Hi, I am currently recording all my vinyl records to MP3 using Audacity 2.2.1.
I have some LPs which have ‘Electronically Reproduced Stereo’, does anyone know the best way to record and save these? I recorded them and saved them as MP3 using Joint Stereo. When played back, (from a USB in the car), the vocals on the left hand channel are really muffled / barely there. It isnt just on one LP but all 3 that I have done so far where Electronically Reproduced Stereo has been used. Thank you.
I assume you get the same muffled left when you listen to the record? How about when you play-back from Audacity on the computer (before or after MP3 compression)?
**Joint Stereo is generally the best setting and it doesn’t hurt the stereo image. ***
You can try converting to mono. (A mono recording will play-back through both speakers.) There’s a little drop-down arrow to the left of the waveform and you can select Split Stereo To Mono. That will create two mono tracks. You can delete the left muffled track, or you can leave the two tracks and they will mix-down to mono when you export. Depending on how the “fake stereo” was created, you may not get acceptable results either way…
***** Joint stereo is “smart” * and it works equally well with mono or stereo. Sounds that are different in the left & right channels are compressed separately and sounds that are common (such as centered vocals) are compressed only once so you don’t “waste bits” encoding the same thing twice, and that allows for better quality. If both channels are totally different, say English on one side and French on the other, it automatically uses regular stereo with both sides compressed separately. It automatically switches between normal stereo and [u]M/S[/u] depending on what’s best. Conversion from stereo to M/S and back is completely reversible and lossless. (Of course, the MP3 compression is still lossy.)