I hope this is an easy one for the pros on this forum… it’s been anything BUT easy for me. I’m using a Behringer UCA202 USB sound card to record from my dj / recording equipment to Audacity on my PC. Just realized I have not been recording in true stereo and I can’t figure out how to correct it. Seems like it’s recording only what’s on the right side onto both the left and the right- the left side is not getting recorded. I think I’ve read all the instructions and tried every setting but I’m not exactly a computer whiz, so who knows, maybe I’m missing something. Any help would be appreciated, I’m pretty much at my wit’s end right now.
Maybe the problem isn’t in Audacity or the computer. Sometimes the connection to the mixer doesn’t deliver stereo.
FX Send, for one example, is usually mono.
Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Devices > Recording > Channels.
You can use a pair of headphones or earbuds to do diagnostic testing. Jam your earbuds in to each RCA that would normally go to the UCA202.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/earBudsRCA.jpg
Play test music that you can clearly identify. This test will not blow your ears off, but it should be loud enough to tell you what’s going on.
I made up a Left/Right sound test.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/LRMonoPhase4.wav
Koz
There is one other possibility. You can get some seriously oddball sound if you don’t plug the cable in all the way or there is corrosion or dirt on the plug. Plug in the cables and rotate the plug a couple of times to make sure of a complete connection.
Koz
The UCA202 has its own headphone jack, and everything is in stereo when I listen through it. It’s only NOT in stereo when I listen to the music when he gets to the PC. And all my connections are good, too. The settings on Audacity and my PC appear to be fine as well, but I don’t know, maybe I am missing something. Thanks for the advice, kozikowski.
I’m not a Windows elf, but I seem to remember my old Win7 machine had a bouncing light sound meter in the sound control panels so I could test my connections. If you put sounds like my bounce back and forth test into the machine, does the control panel meter respond to both left and right? I seem to recall it was a mono meter, so you had to mess with it a little for it to tell you all you wanted to know.
I know really early Windows Control Panels had stereo balance controls.
Actually, I said WIn7. You didn’t say anything. Which Windows have you got?
Koz
Gale: that’s it! I missed that one step. Thanks!