What is "Mono Compatibility"?

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I'm learning Ozone and working with the stereo widener. The docs tell me to keep checking for "mono compatibility" (by pressing the mono button), but it never says what that is, or why I should care, etc. What I've found is that when it starts sounding awesome in stereo from my monitors and I click mono, it sounds terrible. Is this to check in case someone is going to listen to it in mono?

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Yasoo wrote:Is this to check in case someone is going to listen to it in mono?
Yes.

If it sounds terrible in mono (not just less impressive, but downright terrible), then you're probably doing something wrong. Or you're doing something very cool. 8)

Forever,




Kim.

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You can get phasing problems and other issues between the 2 tracks that make up a stereo track.

When you go to mono it can actually cause some frequencies to cancell (or possibly reenforce) each other. This can wreck the sound.

if it gets played back in mono on a single speaker portable player or on a mono TV set it will sound bad.

I usually check my mixes in mono from time to time but never noticed anything.

If you are phase inverting some tracks for effect this could cause problems.

Or if some sample was recorded with a phase reversal.

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Yasoo wrote:check for "mono compatibility" (by pressing the mono button) Is this to check in case someone is going to listen to it in mono?
That's right.

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And it's your chance to embed secret messages in the mix which are only audible to mono listeners.





(like '...mono sucks, get a life...') :)

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...
Last edited by M'Snah on Sat Mar 26, 2005 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Thanks everyone!

That's a in interesting call. I mean, there aren't even that many mono T.V.s nowadays. Like I said, it sounds downright awesome in stereo, but in mono is terrible. So I am left with thinking how often it will get played in mono. I would venture a guess at "hardly ever", so how can I argue with the awesome stereo sound?

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Yasoo wrote:Thanks everyone!

That's a in interesting call.
Almost all club sound is mono. If you're doing dance music or anything likely to find its way to a big PA,
it's a good idea to check how it sounds when summed as mono.

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Ah. Great tip, thanks!

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Does anyone know a small free vst plug to check mono comp. (to insert on the master channel)? Thanks in advance!

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flex42 wrote:Does anyone know a small free vst plug to check mono comp. (to insert on the master channel)? Thanks in advance!
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1128.html
or
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... cplugs.htm

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