When working on a project, and you want to check it in mono, how do you guys do it ?
Normally I’d put TT Dynamic Range meter on the master and turn the mono swtich on, but it’s not 64bit and I need a 64bit plug-in to do it.
I’d rather do it from within Cubase, as re-panning stuff that’s collapsed on itself is easier than rendering to wav then resaving that in mono in my audio editor.
Would be nice to have on the master channel the option to switch it to mono for checking. 
The Control Room has this feature.
How do you set-up the control room for a mono downmix ?
I assume it’s to use 2 studio’s , 1 with a mono monitor setup, and then the other with stereo.
Problem is , the two studio’s cannot seem to share the outputs, basically would need output 1 & 2 for the stereo, and just output 1 for the mono.
Any ideas ?
Thanks.
It’s as simple as clicking a button in the Control Room Mixer.
Mix to mono (using free VST on 2 bus) kellyindustries.com
and then listen from a single speaker. Point source mono monitoring has many advantages over listening to mono coming out of two speakers…
Oh cool, so you don’t need to setup studios and monitors in the control room beforehand ? 
I tried this (Control Room) in past but disabled it right away as it attenuated the signal (if I remember correctly).
I also use the “TT Dynamic Range meter” (it works in 64-bit Cubase 6 too)
If you do need 64-bit plugin though you can use internal MonoToStereo plugin (mono button)
The control room set up properly does not attenuate the signal (unless you want it to (Dim)), it is in fact one of the best features in cubase and sets it ahead of other DAW’s
To avoid confusion - I did not mean that Control Room itself attenuated the signal - only the mono button in it did…
Easiest way with onboard-plugins:
put the “StereoEnhancer” in the master channel -
there´s a mono function, with “bypass plugin” you can switch between stereo <>mono:
Personally, I tried all the above using software to create a mono mix output, but in the end I just pan the stereo output from my sound card ( which goes in to my outboard mixer ) into one speaker, ie pan the right channel left.
Gives me a true mono mix for how my system is setup. It’s quick and also listening to other commercial tracks is quite revealing of what the mix is doing, just my two cents
I wonder what makes it easier compared to MonoToStereo? 
You can configure everything in the control room, even how much the signal is attenuated while making it mono or 5.1>stereo mixdown, and so on. You can also set a single mono speaker, but then the signal should be attenuated to avoid overload after adding two chanels together…
I agree with Split:
it is in fact one of the best features in cubase and sets it ahead of other DAW’s
If you know all the possibilities of Control Room, you’ll be glad to use it …
ok so would it be good practice to use the control panel mono button then turn off 1 speaker ? I’ve always just really put a mono plug on the master in the past.
With Control Room it is possible to setup 4 presets of downmix for each set of monitors.
For example on first stereo pair You can listen:
How do you setup a preset to sent the mono to the left speaker or right speaker only ? I assume it’s using the mix control plug-in, but I cannot seem to work that bit out.
Also, is the standard settings of 50% width to mono (Central) ideal for mono checking ?
You can easily check mono on a single speaker (prefered) from the main mixer. Go to the main stereo out Fader and right click on on the Panner. Then select Stereo Dual Panner. After that just drag the left side of the Panner all the way to right and you’ve got mono coming out of the right speaker. Or drag them both to the center for mono out of 2 speakers. Once you are done reset the panner mode to Stereo Balanced Panner.
Most folks ignore these panner modes but they are really useful when mixing. The Stereo Combined mode for example lets you take a stereo signal and narrow its stereo width and then place it within your overall stereo field. This can make it a lot easier to keep different sounds from masking or conflicting with each other. Its a bit hard to describe, but easy to see visually when using Cubase. If “L” and “R” are the stereo field created by your speaker placement. Then if you have a stereo group channel of backing vocals set to Stereo Combined, you could set the stereo image to look like this (I’m using lower case to indicate the left/right for this group channel):
L…l…r…R
This would sound like a group of singers spread out over on the center-left side. And it can often result in a clearer mix that just moving the regular panner to a center-left position because it leaves a lot more open space on the right side of your mix.
I did read the manual, didn’t make any sense.
Picture explains it all, so thanks for that.
OMG Raino! You are right, I did not know of this feature! Man, it is very cool indeed and built right into Cubase. Doh!
Thank you for your response! 
