Converting stereo to mono

[TimArends]

I am digitizing some monaural audiotapes. Audacity by default opens up a stereo recording window. Since the original recording is monaural to begin with, I do not need a stereo recording.

I can choose Tracks > Stereo To Mono, but what this seems to do is blend the one track, which has audio, with the other track, which has no audio, resulting in a watered-down, softened recording.

The other option is to click the little triangle next to the track name and choose Split Stereo Track, and then delete the silent track. Unfortunately, when I do this and then play the audio file back later, it plays through only one speaker.

How can I convert stereo to mono without softening the sound?

[steve]

The other option is to click the little triangle next to the track name and choose Split Stereo Track,

Audacity 1.3.x has an additional option - "Split Stereo to Mono"

In Audacity 1.2.x, after splitting the stereo track, delete the silent track, then on the remaining track, click on the track name again and from the drop down menu select "Mono" (instead of "Left Channel" or "Right Channel")

To make mono recordings (and avoid all of the above), go to "Edit menu > Preferences > Audio I/O" and set the number of channels to "1 (mon0)". Audacity should now record a single mono track.

If you are using a (high end) sound card that has 2 independent XLR microphone sockets it may be necessary to use the left channel (Mic 1) socket.