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Anyone know of any modern albums recorded in mono?

Being a metalero I'm fucking sick of listening to albums that are hard panned and I don't want to record our coming album/ep/whatever like that, so I've been thinking a lot about recording in mono. But maybe mono sucks.

Any listening tips? Any genre is good, just so long as it was produced relatively recently.

I have no answer for you, but I'm interested in this thread.

I don't think mono sucks. A lot of people prefer the mono versions of older records by Bob Dylan, Beatles, VU, Cream, etc. In the early days, stereo was sort of a gimmick and took a while to come into its own.

I think you're basically asking, is it suitable for modern genres and styles? And I've always wondered this, too.

dude, fuck mono. stereo is the future. THE FUTURE IS NOW

There is no reason not to record in Mono if you're not interested in having the same sounds coming out of the left and right speaker for the duration of the listening experience.

I, too lack the desire to hear hard-panned and constant back & forth panning/hyperbolic movement of sounds throughout a mix.
So annoying, distracting, extraneous. Yuck.
Mono recordings have their own sound, sometimes it suits the program. It really depends on the style of music.
When you want something that's percussive and IN YO FACE then a mono mix can sound great. Breakbeats, DNB, boom bap hiphop, chip tunes. So good.
But for psych rock, jazz and acoustic instrument driven styles...the airspace and depth of a 3d stereo soundstage is worth its weight in gold records. The depth is where nuance likes to lurk...even in denser styles like shoegaze, noise rock and metal. But mono mixes can also reveal detail that may go overlooked in a stereo mix. Many variables involved, all of which are symbiotic and deterministic. Try, try, try

No examples off the top of my head, but I recall seeing contemporary mono recordings discussed in Believer magazine around 2011 or 2012.

and suddenly gas for a old mono tube amp.. thanks guys...

D.o.S. wrote:There is no reason not to record in Mono if you're not interested in having the same sounds coming out of the left and right speaker for the duration of the listening experience.

Yep, that's kinda what I was thinking of.

rustywire wrote: Mono recordings have their own sound, sometimes it suits the program. It really depends on the style of music.
When you want something that's percussive and IN YO FACE then a mono mix can sound great. ...mono mixes can also reveal detail that may go overlooked in a stereo mix. Many variables involved, all of which are symbiotic and deterministic. Try, try, try

See, this has me all curious-like!

guys we have two ears, come on now
the problem is all the hard panning and shit, stereo doesn't have to mean wide and all over the place, especially with bands it's usually nicest just to mix mono sources so they're heard similarly to how you'd hear a band in a live room, then you get a stereo mix that sounds more natural than hard-panning everything for maximum separation.
we live in an era of overproduction and it's seeping into every inch of every genre there is. metal seems to suffer the worst. what most people think a band recording should sound like is nothing like a band actually sounds like when playing, it's horrifying.

backwardsvoyager wrote:we live in an era of overproduction and it's seeping into every inch of every genre there is. metal seems to suffer the worst. what most people think a band recording should sound like is nothing like a band actually sounds like when playing, it's horrifying.

It's true. But it goes in a cycle, people prefer the overproduced, then the stripped back, then it creeps back up to overproduced, etc. "There is nothing new under the sun."

Uterus and Fire! https://krecs.bandcamp.com/album/uterus-and-fire-klp097 (except the bass drums on "Jail"...)

Wasn't Loveless mostly in mono?

Inconuucl wrote:Wasn't Loveless mostly in mono?

Wikipedia says yes. Shall go and listen attentively! I'll check that band camp too Steve.

BV - I agree fully. Though I wonder how much of a stereo experience we get listening to music, and how close it is to dual mono. Like, if you're towards the back at a show, the left and right sides of the PA have to be hitting your ears fairly similarly, and they in turn are going to be panned harder than the actual instruments on stage.

Curious.