Bounce MONO guitar track with Delay pedal to MONO track

[johnnybones]

Hello!

I have a guitar DI with logic amp and a pedal board on it. I want to bounce a copy with the amp / pedal tones to send to my mixing engineer, and include the DI's as well in case he decides to re-amp them.

When I "Bounce in place" with the effects turned on (and not bypassed) it gives me a stereo file, which I don't want. I notice that if I disable the delay plugin (the "tru-tape delay" that comes with logic) then it will bounce to a mono track (the amp and distortion pedal are fine, it still bounces to a mono track even with those turned on). However I don't hear a difference between mono/stereo mode of the gain plugin placed last in the chain, so I don't think the delay is even supposed to be stereo (??) - and even if it is i just want to "collapse" it to MONO.

I have already tried (based off of what I could find on here regarding stereo>mono bouncing) the gain plugin LAST in the FX chain, set to MONO mode, and it doesn't help. I have also already tried changing the output of the track to mono > output 1 (instead of stereo output). Also didn't help. Obviously its something to do with the delay pedal since otherwise it does what I want. Is there anything I can do? Something I'm doing wrong?

Thank You

Edited July 14, 2023 by johnnybones

[Joe Lonsdale]

If you have the track itself set to be a STEREO track:

Then the plugins you select will be loaded in STEREO configuration:

If you have the track itself set to be a MONO track:

Then the plugins you select will be loaded in MONO configuration:

Some plugins will offer an option to process the MONO signal in such a way that it becomes STEREO, which will change the output of the channel to STEREO:

An electric guitar track is usually mono, at least until you start adding stereo echo, chorus or reverb etc.

So if you want your track to be mono all the way, click the Channel Mode Button to make it MONO and then check each plugin is set to MONO configuration:

If everything is MONO, your Bounce In Place will be MONO too, unless you have the Include Volume/Pan Automation check box selected: this will force a mono channel to be bounced as a STEREO channel so it can include panning information:

So uncheck the Volume/Pan Automation check box in the BIP dialogue and you should end up with a MONO bounce.

If you are bouncing using the Bounce Button on the Stereo Out track, then you might try changing the Output of the guitar track to Mono->Output 1:

And then changing your main Output Channel Mode of your main Stereo Output to MONO, which will automatically create two MONO output channels:

You can now use the Bounce button on the channel named Stereo Out (which is actually Output 1 now) to bounce out a mono audio file.

When you change the Output Channel Mode of the Stereo Output channel back to STEREO, they will automatically merge back into a single STEREO channel.

Kudos for caring that your tracks are in the right STEREO/MONO format instead of just sending the mix engineer a full set of "STEREO" files that almost all contain MONO information (that the mix engineer now has to sort through and convert).

I hope this helped 😉

Joe.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Joe Lonsdale
Correcting poor sentence structure!

[johnnybones]

OHHHH thanks Joe!!!

I (DUMBLY) had the mono> stereo version of the plugin selected (I never paid attention to that and it completely escaped me when I was trying to find out why it wouldn't bounce to mono - like I forgot that that was ever even an option along the way.). My bad!

Really appreciate the thorough explanation and pictures!! It will help as I go through & ensure everything else is in the correct mono/stereo configuration too.

And yes haha got look out for the ol' mix engineer 😄

Cheers mate

[Joe Lonsdale]

@johnnybones You are very welcome! It's a minefield...

Joe 😉