I then hit the drop down and converted each side to mono in order to edit each side individually. Now, I wanted to make sure that I could export to stereo after editing so I tested an export and it gave option to export in either joint stereo or stereo - this was for mp3 and for wav to my recollection
(I could have done something different than what’s outlined above but tested importing raw track again, splitting stereo track and leaving right and left selected in drop down and then tried to export but didn’t get the message of joint stereo/stereo — only the message below…)
I want to export wav but after editing and hitting export - it says what’s below for every setting I tried…
“your tracks will be mixed down to a single mono channel in the exported file”
Searched around for solution to problem but didn’t find anything. I just want to export to a wav stereo track.
No need to do that. Just choose “Split Stereo Track” in that menu.
You can choose “Make Stereo Track” on the upper track after editing but there is no need - export will export in stereo with the track split to left and right channel.
If exactly the same sound comes out of both left and right speakers, then that is “mono”. If different sound comes out of the left from what comes out of the right, that is “stereo”. What is it that you want?
Everyone, thanks for the input…I really appreciate it. Left side was main speaker and right side was different feed from audience. I guess I don’t really need stereo, I was trying to find a way to mix it to make it sound more like stereo but the audience feed gets cut off at various points so it doesn’t really innately lend itself well to that.
Any tips to quickly mix to get more of a stereo sound? I could duplicate the track and add a slight delay but that’s more time than I want to invest and hassle with multiple tracks. If you have any suggestions that’s more streamlined, I’d be grateful.
You need to decide if that track is good enough to use, or whether to just delete it.
If it is mostly OK, then you can use that track to provide some “fake stereo” effect and the other channel as the main “center” mix. At the points where that feed cuts out you will of course notice that the stereo effect disappears, which you won’t be able to fix with fairly time consuming fiddling (and even then you probably won’t be able to fix it completely.
The other option is that you just “Split to Mono”, delete the faulty “audience track”, and use only the remaining mono track. The mono track could be treated to produce fake stereo.
To create fake stereo, install this plug-in Missing features - Audacity Support
Installation instructions: Missing features - Audacity Support
Make a duplicate copy of the mono track that you want to make into stereo (Select the track then Ctrl+D). Then from the drop down menu of the other track, select “Make Stereo Track”. Then apply the “Pseudo Stereo” effect to the two channel mono track.
Thanks Steve. I would want to keep the audience section. I just downloaded and installed the plug in - unzipped the file and added to plugins but it’s not showing up in audacity under effects or anything else. I double checked and it is in my plugins folder. Closed out and opened audacity multiple times and checked to see if it was running in programs when closed.
I’ll try to get it to pop up somehow and then test it out to see if I can make this shindig work. Thanks again
Plug-ins appear “below the divider” in the Effect menu. You might not have scrolled down the menu far enough.
Also, did you extract the file “pseudostereo.ny” from the “Pseudostereo.zip” package?
If it is definitely not there, check to see if “Click Track” is listed in the “Generate” menu (both “Pseudo Stereo” and “Click Track” are “Nyquist plug-ins”).
You have to scroll down the Alphabetical effects list , alternatively once the effects-list is visible, repeatedly press “P” and you should jump to the effects on that list beginning with that letter, [Pseudo-Stereo].
Different locations of audacity were conflicting - had it in both downloads folder and program files - so figured that out and fixed it so it opened the location that had the plugin.
Ok - so if I want to edit/manipulate both tracks individually, best thing would be to duplicate each side of track after splitting stereo and converting to mono, then apply the stereo effect to each?
Noticed that dB levels are affected with diff settings of stereo effect…any suggestions for keeping volume the same - is there another plugin?
Leave the “main speaker” track unchanged (mono). This will help to prevent the finished project from sounding muddy or echoey.
Duplicate the “Audience” track.
Combine the two audience track as one stereo track.
Apply Pseudo Stereo effect to the (stereo) audience track.
Use the track Gain controls (in the panel on the left end of each track) to adjust how much “main speaker” and how much “stereo audience” you want. Keep an eye on the playback meter to avoid clipping (distortion) - the combined level should not exceed 0 dB.
Select all tracks (Ctrl+A) then “Tracks menu > Mix and Render”.
Use the Amplify or Normalize effects to make the peak level just less than 0 dB.
Export to a new file. (note that exporting to a “lossy” format such as MP3 will reduce the sound quality, so ensure that you have WAV or Flac format backups).
Thanks Steve - really appreciate the thorough help. Good stuff.
When you catch another minute - what settings do you recommend on pseudo stereo? Do you rec any other plugins for stereo effect + also any plugins to just generally elevate quality of audio?
Experiment for best results, but as a starting point I’d guess something like:
Delay = 40
Mix = 100
That will make the audience track (on its own) sound a little weird (too much stereo effect) but then you adjust the gain slider to determine how much of the “effect track” (audience track) to use and how much of the “main” (mono) track. The track gain sliders can be adjusted during playback to determine the best mix. Using headphones to monitor will give a better indication of the stereo spread than speakers.
My recommendation is the Pseudo Stereo effect.
There is no “magic bullet”.
Effects can be used to mitigate many specific problems with audio recordings, but there is no magic filter to turn a bad recording into a good recording.
Thanks. Of course, gotta use some cans to determine
I, of course, know there’s no magic bullet. What I meant moreso was if there are some “go to” plugins or effects you use and/or would suggest aside from noise removal, compression, and maybe pseudo stereo - to elevate quality…add special touch…etc…
You don’t need to answer again. Wanted to clarify - and if anyone else wants to chime, I’d be grateful.
You could probably achieve similar results with Steve’s Pseudo-Stereo + Audacity’s equalizer ,
but “Spacer” does have the advantage that it comes with presets ,
and can save user-defined settings as presets.
Maybe AutoDuck the audience a little when the performer(s) make a sound ? , so the performer isn’t drowned-out by the audience reaction.
![Modern 'Spacer' VST plugin [can do Pseudo-Stereo].gif](https://forum.audacityteam.org/uploads/default/original/2X/9/901acb3aabca2dcaf0cde8a9f4ac8f3eee0ba0c5.gif)