all sound left, now right, now left, etc - input via mic

Special Interest Groups Recording Techniques
1

I am trying to record a play script. I want a certain character to be on the left stereo channel only, and all other characters on the right channel only. I have a vanilla single-microphone setup that works fine for normal recording. Ideally I want to flip the channel as I read, and not stop and make a new track or edit the result after the recording is finished - but I’ll take what I can get. I don’t see anything to help me on my sound drivers control panel and I don’t see anything in the help or on the forum.

Ideas?

Thanks in advance.

2

Not without post production. Audacity doesn’t do anything in real time anyway, so it would have to be some special hardware device.

You can’t even get Aggregate USB Microphones to split left to right. The only way to get this is through a mixer with multiple microphones. I briefly considered a “stereo microphone,” but those will not do good separation.

Koz

3

This is precisely the problem people get when they decide to graduate from a single microphone podcast to two or more microphones. Suddenly, there are no cheap and easy shortcuts any more. There’s an enormous step when you go between one and two or more microphones, particularly if you need stereo management.

Koz

4

Option 1
Use a small mixing console and record in stereo, then use the pan control on the mixer to move the signal left/right.
Option 2

  • Record a mono show
  • Duplicate the track (Edit menu)
  • Click on the name of the upper track and from the drop down menu select “Make Stereo Track”
  • Use the Channel Mixer plug-in effect on sections of the audio to position the sound Left/Right.
5

I’m looking at mixing console solutions, but within Audacity, is post-production automation an approach worth considering? If I set a label at each transition point during the recording (not easy to do without pausing since I am not an octopus - but…), could I write Nyquist code that would do the left/right flip?

6

If you put labels at the “changeover” positions (Ctrl+M then ENTER, during recording) you can use “Edit > Label Regions > Split” to split the track at the changeover positions. Then create a new, empty track and simply drag with the Time Shift tool (F5 key or double headed arrow button <–>) alternate “clips” into the new track.
Once you have the two voices split between two tracks, use the track “pan” slider to position the tracks left/right.

Alternatively, try “option 2” from my previous post. You may find this method as quick as setting the labels.