Ever have a great mix and then listened to it on-air and you can’t hear it at all or portions drop?  Thanks to Andrew for providing a great technical write-up…

I used to test-mix everything in mono, having spent a fair amount of time at AM and FM-Mono stations. (Music playback in stereo, spots in dual-channel mono.)

Recently, though I noticed material I do for a regional agency sounding very bad on local TV and radio. I have a stereo TV, so anything I mix on the Advents should sound about the same on the TV. Nope. Absolutely getting mono’d out somewhere in the chain. Huge drop-outs during vocal fx, nasty reverbs where there should be a stereo image, etc.

Mostly on one station, but sporadically on them all. So, I zagged, and am now shipping all TV audio with only the music bed in stereo - all fx,
  vocal elements, etc., in dual-channel mono.

Radio, until now wasn’t a problem, but on Rays stations I started hearing the same thing. He went through his system and still can’t figure out the issue. I ship the radio in stereo (music, fx, and vocal elements), but the playback is being summed. I’m noticing it from time to time on his competitors signals too.

Those of you that do out-of-market work, and can’t listen real-time to the audio being played, would well consider doing a mono text mix before you send your production out to make sure your clients are getting something that sounds right. Due diligence is part of customer service.

And, to clarify, “mono” is single channel audio. “Dual-channel mono” is the exact same audio on the left and right channel. “Stereo” is separate audio on the laeft-right pair.

photo credit: Marcus Vegas