Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianBrightnes  panning in mono??? interesting |
absolutely. say you've got an acoustic that you mic'd in stereo and have panned the two mics hard L and R for that 300 foot wide acoustic guitar sound.
when in mono, you can (or at least i can) tell subtle differences in the way the acoustic sounds and reacts with the other instruments (vocals, etc) when I make changes to the panning on the acoustic (bring em in, push em out, etc). at some point i find the "right spot" and between the panning and fader levels, the balance between it and the other instruments locks right into place, both in mono and stereo.
the same goes for drum overheads, too. it's not "obvious" like it is in stereo in that nothing sounds like it's actually on the left or right--but bringing in or spreading out the panning on the overheads changes the way they react with the snare, kick, etc. this makes it very easy to tell what's poking out of place, etc.
i know i'm probably not explaining it very well, but that's what i hear, and i can only go by what my ears are telling me. and i can tell you that for me, making sure everything's "tucked in" when in mono has resulted in much better mixes in stereo.
as for crappy speaker referencing, i've got a little POS $30 RCA boombox that is actually "stereo" but the speakers are so close to each other (maybe 6 inches apart?) that it more or less acts as a mono source. any problems with mono compatibility in a mix is readily apparent--the mix essentially collapses. since i started working on my mixes in mono and switching to stereo at the end, i haven't had any problems with mix collapse.
of course, mixing styles are subjective and personal and what works for me might be the absolute worst thing for you.
cheers,
wade