Topic: How can I make mono sound like it's stereo?

[chong138]

I messed up my recording tonight and got the whole show in mono instead of stereo.  How can I make it at least sound a little bit like stereo instead of just mono? I usually use cool edit pro to edit my recordings if that helps.  Any sugestions is appreciated. 

[jpschust]

take the mono track and copy it- create a new file and paste the mono in to each channel.  that usually helps a bit.

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

and pan each channel  left and right for more separation.

[Javier Cinakowski]

Its the same channel on both sides so panning isnt going to do anything.  You need to add some reverb or somthing similar. 

[chong138]

I already had the same channel on both sides.  I ended up using a 30 band eq and going up and down 2 db...alternating up and down with each one on the left channel...and then on the right channel I did the opposite as the left channel.  Seemed to work alright.  The sound sucked at the venue anyways...so I'm not gonna put much into trying to fix this. 

[nihilistic0]

Yea, putting the mono track as l/r in soudforge isnt gonna do anything, and Im not so sure that panning them left/right is going to do anything either

You can kind of fake it using reverb, or by delaying one the channels ever so slightly

[funk_pie]

You can kind of fake ...  by delaying one the channels ever so slightly

copy one track to second channel and offset the timing by a slight margin.

[china_rider]

Am I the only one that thinks you should just leave the mono signal in both chanels as is?

To me the repeated +/- 2db patter or the constant delay no matter how small through the whole thing would end up being annoying while listening.

[Javier Cinakowski]

personally I think a mono recording would be much more annoying

[THE NIZ BIAAAAACH!]

First off mono in both channels is still mono!  It is the same signal with absolutly no stereo image.  If you only have one track, You need to copy the mono track paste it into a stereo file, invert the phase of one of the tracks, then pan the tracks, then use a stereo expander.  Do not add reverb. Do not EQ, and do not delay one track.  My two cents

[Chuck]

Leave it mono.

$.02

[RebelRebel]

do whatever you want to it until you like how it sounds.

[BayTaynt3d]

Once you've made the decision to butcher the mono track, then you've got all sorts of options...

I've used the Waves Doubler plugin on occasion for this. Take the mono to 2x mono in a stereo file. Then add in the doubler and tone it WAY DOWN so the effect isn't too obvious. You can create two extra "voices", which can be moved towards each channel and independently delayed (a tiny bit) and pitched (a tiny bit), and make sure to turn the levels way down on the added signals so they are just coming into play. The trick is to minimize the effect of everything, and just to thicken it up a bit without making it sound like it's been run through a fx box or something. This is very similar to the idea presented above to delay the second channel by a (very) tiny amount. Anyway, just a thought...

[itook2much]

Leave it mono.

$.02

I agree, better to leave it as is IMO.

personally I think a mono recording would be much more annoying

I dunno, I find that the mono versions of the early Beatles albums, 1st Doors album, Jimi's Are You Experienced, have a certain power to them that's not present on the stereo version.

Of course, lots of albums sound like crap due to the artificial stereo (have a listen to Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow sometime...awesome mono, horrible fake stereo version).

ymmv

[ShawnF]

I've had some success with CEP's Graphic Phase Shifter (search for the help file on that topic, and follow the suggestions there about simlulated stereo).  Basically, you're creating slightly different signals at the very high end of the spectrum for each channel.  You can then pan (Waves S-1 is good, too, I think), or add a touch of reverb if it needs it.  But the phase shifting by itself does pretty well I think, with little audible harm to the music, at least that I've been able to detect.  The clearly-audible benefit has certainly outweighed any mental reservations I may have had initially.