Why no dual mono?

[thermos]

I recently (past few months) realised the greatness of dual mono with comps and limiters, and how it really retains the image better (with light compression of course). Am I missing something?

[Frodo]

We're all missing it, thermos. There've been quite a few threads asking about dedidated dual mono files.

What some have been doing is taking a stereo file (copy) and deleting the L and R from their extenstions, then flying each into their own mono track. It's not ideal, but it's one way to get around it.

[Appalachian Boy]

what am i missing?

[Frodo]

what am i missing?

Probably nothing, in a sense. There are a lot of features in DP that many of us don't use and there are plenty more features we wished we had that are not there. You wouldn't miss a feature that you probably don't use....

Dual mono is a feature found on many hardware two-channel processors. Some of them can be used as a stereo pair or as a two different mono effects loops.

If someone sent you a stereo AIFF of, say, a nylon guitar and a 12-string steel guitar, each panned hard left and right-- and you wanted to do some mixing with these guitar parts, you may want to add different EQ or different compressors to each. The only way to do that is to manually 'decouple' the L and R channels to trick DP into thinking that they are actually two independent mono files.

Being able to import an AIFF as dual-mono saves a step.

[jrdmcdnld]

I recently (past few months) realised the greatness of dual mono with comps and limiters, and how it really retains the image better (with light compression of course). Am I missing something?

Unfortunately, compressing or limiting in dual mono (aka stereo unlinked) requires a little creativity in DP.

One plug in that garners a lot of praise around here and gives you the option of unlinking the L/R channels is PSP vintage warmer.

If you have to use a comp/lim that doesn't do stereo unlinked processing, you can bus all your tracks to a stereo bus and use two mono aux tracks to process the left and right of the mix seperately.

[daniel.sneed]

If you are working on audio mixed as a stereo file, Audiofinder (from icedaudio.com) can export it as :
- a stereo file with one channel (by choice) on both sides
- a mono channel of one side
This in many audio formats, including sd2, aiff, wav and mp3

Simple and quick as breath.

[Tim]

Either bus the stereo track to two mono aux tracks, or just drag the L and R files from the Finder into two separate mono tracks.

Of course then you're tweaking one side at a time, which is kind of a drag.

[Frodo]

... or just drag the L and R files from the Finder into two separate mono tracks..

Interesting-- I've tried doing that with no success. You've got your DP mojo working, don'tcha?

[Phil O]

... or just drag the L and R files from the Finder into two separate mono tracks..

Interesting-- I've tried doing that with no success. You've got your DP mojo working, don'tcha?

Works fine on my end, and is the easiest way to accomplish what Thermos is looking for - takes two seconds (as always Tim comes up with the easiest solution). Are you dragging to the SE window?

Phil

[simonr]

You can play with one side of a stereo file in the waveform editor. I think if you use Shift when selecting it will select one side. presumably you can apply processing-in-place to that one side only. You can also cut and paste into an empty mono track.

Don;t know if that's useful or not .

[rcannonp]

You can play with one side of a stereo file in the waveform editor. I think if you use Shift when selecting it will select one side. presumably you can apply processing-in-place to that one side only. You can also cut and paste into an empty mono track.

Don;t know if that's useful or not .

It's the command key that let's you select one side. The New Sound File from Selection menu item will make a new mono file from what you command-selected.

[pcm]

The purpose of dual-mono is to be able to have a compressor's thresholds on each side be able to act independently of each other. For example, you have a stereo mix, and on one side, there is a loud tom hit. With dual-mono, the tom hit would be softened to the degree that the compressor is set, as opposed to that tom hit yanking down the entire mix.

On rack mount compressors, this feature is toggled with a "link" switch. When linked, the comp acts as if there was ONE threshold for both sides. When unlinked. each side is able to deal with pan-related events, instead of a side-event pulling everything down. Needless to say, un-linked (dual-mono) allows one to compress stereo material more with less noticeable effect.

All/most pro-level rack gear has this option, and Pro Tools has had it for longer than I can remember. DP should have it too, yes?

[Kawentzmann]

But a centered instrument would be pushed to one side by a loud hit at the opposite.
Thus I use M/S and VW linked. Then M/S decode of course.

KK

[Tim]

For example, you have a stereo mix, and on one side, there is a loud tom hit. With dual-mono, the tom hit would be softened to the degree that the compressor is set, as opposed to that tom hit yanking down the entire mix.

On the other hand, with dual mono the stereo imaging is compromised. For instance, a loud tom on the left would pull down the left side of a stereo piano causing it to move to the right (along with all other stereo and centered info). This of course could be the desired effect.
For me, if a tom hit is gonna have that much effect on the mix compressor, I'll compress the toms before they hit the stereo bus. Now, do I want dual mono or stereo compression on the Toms sub group?

[thermos]

If you are working on audio mixed as a stereo file, Audiofinder (from icedaudio.com) can export it as :
- a stereo file with one channel (by choice) on both sides
- a mono channel of one side
This in many audio formats, including sd2, aiff, wav and mp3

Simple and quick as breath.

Thanks, but not what I would use it for (I've done that). I'm talking about using an UNLINKED 2 bus proccessor. Why? Because (at low gain reduction levels) the stereo image stays way more intact. Most pro mastering houses use both unlinked compression and unlinked limiting, to keep the soundstage wide.

For those of you that don't know, PT allows you to do this.

And thanks for the vintage warmer tip, but unfortunately I never got that plug sounding good to my ears.

I guess the complex auxing thing would work, but its kind of a pain. If you want to change 1 compressor/limiter, you have to change both.