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Q. How do I create a stereo mix from mono material? Readers' Ads

Mixing
By Hugh Robjohns
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I want to remix some old mono tracks in stereo. Can you o er any advice or suggest any tricks
to achieve this?

J B t
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Jon Bennet

Technical Editor Hugh Robjohns replies: The rst thing to accept is that you cannot create a
true stereo (or surround) mix from mono material; you can only give an impression of greater
width. In other words, there is nothing you can do to separate instruments and pan them to
speci c points in the stereo image, as you could if mixed originally for stereo. Vintage Sound I
2 months 1 we
One of the best ways to create fake stereo from mono is to make an M&S (Middle and Sides)
stereo mix from the mono source. You'll need to treat the mono source as the 'M' element of
an M&S stereo matrix, and decode accordingly, having created a fake 'S' component.

This fake 'S' signal is simply the original mono signal, high-pass ltered (to avoid the bass
frequencies being o set to one side of the stereo image) and delayed by any amount between
about 7ms and 100ms, according to taste. The longer the delay, the greater the perceived room
size — but I would only recommend delays over about 20ms for orchestral or choral music.

Here's how to do it practically: take the mono signal and route it to both outputs on the mixer
equally, or, in other words, pan it to the centre. Take an aux output of the mono signal and
route it to a digital delay. Ideally, high-pass lter the signal before the delay. A 12dB-per-octave Mark Linett - Re
high-pass lter set at about 150Hz should do the job, but this gure isn't critical and will a ect 4 months 1 we
the subjective stereo e ect, so experiment. Alternatively, high-pass lter the output from the
delay.

You now need to derive two outputs from this delayed and ltered signal, which may be
possible directly from the delay processor, if it's of the mono in, stereo out variety, for example,
with the same delay dialled into both channels. If not, use a splitter cable or parallel strip in a
patch bay to produce two outputs.

Route this pair of ltered and delayed signals back to the mixer, ideally into a stereo channel,
or, if not, into two mono channels panned hard left and right. Invert the phase of one of the
channels. If using adjacent mono channels, x the faders together and match the input gains so
that the gain is the same on both channels. SOS visit the wo
5 months 1 we
Now, with the original mono signal faded up, you should hear the central mono output, and if
you gradually fade up the fake 'S' channels, you will perceive an increase in stereo width. The
length of delay, the turnover frequency of the high-pass lter and the relative level of mono 'M'
SIGN
and fake 'S' channels will determine the perceived stereo width.

If you overdo the amount of 'S' relative to 'M', then you will generate an ultra-wide stereo
e ect, and if monitored through a Dolby Pro Logic decoder, this will cause a lot of the signal to
appear in the rear speakers.

The advantage of this fake stereo technique is that if you subsequently hit the mono button,
the fake 'S' signal cancels itself out and disappears completely, to leave the original mono
signal una ected.

Published December 2003

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