How to export always as stereo

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello,

is it possible to export audio always as a stereo? Currently, if in a project there are only mono tracks, I need to add an empty stereo track, so the exported file is in the stereo format. Is this possible to automate somehow? Of course, I would like to specify export settings like format, bitrate, bitrate mode (for MP3).
The possible solutions can include also building a macro or a plugin.

What I see as a possible right now is build such simple macro:

NewStereoTrack:
Export:
Undo:

Export: can be replaced with a similar command like ExportMP3:.

But this does not give me an option to select a bitrate or bitrate mode.

Thank you for any suggestions.

2

There’s no way to directly set the Export format options, but what you can do is to use “SetPreference:” to set or update the last used “[FileFormats]” settings.

This is a section of my audacity.cfg file:

[FileFormats]
…
MP3RateModeChoice=CBR
MP3Bitrate=128
MP3ChannelModeChoice=JOINT
…
…

So if I export as MP3 from a macro, the format will be 128 kbps, CBR, Joint Stereo.
To change that to 256 kbps, I could use the command:

SetPreference: Name="FileFormats/MP3Bitrate" Value="256"

Note that the sample rate for exported files is set by the “Project Rate”, which can be set with the “SetProject” command.

3

Thank you Steve for your kind help. I have applied successfully your idea into a new plugin. I have posted it here.

I think, I found the way how to set Export options. Again, a little trick :smiley: Looking forward to your opinion!