bassy stereo to mono

[Dan McDonald]

It seems like every time I convert a stereo recording to a mono one, it sounds bassy - or muddy might be a better description. Is that typical, or am I doing something wrong? I use the mono l+r feature of file conversion.

Typically these files started out as stereo recordings made by a cassette recorder; sometimes mono cassette recorders made the original recording, then stereo recorders were used to make the transfer to a wave file.


Dan McDonald

[Craig Maier]

Re: bassy stereo to mono

I am not certain on this one. However, cassette and cassette decks suffer horribly from tape head azimuith problems,- - - much worse than reel to reel machines. These problems often occur during recording and also during playback, and sometimes an exacerbation of the two process takes place. The problem will be magnified when converting such a mis-aligned recording to monophonic resulting in distortion and mud. You might want to read up on the tape head azimuth correction process available in Diamond Cut. If your playback deck is out of alignment, that can be corrected by the software using the time offset feature. One other thing worth considering is the use of the Channel Blender to create a more balanced mono blend (not completely mono, but blended.) That could possibly clean up some of the mud on the bottom end by applying the crossover at an appropriate frequency (ie blend to mono below xxx Hz.)

[Dan McDonald]

Re: bassy stereo to mono

Thanks Craig -
I hadn't even thought of an azimuth problem.

Dan

[Craig Maier]

Tape azimuth problems are magnified when converting stereo tapes to monophonic ones.

Craig