I love how Dan stays on topic but still keeps it interesting. It seems he's choosing his words wisely to make the most use of time. Great educators know how to make the most out of a short period of time while parsing out all of the unnecessary information that might cloud up the presentation. This is my flavor of tutorial. I sit between speakers and make mixing decisions as a profession. Your tutorials are always well explained with well thought out visuals.

This man is the honest to goodness David Attenborough of audio engineering content.

This is so excellent, Dan! I was able to listen to the stereo and mono mixes in comparison with my eyes closed. Only through one speaker of my Motorola Moto E4 smartphone! Hardly any tonal difference in the mix. So much consistency. Thank you so very much, Dan! You are amazing. ;)

Loved this! So looking forward to the "how to correct this" part.

Looking forward to the follow up video Dan!, brilliant tutorial and channel.

I consider being able to create wide stereo sounds that are mono compatible like a holy grail of mixing. I would DEFINITELY watch that video. Subbed. Really good content, thank you!

Well, in electronics this was a trick question, a normal summing scheme from stereo to mono you just connect + and - together of both channels? Right? No wrong, you have to set 2 resistors from 470 Ohm serial to the + channels, to get the -6db decay, and a 10k resistor parallel for phase problems. That's why some of the pirate radio stations in the 80's had that problem in their broadcasts. When you put these in signal path the problem was solved. You can do great stuff with LCR mixing, just like you showed. I'm becoming a fan of yours Dan.

Such a brilliant video. Thank you for uploading!

@Dan please make that follow up video! This video really helped me a lot and i would love to know the techniques to create a wide mix with mono compatibility.

This is exactly the information needed on my journey to becoming a better mix engineer. Can't thank you enough for time and effort taken to make these videos. Not seen anything like this before anywhere? Thanks Dan.

I watch very few "random" mixing tutorial videos on youtube these days... I've been told quite a few times that my mixes have a "professional" sound, and it's because of the few channels I watch here on youtube, which is yours, Baphometrix' channel, and some of Warren Huart's. Thanks for your uploads - I've been producing for 3 years or so, and these few channels have kept each of my mixes to get better and better, and to have better balance and clarity in both the mono and stereo worlds. No matter what day and age we are in, mono will always have some significance in my mixing, and I have been fortunate to have found the balance between mono and stereo mixes. One thing I wish I could invent, although I haven't found a way, is a way to make truly mono signals reduce their volume when switching from stereo monitoring to mono monitoring. As crazy as it sounds, I wish there was a way to induce purposeful phase cancellation (no more than 6dB max) on my mono elements so that they get quiter when transitioning monitoring in stereo to mono... That way the mono elements would phase cancel when summed to mono to the same degree my stereo elements are reduced in volume, which is usually about 6dB. I do realize this probably overkill, because as you said, most people listening in Mono just want to hear the song, and don't care as much about audio quality. However, from a professional standpoint, it seems some engineering magic like this would be highly useful. My work around has been to simply cut the difference here in my mixes: I purposefully make my mono elements just slightly quieter so that in mono they aren't overbearing, and likewise, I may also increase the stereo element's volume when monitoring in mono (just slightly), so that when I do turn stereo monitoring back on, these elements are just subtly louder than I would have otherwise mixed them. Perhaps someday someone will find a way to induce a ghost (inaudible) phase cancellation stereo plugin for this purpose.

Great video. Looking for more to come. Have joy and be sound.

Sir I really appreciate for such an awesome content But a demonstration like this is really helpful to be more reliable on ears than the visual changes It would be great to demonstrate more videos like this ... thanku

omg, I've been telling this to people for years!! Thank you for putting this together and explaining it in such an intelligent and easy to follow way! Much love! 🙏

I remember a day when this was new to me. Thanks for sharing this.

This knowledge is extremely helpful, nice1!

Really helpful, thanks Dan!

Looking forward to seeing your follow up video. I agree. I hardly ever LCR pan anymore. I might do +/- 35 or +/- 75 on some of the complimentary elements of the song that need to be panned (assuming 100 is fully panned to the right and -100 to the left). When I check in mono, I sometimes increase the volume on the fader by a few db to get the panned elements in mono to be heard again. I also eq them to get some of the tone I prefer to stand out in mono too.

Great video! I liked your presentation

Hi Dan, I just can say I love your videos, but this waiting will kill me :) I admit exactly this is my concern/issue for years! Can't wait for the reveal!

