RH says recording sounds like it's in stereo

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

I just finished narrating a 438-page (50 chapters) book, and the publisher has told me that 10 of the chapters sound like they were done in stereo. I never record anything in stereo, but I checked the chapters anyway. They were all recorded in mono and were playing back in mono.

Is there another problem that could make a file sound like it was recorded in stereo when it wasn’t?

Thanks,
Sara Moser Bartlett

2

There could be a problem with their playback system, for example:

  1. If the audio is played back on a computer, then the computer sound system could be adding a “spacial” effect such as reverb.
  2. Faulty headphones (when listening) could make mono sound a bit like stereo if the left and right sides are out of phase.
3

Steve,

I appreciate you getting back to me. This was a new issue for me.

I just don’t see anything different about my recording of the 10 chapters than the other 40, so it makes sense to me that it could be what you suggested. I’ll let the RH know about those things.

Thanks so much,
Sara

4

If you gave them a mono mp3, then the problem must be at their end.
If you’ve created a stereo (dual-mono) mp3 of your mono recording,
that can accidentally generate a pseudo-stereo effect, depending on how it’s encoded.