New to this forum, but love Audacity - it is a great tool, kudos to the coders and contributors!
I am using Audacity 2.0.5 on Windows 8.1 and have a problem that only started recently. I am using the chain command to export a number of multi-channel .WAVs as regular stereo .WAVs, however, they are coming out mono! The source formats are 24 bit 7-channel, and in the past I have been able to successfully downmix them using the chain âConvert to Stereoâ command, but as stated this is no longer working properly. I donât believe Iâve made any major system changes in the interim so am vastly puzzled. Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Not sure, but I believe I did use this before successfully. The option referred to is a standard Chain from the File drop down, choose âApply Chainâ and then there is âStereo .WAVâ The issue at hand is that the source files I am converting start with two mono tracks (left and right, respectively). I could export these all successfully if I do them one at a time, but was hoping to save time. Any advice would be appreciated.
There is no Chain called âStereo. WAVâ shipped in Audacity supplied by us, so it must be one added by yourself.
As previously explained you would need to Make Stereo Track (manually) on the first two tracks. You could then run a Chain on that file by choosing âApply to Current Projectâ in âApply Chainâ.
I donât think there is any solution to applying Chains on imported multi-channel files until the code is fixed, because there is no way for a Chain command to act on only the first two tracks when importing files.
I can add a bug report for this (as far as I can tell, there is not a report yet), but as I said I think the root cause is using an MP3 export routine for all the formats. If so the fix needs a substantial rewrite of Chains export.
Probably you could create a script for use in SoX (it has a -c option to specify number of channels which you would invoke in the output part of the command).
Thanks to everyone who replied. I found out I could do what I wanted using Wavosaur, however I definitely feel that selecting the output format should be a feature of Audacityâs Chain command and look forward to seeing this in the future.
If you are still referring to your issue, stereo or mono mixdown is already determined by the channel mapping of the tracks, but the mapping is not understood by Chains unless the first two channels are explicitly a stereo pair.
At the same time, Chains does not support âUse Custom Mixâ which lets you map any track to any output channel.
So either fixing the bug or adding the feature would solve your issue.
The source formats are 24 bit 7-channel, and in the past I have been able to successfully downmix them using the chain âConvert to Stereoâ command, but as stated this is no longer working properly. 
I donât believe Iâve made any major system changes in the interim so am vastly puzzled. 
Thanks in advance for any assistance. 