Checking takes seconds and the button is already in your DAW. The part worth learning is not where it is, it is what to listen for once it is on, and how often to press it.
Where the control is
Most DAWs have this built in, and where they do not, any metering plugin on the master will do it.
| DAW | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Logic Pro | The Gain plugin on the master has a Mono button, and the output plugin slot is the usual home for it. |
| Ableton Live | Utility on the master, with the Width control turned to zero. |
| Studio One | The Mix Tool on the master, or the Mono button in the Monitoring section of the main out. |
| FL Studio | The Fruity Stereo Shaper on the master, or Fruity Balance set to mono. |
| Pro Tools | The Mono button on the master fader, or a Trim plugin set to sum. |
| Cubase and Nuendo | The Control Room has a mono monitoring button, or use the Stereo Enhancer on the master with width at zero. |
| Anywhere else | A metering or mid/side plugin on the master. Most of them have a mono check on the front panel. |
What to listen for, in order
- The level. Watch the master meter as you switch. A drop of more than a decibel or so means something is cancelling.
- The low end. Solo below about 200 Hz and switch again. This is where a problem costs you the most and where it hides best behind a busy mix.
- The lead. Vocal, hook, whatever carries the song. If it steps backwards in mono it will step backwards on a phone.
- The wide elements, one at a time. Reverbs, pads, doubled parts, anything with a widener on it. Mute each one in mono and listen to what changes.
- The whole thing, from across the room, out of your phone. It is the worst speaker you own and it is the closest to how most people will hear this.
How often
More often than at the end. A mix checked only before export is a mix where the width has already become structural: something quiet and wide has been holding a section together for hours, and taking it out now leaves a hole that has to be filled.
Pressing it every time you add something wide costs nothing and keeps the decision small. The habit worth building is switching to mono while you set the balance, then switching back to check the picture, rather than mixing in stereo and auditioning mono once.
Leaving the guessing out of it
Ears are good at noticing that something changed and bad at saying how much. A correlation meter puts a number on how much your two channels agree, and reading it while the loudest part of the song plays turns the whole question into something you can see.
MSBrooo puts a mono check and a correlation meter side by side, so the switch and the number are in the same place as the controls that change them.