The only down side to doing it with the delay is somebody listening to that simulated show in mono. Then you’ll get some musical tones sounding a little funny as they add and cancel during the performance.
But as long as you stay in stereo, it sounds like a stereo recording in a large hall.
“The only one I’m foolin’ here is me.”
Koz
I can’t give you a meaningful number for what I did. It seems to be 204 samples, right channel later (to the right) than left (attached).
Note I measured between two identical waves, top and bottom. The fractional time readouts don’t want to cooperate with me. I can’t tell what that is in milliseconds.
Koz
The “Pseudo-Stereo” effect: Missing features - Audacity Support
For multi-track recordings, each track may be panned a little one side or the other to position it in the stereo mix using the track “Pan” slider Audacity Manual
To use a stereo effect on a mono track that has been panned, use “Mix and Render” to “bounce” that mono track to a stereo track, then apply the effect.
Be careful using reverb (and other effects) on multiple tracks in the same mix - it’s easy to overdo it and make it sound like it was recorded in a cave.
If each track was recorded “dry” with little natural reverb, then applying a bit of reverb to the final mix can help tie the whole thing together.
There is also a “Channel Mixer” effect which is very useful for widening or narrowing the stereo spread: Missing features - Audacity Support
OK…east coast here…just woke up…lots of information to go thru but thanks…I`ll go thru it
You may have covered it but what happens if I have say 2 tracks…guitar in one voice in another…I pan one half way to one side the other in the opposite direction then export to WAV or MP3…or make the two tracks a single stereo track then export? Will that mix both tracks into left and right channel when I play it?..I would prefer to keep them separate to some extant but I was aware of what you were saying early about it not being a good idea to keep them totally separate.
So far all I`ve done is skim what you posted but I get the gist of it…when I started doing this I remember reading you can create effects by say recording a guitar in stereo then shifting one track slightly…of just adding some reverb or another effect to one and leaving the other alone…is that a good idea?
I see…thanks…I like the Mavricks track…thats pretty close to what Im looking for…it takes me a while to process some of this stuff being a greasy musician.
Im really trying to keep everything as simple as I can..I read in Neil Youngs book a while back one of the keys to it is keep everything as direct as possible…short chords…minimal processing…it helps to know the tunes before I record them rather then try to fix it later which seems obvious but often doesn`t happen.
I think now you’re into “What kind of car should I buy.” Try out the tools and options into a good sound system (or good headphones) and see which you like.
It’s pretty easy to overdo the stereo conversion thing and you should avoid wide left-right splits between the performers. Both of these effects should be checked on headphones. Past that, tune for a pleasant sounding show.
Post some of the work and point us to it.
There is one Audacity oddity you should probably know about. Say you have an actual mono show like you recorded your guitar into a single track. Now use the pan control over on the left of the track. You now have a stereo show. If you export that clip and then open it up later, it will have two blue waves showing the pan setting burned in and be in stereo.
Even if you return the pan slider to the middle, your single blue wave is still going to make a stereo export.
Koz
I see…thats good to know..Im still confused though…I can bring 2 channels together before exporting by panning them one way or the other?
Yeah. That’s where it starts getting magic.
Say you have two single, blue wave, mono tracks one above the other. I don’t know, voice and guitar. Pan one very slightly left and the other very slightly right. When you Export, Audacity will mix everything into one show (unless you tell it not to).
Because you used the pan controls, the mixed show will be in stereo, complete with the exact pan adjustments you made.
I know. Twilight Zone moment, right?
This can be seriously handy other times when you’re stuck with mono tracks like in a phone interview and need some way to produce a final show.
Koz
There is a useful free simple VST called Acon Multiply . It can make mono sound like stereo , and other effects , ( it has presets ) …
This is what I was thinking but I just started experimenting with it…what I need to know is…after I pan the 2 tracks… should I combine them into a stereo track before exporting or export them as is…I seem to recall doing it both ways and getting pretty much the same results…in my case so far…one instrument left and the other right.
Also Ive mixed down from 4 tracks but usually combining them into 2 stereo tracks first..Im guessing…it`s probably in the manual somewhere…that Audacity will mix anything I throw at it down if there are multiple tracks but getting the balance correct could be difficult.
I should have something listenable soon…I`ve got a decent rhythm track and am writing a melody for it…I should have it done in a day or two…thanks for the help by the way…I know this must seem redundant you but I need all the help I can get and I am starting to understand it.
Forget the pan adjustments for a minute. Import the voice and then the guitar. Two mono tracks one above the other. File > Export Audio. You will get a mono sound file with the voice and guitar mixed with each other.
Unless you stop it, Audacity will smash your tracks into one mono sound file.
Attach 1.
Start over. Import the voice and guitar tracks. This time pan the voice 10% Left and the Guitar 10% Right. File > Export Audio. This time Audacity is going to create a stereo sound file with the voice slightly left and the guitar slightly right. I’m not expecting suddenly for the voice to come 100% out of the left speaker and guitar 100% out of the right. I’m expecting the 10% mix.
Attach 2.
Is that what you get?
My personal preference is not depend on background tricks like that. I only mix and do production in stereo. My single microphone or pickup goes into a stereo mixer which I then capture into the computer…in stereo.
Most of the time my “clients” are the video editors and they’re not always the ones in-house, but they’re all stereo. My insurance of future work is to give the editors the least worry possible.
You can convert your mono track to stereo by importing it, selecting it by clicking just above MUTE, duplicating it with Control-D and use the little black arrow drop-down menu from the top one > Make Stereo Track.
Attach 3, 4, and 5.
Koz
Ok…thanks…Ill work on that....as I rule I record everything in stereo..this is a stereo mixer and its not a problem…it`s easy enough to delete a track.
I should have this tune up by the end of the weekend…thanks again.
Im still working on this..Im writing music for this and it`s taking time.
It’s possible to play a known, published song. We’re not going to sell it.
Koz
I understand that…but it takes me a long time to work this stuff out and Im not going to waste time on any thing Im not going to put on my website…I should have something posted soon…thanks
doug
I’m on the edge of my seat. My knees are going to sleep.
Koz
any idea what I should play over a G sharp 5 flat 9?
No, but I bet an actual musician may have some input.
Koz
here is a clip…something went wrong…i think what happened is at one point I found a decent setting on the mixer and changed it
however I have the music that I want…I`ll make some more takes and see how it goes
how many MBs can I upload here?
on the NyQuist code…should I take the noise profile first then apply it before I actually do the noise reduction?
It’s 2MB. So it’s about 10 seconds of Stereo WAV.
Since we’re not doing analysis on the file, you can export good quality (128-256) MP3 and do much better.
Or the usual third party file hosting services.
Koz
![Acon Multiply VST [free].png](https://forum.audacityteam.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6b3b1b65f92fafc69539c033bceae084d5702354.png)