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I've been making a lot of super layered sounds recently, being quite militant about the m/s separation for certain layers, (sub and lower mids in mono, upper mids and tops in stereo).
I generally group (bus) these channels together and apply some processing to the group 'master' channel. That got me wondering about stereo effects on a master channel full of mono channels...
Doesn't it negate the m/s separation in the first place?
It depends on the effect, but probably yes.
If your effects are all true separate stereo processes with no time-shift, then no; but consider that even a simple true stereo echo, set to provide different repeat delays left & right will return differing amounts of bass to left or right depending on if the repeats at any given time are in or out of sync.
Anything else, mono in/stereo out, or any kind of smear effect, then yes.
You can very simply fix the whole lot, either at bus or master with a low frequency stereo to mono control. Google "vst mono bass" for a selection.
