Seriously newbie stuff… trying to get a grip on Audacity, been using Sound Forge for years, but I have 7.0 and not sure I will be affording 11 despite enjoying the test drive.
I have 7.1 headphones that work in Plex, VLC, and Sound Forge Pro just fine.
In Audacity, all I get is stereo… which would be fine while editing except 7.1 channels all add together into the stereo left or right output depending on if I manually select those, or they all go to both channels if I don’t. The clipping is horrendous.
The device report says the headphones are 8 channel, but it’s like #14 down the list and I am only presented with the stereo option in the output device drop down list. If I use WASAPI the device won’t open at all for playback. Using MME/DirectSound at least it will play without throwing an error.
So, how do I get everything to map to the correct speakers on the headphones?
And, is there a way to select “Center”, “LFE” , “Right Side”, “Left Side”, “Right Rear”, “Left Rear” or is mono, left, right all there will ever be in the track control panel?
Audacity does not yet support multi-channel playback. Mono or stereo only.
You can Export multi-channel files to play in other applications, but you need to work out the correct channel mapping yourself.
(See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/advanced_mixing_options.html)
I think this is one of the 1/10 questions that isn’t in the FAQ. “Most” (9/10) questions that people ask about Audacity are the same questions - these are the ones that we aim for in the FAQ (because they are frequently asked questions). There are thousands of other questions which we aim to answer in the manual.
Just because it seems a pretty important question to me, doesn’t mean it is to most folk I guess.
Really, I’m just glad I had actually checked those places first…
It’s just that age is getting to be tricky on me. Information could be there and I just plain miss it or don’t think the right way to find an answer that’s already there so I can’t even trust anymore that my looking means anything. LOL
Anyway, I appreciate the quick responses and answers.
We’re aware that is a problem. Unfortunately when we freeze the manual for release, we cannot keep the Search function (because it uses server-side scripting). However, there are a couple of useful search tips. One is to search Google with the query:
Another good place to look is on the front page of the manual: Audacity Manual
We have provided links on that page to many important topics, and there is a wonderful picture of the main Audacity interface that has “tips” when you hover your mouse pointer over parts of the picture, and it is “clickable” (takes you to the appropriate part of the manual). This is also the front page of the manual that is included in Audacity “Help menu > Manual”.
I think this is one of the 1/10 questions that isn’t in the FAQ. “Most” (9/10) questions that people ask about Audacity are the same questions - these are the ones that we aim for in the FAQ (because they are frequently asked questions). There are thousands of other questions which we aim to answer in the 