The Monofuck

Receive a stereo mp3 file, but the audio is in mono?
Or it sounds weird, like some vocals or instrumentation is either missing, diminished or muddy?

It's the monofuck.

The "monofuck" is somewhat nasty. It's a stereo file with both channels fed by either a doubling of the left or right source.

L + L (or R + R) feeding L + R

There's also the "stereofuck" when one of your cables is earthing or our of phase, and the whole recording sounds 'underwater', sounding whack.

-L + L (or -R + R) feeding L + R

Both are ghastly in a song with panning production elements!

(above) Normal stereo file

(above) Monofuck L+L

(above) Monofuck R+R

Try this Beatles "Revolution" Pack I put together to hear what I'm talking about. I clipped it to the first 40 seconds. The download is about 5Mb, and loaded to a temporary online storage website (zShare). Click here to download it.

You'll find 6 files:
1 the original track
2 monofuck left
3 monofuck right
4 stereofuck
5 stereofuck (left inverted)
6 stereofuck (right inverted)

Note the properties of the original track, like where the vocals are placed, where the guitars are placed, drums etc. See if you can spot what what happens with each file.

If you're an mp3 blogger - perhaps posting mp3s in actual mono, or "monofuck", may help to serve as a 'technicality', if you get into a wrangle with your local record company agents.