Nice, didn't know about this. Thanks a lot!

Great video, never thought about this!

We can all use a 24hours Dan Worrall, narrating us through issues while mixing. Please make that app.

Can't wait for the next one

Great video, thank you Dan!

I'd love to see a good explanatory video on panning strategies Dan. I tend to have problems with too much stereo information leading to a fairly mushy and poorly defined sound stage due to overlapping elements. I need to know how to get a nice mono-compatible mix while still giving each element its own space to breathe.

Wow. I’ve always assumed this was just a matter of getting lost in the mix in mono not truly having less volume. Cool video!

We humbly thank thee for thy teaching, dude with the easy to remember voice and amazing lessons every where. Since I bought Camel Alchemy, your videos are like a religion to me. I mean, the kind of stuff that you can't really understand all the way through, but that makes you wonder and gets you happy. I'm not a religious person, so you are my gospel, kinda. Ps: If you are here to complain about the video, just repent now and say you're sorry. Answer my comment, now, saying "I'm sorry" and avoid this treacherous opportunity to make a fool of yourself. This dude is awesome. He ain't simply giving opinions - he is demonstrating what he says, ALL OF THE TIME. I've got good speakers and it is always a great ride in learning about audio. Maybe you guys just are not good listeners. For the good listener, this dude is THA MAN. Thank you again for these videos.

Thank you, Master Worrall. 🙏🏻

Yes, please, more and more regularely please...

4:58 awwww don't do us like that...

Thank you!!!!!!!! I need these videos

Well said, Dan!

This became a real issue in the early days of smart phones with 1 terrible speaker. When I started in the late 90s mono compatibility was what everyone did but mixes were SO DRY that true stereo information was hard to come by so to work around the artist not wantng a "wet" reverb filled track and to add space, I began recording in Mid/Side and it gave me a natural depth that LR recordng just can't. MS recording fixed two issues for me back then. The ultra dry soundng mixes actually had some depth and space to them but I didn't sacrifice mono at all to achieve it. Sure setting up 2 mics isn't a great idea when you are tracking a live band in a room but with some gobos and creative blocking you can achieve this pretty easily. I do mic things in mono but for anything requiring a stereo-type microphone setup like drum rooms or overheads as well as guitar amp MS tracking gives me a size and depth that LR just can't while simultaneously keeping the mono signal in place. I do pan things but never hard left and right in a DAW. I did have an old MCI console that only had a pan choice of L-C-R and it's was not variable and those were some of my worst mixes to my ears, even though the console sounded like a dream. Nice pre's, the filter and EQ was sweet but the panning left so much to be desired. Great video Dan as always!

Thank you! I never thought about it in this way. Very important. Looking forward to your promised video.

You just earned a subscriber for your boldness and badassery

Dan - I know this is 4 years ago... ...you have to sum up both channels to L or R in order to get it right ;) Also another trick in order to not get the signals behind is to use a balancing plug like MSED. Helps immensely to get that listening right!

So pleased to see the use of maths in the explanation. If you use the RT60 formula you are already using maths! The fact is we can't escape the importance or use of maths in the correct application of any workflow. Music is emotion but the frequencies, harmonics and parameters are in sync with predictable maths. Check the perfect intervals between harmonics to see proof of this. Only by learning to properly manipulate and take advantage of this can we hope to achieve precise results. To prove this, just enter wild values into your compressor or EQ! I personally enjoy the panorama achieved by LCR but unless you apply precise EQ there will be serious freq masking. LCR forces elements into sharing a confined auditory space. Hard panning to L-100/R-100 is fraught with inherent problems. Its a huge debate, such as referencing to pink noise in balancing. Only debating, questioning and learning the right way will help us achieve the desired results. Excellent video, subscribed!!!

Thankyou for this explanation . .

YES, I THOUGHT I WAS ALONE WITH THIS PROBLEM . THANKS

I've been using this to accentuate bass, drums and vocals by having a potentiometer inbetween my Left and Right channels that go to my headphones. Allowing a degree of cross-talk helps bring them out more if there is a fuzz-wall of panned distorted guitars.

I see LCR- I think induction, capacitance and resistance. I wasn't even aware of the mixing technique.

