Create audio file, alternating white noise, left right channels

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

I tried following the Google AI advice but failed. I searched the Net and could not find one.

I want to create a 3-minute white noise audio file, with Left and Right channels alternating in 5 second intervals. That is, white noise, 5 sec Left, 5 sec Right, continue for 3 minutes. I have a friend visiting and I want to use this in my home theater to set stereo L/R for his ears.

I am able to create a 3 minute white noise stereo file, but I could not find how to (a) set precise 5 second intervals or (b) how to limit output to just L, then just R. I suppose if I had a pair of 5 second clips, one left one right, I could copy>paste that to create 3 minutes, or more difficultly merge the file (too) many times.

2

Lots of questions about aligning audio recently…

Select 5 seconds of stereo audio of white noise and copy it to the clipboard. Start a new project and past that audio into it. Paste it again. Pan the audio of one clip all the way left with the slider to the left of the waveform. Pan the audio of the other clip all the way to the right. Align the Tracks > End To End.

Select all the audio (the two tracks) and copy it to the clipboard. Paste that 18 more times. Align all of them End To End. Export the audio.

All of this post is somewhat abbreviated because it has been a long workday and I need to go home. If you need a more detailed answer I can do that tomorrow.

3

Thank you for putting me on the right track. In creating my music library from personal recordings, I knew how to combine files into one, so I understood what you were saying.

For clarity sake, and for others who might want to do this, what I did was to create and save one Left and one Right channel file, opened new file, imported Left file, then imported Right file, then selected all and aligned tracks end to end, then saved as LR.flac. Then opened a new file, imported this 10 second file 18 times, the select all>align tracks end to end, save as new file.

4

Select one cycle then “repeat” is quicker … Repeat - Audacity Manual

5

You could also cross-fade the audio, just make sure the clips begin and end exactly at the 0 decibel data point or you will get clicks in the output.

6

Just sliding the volume balance to zero for left or right track made the volume sound like it was zero in one channel. Good enough for my needs. Really nice software!