Hi Edna

If it's any consolation, I too have asked about this in the past, but have received no reply. As you say, in Vegas 2 there was a mono monitoring option - an icon in the mixer window. Why this was taken out for 3 I really don't know...

An answer from SoFo would be nice!

Ben

Thanks for your help Beaney....

When I say "mono checking", I'm referring to the button that was on the mixer of VV2 that, when clicked, would output the main mix in alternately mono or stereo.

The value of this isn't insignificant...it allowed quick and easy checking to make sure that all material was mono-compatible. This can be an issue when dealing with miking situations where phase cancellation might be a possibility, or certain effects being used that can't be heard when summed to mono.

As there are times when music is output in mono, such as some radio stations, dance halls, etc. it's important to check this. If something is miked so that there is a phase cancellation going on, an instrument can completely disappear in the mix in a mono environment.

Cheers,
D

hit the mono check button on your console

no seriously, there oughtta be a way! Long ago I wished for a dx plug called mono to stereo or stereo to mono so that you could more easily send to outboard devices without loosing your dx fx but alas

Ahhhhhhhhhh. Now that i understand what you're asking for, it's answered very easily.

Right-mouse button click on the event, choose Channels / Combine.

You will have to do this for every event you want to check though. I never saw Vegas 2 so i don't know if the button you're referring to affected the entire mix at once or not.

Interesting and disquieting: I also find myself missing it. I haven't done much mono-compatability in a long time, but I found myself looking for it last week.

I guess since only 5 of us were using it, SF decided it wasn't important enough to keep.

;-(

Q

wow, i wasnt even aware of that either that it was pulled in 3.0....im still using 2.0 on this other box in my house...i guess when i finally finish my new vegas box for running 3.0 i will have to find some other way to check mono summing. Its an important feature cause it allows you to listen for phase problems and how something will sound if it ends up being used on an AM station. Not only that, but i often use mono to check the *tonality* of a given sound. If its really critical, on my protools system i have a single old auratone monitor set up so that if i need to, with a single button switch, i can check the summation of any given effect, instrument, or mix....priceless, esp when soloing and applying eq to instruments so i can achieve excellent tone. This old engineer guy taught me that when i was young and learning how to mix.

There are ways to work around it, look into those little boxes that places like guitar center uses when you go into the monitor section. i believe they are called monitor switch boxes, and like i said, retailers use them to demonstrate different speakers. You can use this method post mixer (like i do)

now that i think about it, as im writing this, that mono button is a not a real big loss, because to really hear mono correctly, if should be set up to just come out of one speaker...having 2 speakers deliever mono sound, well, kind of defeats the purpose of monitoring in true mono, unless your always sitting in the sweet spot. (timing/arrival issues) Dont misunderstand me, you will still be able to tell if you have phase probs and the like, but as for tonality, to my ears, one speaker set dead center between your regular pair, is priceless.

This just slipped through it appears. The UI is gone to do this.

I really don't know why it is gone.

Peter

hey peter,
just a thought...

maybe they ditched that mono button in 3.0 because 3.0 has phase reversal switches on each audio track.

Since most people use mono to check for phase issues, perhaps the engineers thought: hmmm, well, if someone is having a phase prob, they can fix it here with this button, therefore, thinking that the mono button was rendered useless?? i dunno, just guessing...

however, its sort of funny that 3.0 has those convienient buttons on every audio track, yet theres no way to check within the program gracefully if you are having phase probs. Of course, you can always right click on the event, then choose combine, but its not as nice as hitting that groovy *sum to mono* button in 2.0

Of course, not all phase problems are 180°. Many are also frequency dependant. So the phase button isn't always going to fix everything.

good point chienworks...i forgot about that

Forgive me for feeling excessively technical this morning, but i've just gotta gripe. Fortunately it's a tiny gripe ;)

The "Phase" switch actually doesn't affect phase at all. The only way to affect phase is to shift the waveform in time. All this switch does is invert the waveform. While this is often referred to as a 180° phase shift, this is technically incorrect. True, if you had a continuous simple waveform then there is no discernable difference between inversion and 180° shift. However, we seldomly deal with continuous simple waveforms unless creating a test-tone track.

Lots of phasing problems are caused in the recording process by having the waveform travel different distances to the two mics used for stereo recording. The phasing problems will vary depending on the frequency of the wave hitting the mics. This is the sort of problem people are testing for when doing mono checking.

The misnamed 180° phase problem is most often due to having the + & - wires to a balanced mic wired backwards. The phase is still in sync with the other mics (discounting the effects mentioned in the previous paragraph), but the waveform is inverted. This is what the phase switch corrects. It only looks like a 180° phase shift when dealing with simple continuous waveforms.

There, got that off my chest ;)

"The UI is gone to do this. I really don't know why it is gone."

Um, could you throw it back in? The message seems to imply that the software should still do it.

The reason why it's now important to me, is that I've now got some people working only on headphones.

Thanks

DSG

I would say it should be restored, but I can't say when it will happen.

Peter

"I would say it should be restored, but I can't say when it will happen."

I think I'm thanking you, but perhaps I'm not sure if I should or shouldn't.

:)

DSG

Thanks for your reply Chienworks,

Your suggestion would be helpful under certain conditions but as you could imagine this is not the same as what I was talking about, as often mono checking must be done across whole mixes (imagine trying to test a multi-track drum kit recording for phase anomalies). I appreciate your help though...cheers, D

And to be clear...I love Vegas. I'm not one of the critics. I just found it odd, that's all.

if you are using headphones a LOT, you really oughtta consider getting a headphone amp that switches mono/stereo on a button. It makes multi miced gtr cab setups WAY easier to figure out

good idea pipe!
ive got something similar thats post mixer that goes to a single auratone mounted dead center.