I always hated hard panning because it sounds so unnatural to me. In ordinary natural circumstances you always hear things in both ears to some degree. But thanks for explaining all these things with simple sine waves. Makes it easier to understand what's happening.

Already waiting for the next video.

I've never really thought about LCR causing mono compatibility problems. Certainly explains a lot. I always check everything in mono throughout a project, but never considered that the reason the balances needed tweaking, was because of the mono summing process itself. I've had difficulty getting the clarity and definition for each part in a dense project, and LCR seemed to solve a lot of that on the face of it. So now I'm really curious what sorts of solutions you have for clear stereo mixes that aren't so crowded. By the way, were those DnB loops a part of an upcoming FM bass/synthesis tutorial? I've been excited about the idea ever since we discussed it a couple weeks ago. :)

Well, this really does explain and sum up recent issues I've been having perfectly. Pun intended.

I use mono to check for any phase problems that I can't hear in stereo that easily... I usually never think of it as a way to check the volume balance of a mix...

Patiently waiting for a follow up :)

I'm back watching every one of your videos in order. Another golden one. Sometimes such basics needs to be fully defined and analyzed. Thank you sir.

You know, the other day i visited a good friend who is not an audio guy at all. He had this weird little speaker hooked up to his Pc, we were talking about a track I wrote/mixed so he played back the track through his setup and oh boy! To my surprise, most of it was just drums and bass; guitars were so far behind, faint. I'm somewhat used to hard pan my rock guitars so I'll start checking my mono comp. more from now on!

Short and sweet - just like Dan himself 😼

Thank you for this, however, I wanted to see your other work, and what you work with, since you’re also the official voice of many other plugin manufacturers, and your website is unavailable Do you have a new site?

Darn i was waiting for the solution. But thanks for explaining the problem anyway :)

We want more!!

Kind of a no-brainer. Pretty simple maths. This is like a trailer for the genius he'll unveil in the next vid. Dan is the king of succinct information conveyance. How can we get him to offer an online training course?

using 6 dB instead of 6.02 dB troubles me more than it should

Олександр... Не перший раз слухаю ваше це виконання.... Не можу казати про всі твори у вашому виконанні на каналі, але щодо цього твору можу точно сказати одне ! Твір важкий не тільки для оркестру, а для одного інструменту то взагалі дуже важкий. Розумію вас як баяніст . Але головне що хочу донести , це те - що дане виконання звучить не гірше ніж легендарні Ton Koopman і Karl Richter. А я думаю вам ці прізвища також відомі і багато про що говорять ....

Great stuff as always! Please make a video about Pan Law. There's not much explanation on that topic.

mid-side / ambisonics to the rescue. i belieeeive you can find another option in the reaper pan knob that will boost the centre channel when you pan a stereo image.

It works sometimes. For example Scarborough Fair by SnG, where there are (almost) two completely separate songs playing in two ears.

Thanks, Dan, for this nice and short hint! Which REAPER theme are you using, btw? :)

What theme do you use in this video? I need to know how to do the wave peaks light color of the track color

is this the fabfilter guy？sounds so similar

Please make a follow up for the wide mix! (:

Thank you for explaining! However: What do you mean? I saw many times this video. But how to use this knowledge about math calculation and volume in real mixing?

Great video! And once again I'm reminded to always check in mono! I didn't get why the pan law doesn't fix it though. If the starting issue is that wide (100% panned) tracks disappear in mono, if I monitor them with -6 pan law, then I'll mix them in louder in stereo, and when I check in mono they will be better balanced. Am I missing something?

Some of the greatest sounding albums are mixed LCR. I am still a big fan of it. I think it’s also a matter of style and genre. My advice: never generalize. LCR mixing is yet another tool and skill in your toolbox. Sometimes it works wonders and sometimes it doesn’t work at all. For me it is a song by song choice. But never not try things because of the laws of physics. It is art we are dealing with here. A 3D picture is not bad just because the perspective changes according to your point of view. It’s great because of it! Always stay open minded.

Great video, this was completely new to me. It makes me wonder: is this universal to all DAW's?

@Dan Worrall - Did you ever make the follow up video to this? Love to hear more about mono mixing techniques please

thanks

I think most people expect music to sound much different on mono devices, and if they don't then they aren't very discerning anyway. Although, it would be nice to see that follow up video Dan mentioned...

