Mp3 stereo to mono

[bayoureaper]

I have MP3 stereo files I need to change to mono. I'm a newbie to Audacity so please layman instructions. Thanks

[kozikowski]

Do the files play OK right now? They don't play at 5000 times normal speed?

Step one. Install Audacity 1.3. You can have both Audacity versions on your machine as long as you don't use both at once.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Open one of the songs. Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono.

Export new song. You understand that Audacity doesn't edit MP3 files, right? It converts them to a very high quality internal format and makes whole new MP3 files when it's done. This produces double MP3 compression damage. Also, Audacity doesn't edit MP3 without adding the "lame" software to manage the MP3 compression.

http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

Koz

[bayoureaper]

Thanks, but when I go under tracks the stereo to mono is grayed out and I can't click on it.

[steve]

Are you sure that it is not already a mono track?

[bayoureaper]

Under the song heading it says stereo 44100Hz

[kozikowski]

Does it look more or less like that...

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_playback.jpg

I think the sound meters may be a different size, but the stereo show should look a lot like that. Are you in Audacity 1.3? You never actually said those English words.

Koz

[bayoureaper]

Yes that's what it looks like. I downloaded 1.3 as instructed it looks different from the the one I was using.

[bayoureaper]

Hey guys still wandering how to change to mono any help. Thanks

[kozikowski]

Just for grins, pull down this six second stereo piano solo from here...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/piano2-CoolEdit.mp3

Restart Audacity, open up that file and see if all your tools work.

KOz

[steve]

Thanks, but when I go under tracks the stereo to mono is grayed out and I can't click on it.

The track must be selected.
Click on the information box on the left side of the track, this will highlight the track. Then go to the Tracks menu and select "Stereo Track to Mono"