me how many Matrix I could use.
I've worked recently with a Stder Vista 5. There is a very very useful virtual pan pot. It mean's that when you pan 100% left, you have still a signal à right. It's more complicated than that but it's work very well.

For Jeff, I am in the same case than You when you said mono on 2 speakers doesn't sound like coming from 1 speaker.
But maybe I have an answer for that.

When you are listen to mono with 2 speakers your right ear listen to right speaker plus left speaker, and left ear listen to right speaker plus left speaker.
If we consider only the right speaker, the right ear hear the sound nearly 25cm before the left ear.
As the left auricle (use the google translation for "external ear") is at 180° from the right one, the brain work with 2 differents ears.
If you add the left speakers you have this problem twice.

I don't consider the fact that sound go faster in skull than air.

Now consider only one speaker centered in front of You.....do you see what I mean ?


It's a different application of the HAAS effect.