I always thought they would separately mix for different numbers of channels, just like in movies, or that there was a more complex downmixing algorithm that would preserve the spatial positioning and overall level of each channel by cleverly shifting the frequency domain of the remaining channels, if any.

Everytime im doin mixes with some hard panning or any panning i just mix the whole thing in mono. If it sounds good in mono - even better in stereo. Unless something in stereo is much louder then.. well i need to sacriface that in mono situation.

What is this "Mixing Console" view in Reaper towards the end of the video?? I have never seen that!

This exact problem has plagued my mixes for three years so what exactly is the solution? I mean I've found compromises along the way but can't say I'm ever happy, not when compared to more commercial tracks I hear and I'm always wondering how they do it

but how come that instruments kinda seem to be louder once i pan them out. is it bc they clashed with other instruments before panning?

As someone who mixes a lot of extreme metal with rhythm guitars hard panned left and right, a follow up video would be greatly appreciated on some techniques to help with the mono balance. For too long have I dealt with the ‘drum and bass’ tracks that occur from summing to mono

Does the triangular and circular law of panning comes to play in this at any instance??

What if you put a double version of the same track on left and right? For example the same rhythm guitar part, played twice and panned and left and right

Is there a video that explains how to achieve wide mixes?

So I saw the response to the comments of this video (with the verve song) before I saw this. What the heck was everyone so upset about? These are just facts and the author even says, "now I'm not telling anyone to mix.......". Nice videos BTW. Just finding this page, although I feel like I recognize the voice from a video about sample rates that was really good from a few years ago.

one of my issues with LCR is you may have a lot a stereo width to your mix, but you lose the stereo-ness of every instrument you hard pan. Most piano's are stereo as soon as you pan it so it's only coming out of one speaker, it automatically becomes mono right? Secondly panning is one way to help avoid frequency masking...if you have 5 sounds you could easily pan them to 5 different locations, but as soon as you limit yourself to 3 panning locations you automatically have some sounds sitting directly on top of eachother (which may or may not be the best option) It just seems so limiting...you may want to add one or two layers to lead vocal to make it seem thicker. but you may still want it to feel like ony 1 voice so hard panning may not be the best option. one panning al the layers dead center might not be the best way to get the thickness you want. I see nothing wrong with trying to find the happy medium sometimes. A floor tom might not sound it's best panned dead center directly over the kick, but with a lot of low frequencies it may not sound best hard panned either ...

I wonder what difference it would make if instead of hard panning you pan like only 50% and add a delay line on the other channel to take advantage of the Haas effect. You might perceive the panning more extreme than it actually is and have less of a drop in mono. But then again you may get some comb filtering then. I don't know, since I don't mix like this. But that's what I would try.

Rejoice people! Audio god Dan Worrall has graced us with some unyieldingly high quality content once more! This guy is not called the David Attenborough of mixing for no reason!

It's obvious my favorite songs from way back when were not done in LCR. I've always resisted this--not to mention 4:1 compression!

Dan the champ the mixing man

Was there ever a follow up to this?

in fl studio there is a knob for controlling mono and stereo. it merges two channels. so that is not actual mono ?? 🤔

The 6 dB "drop" when you mono the master bus (using pan law) is because a correlated sound in both channels are actually added acoustically. So they need to be dropped in level compared to the level when sent to only one speaker to be percieved as the same level. I don't know Reaper but in Logic it seems to work as expected. A 6 dB drop when changing from one speaker to both produce what I experience as the same level when listening in speakers. In headphones this obviously breaks though so partially your argument holds anyway since so many listen in headphones these days.

Well, I am really curious about this one and the upcoming second part - and so is Chris Lord-Alge, who once said: „I don’t care how it sounds in mono“ ;) Great content as always.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Consistent Explanations. Waiting for next chapter...

pretty much why multitracking guitars are prominent especially in rock and metal (with notable exceptions of Van Halen which Eddie is kind of a "one-take" kind of guy)

What is the sample track, where can i find it?

Oh wow, so a synthpad or riser panning from one channel to the other should drop a few dB as it crosses center?

4:20 What software is this? Apologies if you've already answered this; I scanned the comments and found nothing.

I fucking love Dan Worrall.

In a mid/side point of view is only natural that the sides are turned down when you mono.

Teaser?

Was there a follow up to this I wonder?

Sooo... What should your stuff be panned at?? Is there a diagram or chart, of sorts??