If you have ever spent hours on end preparing audio files for a mix, StereoMonoizer is about to become your new best friend. For the first time ever, you can automatically analyze audio files, determine their stereo content, and convert to the correct format, before you import into your DAW. That way, you can get a lot more out of your mix system.
Drastically cut your CPU usage, use fewer voices, take up less space on your hard drive, and have better session organization. StereoMonoizer makes all of this possible, and more. ‘Time is money,’ the saying goes. It’s certainly true in the music creation world, where producers and engineers are constantly looking for ways to streamline and make the process more efficient.
For a mixer like me, part of that process involves prepping a session, which can be time-consuming, especially if the track count is large. When I was introduced to StereoMonoizer, I was immediately intrigued. My session prep times have been shaved off considerably.
Easy to use features like the stereo waveform display, which allows you to view the stereo content of an entire waveform at a glance, make this a must-have. Phil Tan Mix Engineer - Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Ludacris April 15, 2015.
Apparently, there is a way to export mono files in Logic. If so, very few Logic users either know how or don’t bother to do it. And by very few, I meannone that I’ve encountered. I just tried StereoMonoizer and compared the rendered mono file to the original source file in Pro Tools. The result? I’m sold.
Any PT user that gets stereo files from Logic, or anywhere else for that matterthat doesn’t buy and use this inexpensive tool is missing out. No longer will I waste time evalauating stereo files manually. This little app could have saved me 3 hours in mix setup yesterday and will save countless hours in the future. I wish I had thought of it. This is the best $49 you’ll spend on audio software ever. Craig Bauer Mix Engineer - Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Lupe Fiasco September 6, 2015. StereoMonoizer is a simple, easy to use utility that quickly and easily determines whether your audio files are true stereo, or “mono in stereo” (mono sounds embedded in a stereo file).
Why is this important? There are several reasons. If a sound is mono, ideally you want it on a mono track in your session, so that it will utilize only one voice in your DAW. When you record a mono source such as a vocal, you record it to a mono track. So why would you do things differently when you’re importing files from another source?
A mono track uses one voice. It takes up a certain amount of hard drive space. And, when you add plugins to a mono track, they require a certain amount of CPU. Stereo files do all of that as well, but they use twice as much.
So if a file contains a true stereo sound (such as drum overheads, stereo synth, strings, or blended background vocals), you definitely want them on a stereo track. But for mono sounds, using a stereo track is simply a waste of resources. So how do you fix this? In order to do it properly, your mix session preparation can be a laborious, time consuming process.
Listen to each sound, and determine by ear (or through a phase meter) whether the sound is mono or stereo. If it is mono, you have to use some utility to split the file into two mono files. Next you have to delete the original stereo file and one of the mono files. And finally you have to rename the resulting mono file and remove the.L or.R from the file name. Rinse and repeat for every file in your session, and hope you don’t make a mistake in determining whether a sound is mono or stereo. Depending on the number of tracks in your session, and your level of patience, this could take an hour or more per song.
Finally, after doing all this, you will have a set of files that are ready to be imported into your DAW to mix. This is where StereoMonoizer comes in It will quickly and efficiently analyze your audio files for you, and identify which are true stereo, and which are mono sounds embedded in a stereo file. When it finds “mono in stereo” files, it will give you the option to convert them to true mono files. For an average sized session, it can do all of this in under a minute. That saves you all that extra time to get down to the business of mixing, rather than wasting time with boring file manipulation and mix preparation. If time really is money, then you can’t afford not to own StereoMonoizer. Easy drag and drop operation.
Simply drag files from your desktop or file system into StereoMonoizer window to import into the system. Quickly analyze large numbers of audio files at a time to determine the stereo content of the files. Analysis will be presented in an easy to understand list, to let you know if each file is true mono, true stereo, or a stereo file consisting of two mono channels. Innovative waveform display allows you to quickly view any sound in the list, and play back to hear the contents of the file. The intuitive color-coded waveform shows the stereo content of the sound file. Mono sounds are represented by a grey waveform, while stereo sounds are colored bright blue.
For the first time ever, you can view the stereo content of your entire file at a single glance, and see which parts of the file have more or less stereo content. Override the internal algorithm if you want to keep a file stereo, or split a stereo file into two mono files. Between the automatic algorithm and the override feature, you can manipulate your files any way you see fit.
No matter what DAW you use for mixing, running out of CPU is always a drag. Short of buying an expensive new computer, there’s not much you can do about it. But if your sessions include mono sounds on stereo tracks, you are short changing yourself in the CPU department.
Imagine this: let’s say you have a session comprised entirely of stereo tracks, and that session is maxing out your CPU because of plugin usage. If you were to go through and analyze each track, it’s very possible that 50% or more of those tracks are actually mono sounds. If you had used StereoMonoizer before importing those tracks into your DAW, those mono tracks would be using 50% less CPU for every plugin used on those tracks. And as a result, your overall CPU usage would be a lot less on the overall session, giving you much more room to mix and add additional plugins as needed. When you’re dealing with a DAW, the number of voices is always an important thing to consider.
For large sessions, your overall voice count can cause CPU spikes, sluggish behavior, and all kinds of other problems while you’re trying to mix. If you have mono sounds in stereo files, you are needlessly using too many voices. For every mono sound in a stereo file, you are using two voices, when you really only need to be using one. Using StereoMonoizer, you can convert those mono sounds into true mono files before importing, thereby minimizing the number of voices used in your session. Different DAWs have different options for dealing with panning of stereo tracks, but ultimately if you have a mono sound on a stereo track, the panning becomes more complicated and unnecessarily cumbersome.
In Pro Tools, for example, you suddenly have to deal with two separate pan controls, so for example in order to automate a sound panning from one side to the other, you have to coordinate between these two pan pots so that the automation matches. It is much simpler overall if your sound is on a mono track, so you only have to deal with a single pan pot.