Mono and stereo mixing

In order to have mixes that work on the dance floor, on the radio or in any format, you need to know your mono and stereo information. This can often be difficult as it may not be something you directly think about when producing. We at AP will therefore list some examples of how to think to make it easier for you when you work with mixing your mono & stereo information.

Frequencies

Keep in mind that frequencies play an incredibly important role when deciding what should be mono & stereo. Your bass information from maybe 120 hz (it varies of course) down to the lowest frequencies in the song should usually be in mono. This is so that the music sounds better if it is played out in clubs. Also because the lowest frequencies should always be in the center of the track.

Think about placement

Mixing is very much about the placement of different sounds. Should the sound be at the front or back of the mix, panned or not? This ties in with the issue of stereo information. If you have two guitar tracks in your song that play the same thing, you should pan them out to the right and left. This will give your mix a sense of stereo width. When it comes to synths, I would recommend using stereo widening plugs (like Center by Waves) to make the synths sound wider instead of panning them.

Don't overbroadcast the mix!

This is a common mistake people make as a result of wanting to have as broad a mix as possible. But it often results in putting too much information on the sides of the mix. Then the center feels empty. The trick is to use stereo widening sparingly, often the mix is widened in the mastering phase anyway. So if you have already stereo widened a lot in the mixing phase of the song, the risk is that you lose too much center information in the song.

Kick & Bass

Your kick is always in the center of the song and therefore always in mono. This also applies to your bass, however, it may be that you have two basses in your song, say a sub and a lowmid bass. The sub should be in mono, but the lowmid bass you can actually choose to stereo widen the top information in if you think it's nice. However, you should be careful with this because the kick and bass are incredibly important to your mix as they are the backbone that sits in the middle of the song, and possibly widening the bass is something that can make you lose the feeling of pressure in the middle, but it can also be a cool effect.