I hear people say things like this all the time. “If your music is going to played on a PA with mono subs you need to mono the low end of your master to sound good.”
This is CATEGORICALLY untrue & let’s record straight on this MYTH. Watch our Youtube vid “Is Mono Bass DESTROYING Your Low End?”
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If there’s a genre where bass matters MOST it’s drum & bass. It’s engineered for DJ play on big PA systems. So…it’s useful to check what producers on the biggest labels in this genre are doing with their bass.
A production duo that’s gained critical acclaim in the last several years is Fade Black, with releases on Critical Music, Hospital Records, and Vision Recordings.
More about Fade Black:https://ukf.com/words/who-the-hell-are-fade-black/25468
Check them out on Critical Music: https://criticalmusic.com/artists/fade-black/
Their debut “Sluggah” (2019 on Critical Music) was devoid of sub-freq width. In a “making of” vid about the song they showed the mastering chain, which revealed a sides highpass filter at 100 Hz. The typical approach used when you want to nuke any low end stereo information to “sound good in the club”.
But are they still doing this in 2023? NO! Their song Elysium (Critical Music 2021) saw a different approach. There’s notable sides information & you can see it down BELOW 20 Hz. They are NOT putting the subs in mono.
There’s also sub-freq sides information in their newest songs including the remix of Get Deaded for Noisia, released on their label, Vision. LISTEN to these on pro headphones. They’re leaving the width in the subs intentionally & – MOST IMPORTANTLY – it STILL works on a PA with mono subs.
Wait what?! YES, you can have mono-compatible sides information in your subs – IF you know the right techniques. The key is “mono-compatible”. You must use special techniques don’t phase cancel your low end when summed to mono. These techniques are effective & widely used by the world’s top engineers & producers.
So what are these techniques? Stay tuned for an upcoming Youtube video where we explore all the ways you can have juicy, fat, wide bass and STILL sound good in the club.
