recording a mono track

[re:dream]

Hi there

Sorry if this is a terribly simple question, but how do I record a mono track?

I can render a track as mono, and I can import a mono track into audio, but how do I record it so that it is mono in the first place?

[floond]

I was stomped by this too when I first started using Live. To make a track mono, you must insert the Utility plugin, its placed under Audio Effects in the Library. The Utility device has a Width parameter. Set at 0% the track is mono, at 100% its Stereo. Hope this helps.

Hmm, come to think of it, thats for making a track mono. Recording in mono, will depend on your inputs. In preferences you can configure how Live should use the available inputs from your audio interface. If it has 2 inputs for example, you can choose to set them up as 2 mono input or 1 stereo input. Its under the tab called audio/midi settings IIRC.

[re:dream]

Thanks. The utility will do the trick, didn't think of that, duh!

[kirre777]

Um... choose a mono input?

You have to enable your mono inputs in the options -> preferences -> audio -> input config.

[re:dream]

Thanks, that is useful.

BTW it is not about inputs. When I make a kick track, I usually use a sampler, and the samples in my kick library are mostly stereo. It is about outputs: when I render a kick track, I want the track that is printed to be mono, not stereo. So I guess I will look at the output configuration for the track.

[chrk]

Thanks, that is useful.

BTW it is not about inputs. When I make a kick track, I usually use a sampler, and the samples in my kick library are mostly stereo. It is about outputs: when I render a kick track, I want the track that is printed to be mono, not stereo. So I guess I will look at the output configuration for the track.

That's a tricky one.

In the Live manual there's a very short subsection "Mono/Stereo Conversions" under Routing and I/O

When a mono signal is chosen as an audio track’s input, the track will record mono samples;
otherwise it will record stereo samples. Signals in the track’s device chain are always stereo,
even when the track’s input is mono or when the track plays mono samples.

Mono is turned into stereo simply by using the identical signal for left and right channels. When
a track is routed into a mono output, the left and right signals are added together and attenuated
by 6 dB to avoid clipping.

While setting a track to a mono input records a mono file I am not at all sure that setting a mono output will automatically render one on single-track-export. Plus, you're routing to an external output which may or may not be one of your Master stereo pair...

Rather go the Utility-last-in-the-chain-export-track-as-mono-route.

[re:dream]

Hmm

If I put a utility on my kick rack, and set width to zero... and then I pan the fader in my mixer left to right, the meter in my master rack follows suit. In other words, it is still getting different signals on the left and right side. (My ears tell the same story)

Which means the utility is NOT functioning as a mono switch

Am I doing something wrong?

[chrk]

No, you're doing nothing wrong, you're expecting the wrong behaviour and you're not familiar with Live's signal flow.

The Utility can't function as a mono switch, it can't alter the channels output bus (which would still be the master pair, wouldn't it?), it only makes sure your signal has zero width.

A mono input straight to the fader would behave no differently.

[re:dream]

So my only option is to export the track as mono and then import it back in again as an audio track?

[Tone Deft]

Hmm

If I put a utility on my kick rack, and set width to zero... and then I pan the fader in my mixer left to right, the meter in my master rack follows suit. In other words, it is still getting different signals on the left and right side. (My ears tell the same story)

Which means the utility is NOT functioning as a mono switch

Am I doing something wrong?

don't pan it.

[TYLRbass]

Live's tracks themselves can't be set to mono.. so no matter what you do you really just need to make sure the audio information is exactly the same in the left and right channels to truly achieve mono

[chrk]

So my only option is to export the track as mono and then import it back in again as an audio track?

You'll get a mono sample that way. Fine, if you're after that, but if you read the quote from the manual again, Live will treat the signal from there on as a stereo signal anyway.

Live does not know mono- or stereo-TRACKS like Pro Tools or Cubase do.

Ahhh, yes, and

don't pan it.

[re:dream]

I won't.

[speakea5y]

+100