Mono to Joint Stereo?

[iain010100]

I have some mono mp3s and I want to save them as joint stereo. I'm using a dos command line to batch merge a bunch of files into one and the different versions don't mix. I'm on Windows XP using the LAME encoder. I came across something on the wiki about Audacity not using the advanced features of LAME, including joint stereo. Is there a way around this or another app I can use?

[steve]

I have some mono mp3s and I want to save them as joint stereo.

Why would you want to do that?

[iain010100]

I'm using a dos command line to batch merge a bunch of files into one and the different versions don't mix.

[steve]

Sorry, I still don't know what you mean.

"I'm using a dos command line to batch merge a bunch of files"
What sort of files? Mono MP3 files?
What do you mean "merge"? You want to "mix" them so they play at the same time? You want to "append" them so that one plays after the other?

"to batch merge a bunch of files into one"
Into one MP3 file?

OK, so you're using a DOS command prompt, but what program are you using? Sox? Lame?
Which version of DOS?

"and the different versions "
what different versions? Different MP3 formats? Different bit rates? are some mono and some stereo?

"and the different versions don't mix."
How are you "mixing" them?

"I'm on Windows XP"
You said you were using DOS - do you mean that you are using the "Command Prompt" in Windows XP? Windows 95 and Windows 98 were built on DOS, but there is no DOS in XP.

I came across something on the wiki about Audacity not using the advanced features of LAME, including joint stereo. Is there a way around this or another app I can use?

Audacity 1.2.x only supports a limited range of the features in Lame, but Audacity 1.3.x supports CBR, ABR, VBR, mono, stereo, joint stereo, fast and standard encoding, quality presets and rates from 8kbps to 320kbps.

If you're using Lame from the command line, what does this have to do with Audacity?

[iain010100]

Sorry I meant "command line script" not "Dos".

I have about 100 mp3s that need an introduction pre-pended to the beginnings and a conclusion appended to the ends. My introductions and conclusion files are both mono and my 100 or so batch of other files are recorded in joint stereo.

It's possible to use a command line script to concatenate several smaller mp3 files into one. This is what I'm using.

> copy /b c:intro.mp3 + c:FILE001 + outro.mp3 c:new.mp3

This above command line script will create a new single mp3 file out of three separate mp3 files.

details here: http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/18/join-m ... mand-line/

But the technique does not work unless all the files concatenated are the same bitrate, number of channels (stereo vs. mono vs. joint stereo), etc. So I'm trying to find a way to change c:intro.mp3 and c:outro.mp3 from mono to joint stereo because c:FILE001.mp3 to c:FILE100.mp3 are all in joint stereo.

Sorry for not being clear earlier.

[steve]

Ah, that makes sense now

If it's not working at all then I don't think the problem is with mono and stereo tracks - "copy /b file1.mp3 +file2.mp3 + file3.mp3 new.mp3" should work with mono or stereo tracks. What it won't do is change the format, so all of the concatenated files will have the same format as the first file (same bit rate and number of channels). I've no idea what happens with VBR MP3s, but my guess is that it will not be pretty. Have you tried using "MP3 Direct Cut"?

[iain010100]

Mp3 Direct Cut gives me a warning about pasting different file formats together.

Anyway, I gave up and re-recorded the intro and outro to match the batch.