Mondo Knows Facts

Vinyl cutters fold deep bass into mono

Out-of-phase low frequencies would throw the stylus out of the groove A stereo groove has one wall for each channel, and a strong low-frequency signal that differs between them makes the stylus lurch sideways. Cutting engineers therefore sum everything below roughly 100 to 150 hertz to mono before the lathe. Club records often keep bass centred for the same reason, and for how it behaves on a dance floor. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Sound on Sound

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Tags: vinyl, mastering, bass

Vinyl cutters fold deep bass into mono: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Out-of-phase low frequencies would throw the stylus out of the groove. The figure is taken from Sound on Sound, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?
Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.