Is it necessary to convert Maschine's stereo exports to mono for the mixing session?

crystaldrone · 2022-04-19T21:14:48+00:00

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Hello all,

Maschine only exports stereo, wether exporting the master, groups or sounds. Just wanting to get rid of this redundant process in my life of converting the desired sounds back to mono for mixing. Because I have been waiting for a simple thing like mono export in maschine for the past 10 years.

So.. Should I just leave them in stereo because it doesn't matter and dump my mono plugins? or convert the desired sounds to mono because it matters?

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A note to NI -

The future is faster work processes too NI. Not just literally sound per se. What you gonna make Reaktor synths bounce of the moon??

You see, 4-5 types of synths in combination with LFO and FX plugins - And literally every imaginable sound can be created. Done. Don't really need much. And you know it.

So JUST.CHILL.THE.@#%&.OUT on the "future of sound" bull. And pay attention to the basics too once in a while. Important basics that even the puniest of music softwares have had for past 30 ****** years before jumping on your future of sound high horse.

Mono or stereo is a big deal when it comes to mixing. So why not give the mix-engineer friendly option to choose between mono and stereo? Why even the thought of dumping it on the DAW? or the mix engineer. Just breaks my heart to see non-maschine peers dropping their jaws and making me feel like I live in 2015. Was even pointed out by a filmmaker where I was doing a couple of tracks for him and he was in the studio when I was preparing the mix session.. He went, '"Oh what is some of this reexporting you are doin? Din't that maschine-thingy already give you these mono? Think the previous guy i was working with had that sorted. You should catch on son." So god damn embarrassing.

Sure will keep them out of the studio NI. Sure can rewire Maschine in DAW for a mono export. Sure can re-export stereo to mono in DAW. That's what your answer is right?

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Comments

D-One

It doesn't matter, maybe it was a thing 20 years ago when having 2 tracks instead of one would mean more DSP resources wasted or wasting extra channels of an analog mixing desk where stereo could be two mono tracks hard-panned, those limitations are no longer a thing in today's digital ITB age.

I send everything to the mixing engineers in stereo, never had a complaint, it's common practice for them to decide to only keep one channel of a track in case it is really true mono. Your mixing engineer will tell you their requirements, if you hire someone who demands mono tracks to be in mono then I guess you need to do that but considering the amount of competition in this age that would be quite a silly demand... Cleaning up and prepping a session is part of their job. Dealing with stereo/mono takes 10 seconds.

Also, consider that if you use FX then anything mono might become stereo, fx like reverb, chorus, flangers, etc, do that... So if you convert those to Mono they will sound very, very different... The same applies if you pan a mono track.

crystaldrone

Thank you for your response @D-One

Firstly, I wasn't concerned about DSP the mixing engineer will need if I send them stereo tracks.

Since you brought up the topic about this age, a lot of times the composer has to be the mix engineer and the mastering engineer in today's age and competition right? So the cleaning up process, like you put it, can be taken out of the equation by NI for people who handle the whole process in today's age.

Let's see this in the context of "having this in the first place so that is not needed". In the context of optimizing. If it can get more streamlined for a large pool of people by just adding one simple option about this or that and make it a tad bit easier for mixing engineers all around? Maybe not by much. Maybe a lot sometimes. But that's what optimizing is by definition. Its not much sometimes or can mean a whole lot to a particular project. Its not about my personal 10 seconds. I am talking about what can I do to make the next step for the next person as smooth as possible. Can I send them(me?) something that is even more optimized and quicker if I already know what is to be in mono? Should neglect this question,right? Got it.

About the FX thing, when anything changes from mono to stereo after sending to FX, I want them in stereo. and export them in stereo. Feel lucky :)

D-One

I mentioned that because the answer to "is it necessary" changes with time, it's also subjective.

Absolutely... Generally it's more a budget limitation for hobbyists or smaller projects, sometimes a matter of control, depends. If a mix engineer is mentioned then I assume the context is the professional world where production, mixing, and mastering are segmented processes done by different people. I also try to make the life of the next person easier when possible, but from my experience mix-engineers care more about things being properly named, labeled, grouped, having dry tracks when it matters, etc...

I'm not devaluing your proposition, I think it's a fair thing to ask for, I'd use it sometimes myself. Personally, I've settled on batch converting stereo to mono on a dedicated little free app because I never owned a DAW that can do that automatically.

If it's simple to add is another question, I don't think it is because Maschine has no true mono internally to begin with and of course of all the variables projects can have. Ableton Live which is 10x more of a complex DAW also does not have the option to auto-export all tracks and intelligently decide when something should be mono, it either exports everything Mono or everything Stereo.

Cubase for example does have the option you asking for, however, you have to manually configure a few settings and tell it which tracks to handle like that and what to do about FX, it has a quite a fancy export menu shown here in this video @ the 35min mark, I think it's faster to use a simple batch converter instead - It's hard to imagine MAS having something this fancy for exports when it doesn't even have simple Send FX Busses.

If this matters to you then make a feature request, just don't get your hopes up too high.

crystaldrone

@D-One Thank you for your response.

Great to see Cubase adding this in the latest version. I am on Cubase 10 Pro where the export menu is extensive, but not as extensive as 12. and there is no way to select which track is to be exported in mono and which in stereo while batch exporting in version 10.

I understand you settling on using a conversion software. Actually wasn't really interested in settling. And looks like Steinberg agrees. So just gonna join that team and migrate entirely.

I like a horn if I must honk at times. Don't want to settle for putting my head out of the window and shouting because it only takes a couple of seconds and its not something I need all the time.

But I get it. Horns are cheap and easy to buy and implement in a car. A small but nifty option for mono export is as complex as the gravity probe mission seems like - some say its not needed, some say its not possible, everyone thought it will happen in a few years, but took 40.

Thanks anyways :)

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