Mixing in Mono

mishmael  wrote I have been hearing that mixing in mono is the best way to get proper levels, EQ, and compression.

I don't know who told you that, but it's not even vaguely true! It's only ever been necessary to run mono compatibility checks when the results need to be broadcast in mono, and mainly then to make sure that things haven't disappeared. But if you are dealing with mono sources in a stereo mix, then you need to adjust the compression and EQ so that they work in the sound field that you're going to end up with, not a mono one. Also, you can't get positioned signal levels correct by mixing in mono; the additive effects simply won't come out correctly, as in mono they're all centre-weighted and these won't sound the same in a stereo mix when they're panned.

More to the point, you can't do any mix (especially a stereo one) on headphones alone, as you won't get anything positioned correctly for loudspeaker listening - although the converse situation works much better; loudspeaker mixes generally sound fine on headphones, which very much proves the point - you can't position things with headphones!

The best thing you can do is get yourself a monitoring box that allows you to do the following: Stereo, Mono and the 'difference' out of a sum and difference signal. That last one is effectively the amount of 'stereo' you're adding to the mono 'sum' signal. FWIW, I use a TC Electronic BMC-2, which does all this and also has an excellent headphone amp in it - better than most.

The way to do this is to mix as normal in a stereo Multitrack session and just switch the Master channel output to mono. That way you should hear in in both ears. To do that go done to the Master track and click on the little icon that looks like a dot within two sets of brackets and it will turn green. When you hover your mouse over it it will say Sum to Mono. That way all your tracks will stay in stereo but you will be monitoring the mix in mono. Don't forget to turn off the Mono switch before Export or Saving your Mixdown.