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Forum: General Discussion

Sujet: Mono_mix seems song dependent
I've tried enabling mono_mix and it works sort of - many songs seem flatter, but for some songs it seems to have no effect at all. For example, "It Ain't No Fun To Me" by Al Green (Al Green's Greatest Hits) there's no discernable mono; the horns are only heard on the right channel and the guitar the left.

I enable mono using a custom button, and it correctly lights/dims when toggled, and also tried a keyboard mapping which when pressed also turns the button on/off, so things seem setup correctly.

Wondering if there is anything else I might have set that could be blocking the action of mono_mix.

Thanks.
 
Posté 6 hours ago
Juat gave that song a try here (from Deezer) whilst wearing headphones and the mix is almost entirely mono anyway, from the sound of it.

On the horn parts, activating mono_mix from a custom button works fine. Horns become centralised in the mix.
 
Interesting... completely different behavior on my system. Apple Macbook Air, M2 chip, Tahoe 26.2. VDJ v2026-m b9004. The version I have of the song downloaded from iTunes doesn't sound mono at all - will try the Deezer version to see if there's a difference.
 
Interesting. I've had an issue with mono mix as well. Mine is slightly different. I host karaoke. I use 1 speaker at most of my shows (Evolve 50) so I run in mono... MOST of the time. There are certain songs where, when VDJ is in mono, the high end (cymbals etc) sound distorted, similar to phase distortion. When I take it out of mono, that distorted sound goes away. On other tracks, mono mix completely muddies the sound, but when I switch out of mono mix, it sounds brighter, fuller.

I'm wondering if it's how the tracks are encoded. With the first example (distorted sound), the tracks are encoded with AAC at bitrates from 300-320kbps. WIth the 2nd example (muddied sound) the tracks are mp3 at various bit rates, and mostly downloaded tracks from, say, Amazon, but not exclusively Amazon.

If the tracks are not encoded exactly in phase, I can understand how this problem may exist. I haven't dove into it any further than this, but I'm glad the subject was brought up. Wondering if there truly is an issue with the mono mix option?
 
I think it's probably more a case of people these days not bothering to check if a track works well in mono.

There are so many FX that people put all over their mix now, and they may assume everyone will listen in stereo, or they just don't think of mono compatibility.

Older tracks may have been put through some kind of process to give them more width etc. and that could affect how it sounds in mono.

As for the Al Green track, there could well be a bunch of different mixes made over the years.
 
I listened to the Deezer version and with respect it doesn't sound mono to me. For example the horns starting at 6 - 11 secs are stongly right channel, and again at 1.01 - 1.06. Sounds the same as my iTunes track, and the same behavior no matter what mono_mix is set to. And I'm listening with headphones. And in terms of FX, all I ever do is to sometimes change the tempo, but that's not the case here.

Am I missing something?
 
Since mono_mix works on the master output, you are using a sound config with a master output right?
 
I didn't say the horns were mono! From my brief listen on headphones, other than the horns, the rest of the mix was very central.
 
Ah, you got it. I don't fully understand master mode (will research it now) but I was using separate decks - switched to master and mono_mix is working great - just what I wanted. Had the feeling I was missing something... thanks for your help.