Playing on Mono sound system?

[bt12]

Last night I had the one of the most interesting experiences playing live yet. Not only was the PA mono, but they had only one chord coming out of only the left channel of the mixer into the PA. lol, I know. The gig was a blast regardless, it is part of a neighborhood art project so resources can be scarce and we were lucky enough to even have a PA.

Anyway, what is the best way to handle playing on a mono system? and if you want to chime in on playing through a mixer that is only outputting the left channel that would be cool, too. I definitely learned my lesson to always carry a few extra cables. I ran both the L and R of my interface into two separte Left channels on stereo channels on the mixer and panned them both hard L. Does that even make sense? I seemed to spend the first 10min of my set trying to get the bass to even come out. It was weird. Please share advice or other interesting performance stories.

[e.g.:]

The left channel of a stereo mixer is the mono channel.

Mono PA systems are common. Not really such a big deal. Yet another reason to sum your mixes to mono.

[bt12]

right on e.g. Easy enough. I didn't realize the L channel is the mono out, that's a useful bit of knowledge.

In a case where the sound system in mono would it be advantageous to put a utility plugin on the master out in ableton to turn your output mono? Seems intuitive that it would but an area I am clearly undereducated on. Thanks for the help.

[Ninja-Matic]

Oddly enough - most large club sound systems are Mono. Despite having stereo connections on the main - often times this is done to get the most sound out of the system as evenly as possible. Panning sometimes has no effect on the speaker system of the club.

If you know you are going into a 1 line system - the easiest thing to do is set the master out to just 1 channel in Ableton.

Enable the use of single channels in the preferences then set the main output to 1 instead of 1-2 for stereo (3 for 3-4, 5 for 5-6, etc - depending on your audio I/O)

This eliminates the need to "pan" anything or go crazy with extra cables.

Panning does not take audio from both channels and spit it out one of them - it's like a crossfader - if you pan hard left - you're still only getting the left channel on a stereo track. Panning hard right will cut the volume on the left and only output the right channel.

It does not take both channels and pan them to one side, lol.

If you select just 1 channel on the master out - both channels will be output through that 1 channel - hence mono.

[bt12]

right on. All good info.

And all the more reason, as stated by e.g, to check your mix in mono to see how it will sound on the mono club system. Really good info for anyone who plays live to know. Thanks.

[outershpongolia]

I've seen that " Left (mono)" on many different things..

Does it KNOW that there isn't a cable in the Right plug, so it sends both signals thru the Left instead?

[3dot...]

balance it all to the left...no biggie..
(stereo is a bit over-rated at parties..I've never 'admired' the stereo-field at parties/raves)

[e.g.:]

balance it all to the left.

No. See above.

[outershpongolia]

balance it all to the left...no biggie..
(stereo is a bit over-rated at parties..I've never 'admired' the stereo-field at parties/raves)

You're obviously not a hippie

[3dot...]

balance it all to the left.

No. See above.

yeah.. left==mono

[e.g.:]

If you have a stereo mix, panning the master out to the left does not convert to mono, but rather removes the right channel from the master signal.

[3dot...]

If you have a stereo mix, panning the master out to the left does not convert to mono, but rather removes the right channel from the master signal.

hehe..there lies the confusion....
I never said PAN... I said BALANCE

[ark]

I use a Radial Pro-AV1. Plug both outputs of your sound card into it, plug it into one of the PA system's mic inputs, and you're ready to go.

[outershpongolia]

Wouldn't you want to change Live's output to just "1" rather than "1/2" and THEN you can just plug one cable from 1 into the mixer and both signals would be sent thru