Greetings!
For many years it was considered
impossible to realistically convert mono
musical source material to stereo. In fact,
consider this statement in the Third Edition
of
The
New Stereo Soundbook by Ron Streicher
& F. Alton Everest (2006 Audio
Engineering Associates), undoubtably one of
the most authoritative books published on
the subject of stereo sound:
“The most important point in studying
the various methods of converting a mono
signal to stereo is the realization that
it is impossible to do so: the best that
can be hoped for is a signal that has some
of the characteristics of a stereo
signal.”
On January 29, 2015 my website,
monotoSTEREO.info, went
live. I started the website to provide a
collection of resources for individuals
interested in upmixing older mono source
material to stereo through the use of
spectral editing and audio (sound) source
separation... more specifically, music
source separation. In that time the website
has been visited over 66,000 times by
individuals in 185 countries!
The goal of this technology is the
creating of stereo mixes that are virtually
indistinguishable from stereo mixes created
using multitrack session tapes, had they
existed.
There are now several hundred examples
mono recordings that have been upmixed to
stereo using this technology which have been
linked to on the MEDIA pages of the website.
A number of these have been released
commercially:
Links to commercially available releases
which utilize this technology can be found
here:
There are now a total of 106 tools
featured on the TOOLS pages of the website,
which are accessible from the pull-down
menus anywhere on the website:
More tools continue to be added,
including web-based services and even music
source separation apps that run on iOS and
Android devices!
There are now over 1,700 research papers,
presentations, etc. linked to on the
RESEARCH pages
of the website!
A companion
Facebook
page for the website provides updates
and related content. Be sure to “Like” the
Facebook
page to follow it for the updates!
I’d like to take this opportunity to
again thank the engineers who have been
showcasing what is possible with this
technology. I must also thank the various
researchers and developers who have made
this technology accessible, powerful, and
useable for so many. The technology and the
tools to utilize it continue to improve
dramatically! Lastly, a big thank you to the
visitors to the website. Your continued
interest and support are very much
appreciated! I sincerely hope that you
continue to find the website interesting,
informative, educational, and inspiring!
Best regards,
Christopher Kissel