Converting Dual Mono to Mono

[NY2LA]

I digitized numerous analog cassette tapes, consisting of spoken word as dual mono, with GarageBand. The resulting files are AIFF files with standard Linear PCM as 2 channels. The left channel is typically louder; the audio was recorded like that on the original tapes.

I want to convert the AIFF files to WAV files with 1 channel. However, I do not want to batch process, and I do not want the resulting single channel to be the "sum" (?) of the two channels.

I want to examine each AIFF file, look at levels, etc., and make a decision to use one or the other channel, as the mono channel in the WAV file that I will create.

Can I do this with Audacity?

[Gale Andrews]

I digitized numerous analog cassette tapes, consisting of spoken word as dual mono, with GarageBand. The resulting files are AIFF files with standard Linear PCM as 2 channels. The left channel is typically louder; the audio was recorded like that on the original tapes.

I want to convert the AIFF files to WAV files with 1 channel. However, I do not want to batch process, and I do not want the resulting single channel to be the "sum" (?) of the two channels.

I want to examine each AIFF file, look at levels, etc., and make a decision to use one or the other channel, as the mono channel in the WAV file that I will create.

Click in the name of the track to left of the waveform to access the Track Drop-down menu and choose "Split Stereo Track".

Use the [X} to left of the track to delete the unwanted channel.

Use the same menu to make the remaining channel mono.

Are you really using Audacity 1.2 as your post indicates? If you are on OS X 10.4 or later, 1.3.13 Beta is much preferred. The .dmg installer for 1.3.13 provides a built-in Manual. You can access it at Help > Manual (in web browser) in the program.



Gale

[NY2LA]

Thanks.

Yes, I downloaded and installed Audacity 1.2.5 on my iMac (Intel) earlier today. Okay, I'll give the beta a try. Do you know whether I should delete 1.2.5 first?

P.S. For some reason, the "About . . ." feature is grey.

[kozikowski]

After you split the stereo track in two, you can use the Mute and Solo buttons at the left to listen to one or the other to decide which to keep. Then [X] delete the unwanted one and using the left drop-down menus, make the remaining one Mono. Export.

You can also use the Duplicate Track (Edit > Duplicate) to make two copies of the hero track and Make Stereo Track from the left drop-downs. This will effectively give you a new stereo track with the one good work on both. Export

Audacity will not Save a sound file. You have to Export one. If you have room, WAV or AIFF is preferable for archive work. You can't easily make an MP3 from an MP3, so digging up an old MP3 show and folding it into a new production may cause problems.


Audacity 1.2 is very old and no longer supported,
patched, corrected, or updated. Audacity 1.2 can
be unstable on newer computers.

Download and install the latest Audacity 1.3 from here...

http://audacityteam.org/download/

You can install both audacity 1.2 and Audacity 1.3 on
the same computer, but only use one at a time.

Audacity 1.2 will not open projects made on Audacity 1.3.

If you use MP3 or some of the more modern audio
compression formats, get Lame and FFMpeg software
from the same web site. Do not use older software
or software from other web sites, even though they
may have the same names.

[kozikowski]

Audacity > About is gray. About is hidden under Help where the rest of the world puts it.
Koz

[NY2LA]

I've installed Audacity 1.3.13, tried out the aforementioned steps, and I like it a lot.

Is the Metadata Editor allowing me to embed text based data in the WAV file using the RIFF List Info format? (Perhaps you can provide a link to information about this.)

Thanks.

[Gale Andrews]

Is the Metadata Editor allowing me to embed text based data in the WAV file using the RIFF List Info format?

Yes, but the range of RIFF List Info tags is relatively limited compared to ID3 and does not support custom tags. Also Audacity only supports a subset of the List Info tags. See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/WAV#Metadata

AIFF (also lossless) will give you a better range of tags and AIFF (though not Audacity) also supports embedded lyrics and images.

About is hidden under Help where the rest of the world puts it.

I don't know for sure about 1.2, but the Beta version definitely has "About" under the "Audacity" menu on Mac:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Audacity_Menu


Gale

[NY2LA]

AIFF (also lossless) will give you a better range of tags and AIFF (though not Audacity) also supports embedded lyrics and images.
Gale

I'm surprised about this, because I was under the impression that WAV has better support for metadata. Perhaps I am thinking of Broadcast Wave?

I don't know for sure about 1.2, but the Beta version definitely has "About" under the "Audacity" menu on Mac:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Audacity_Menu
Gale

Indeed.

[Gale Andrews]

AIFF (also lossless) will give you a better range of tags and AIFF (though not Audacity) also supports embedded lyrics and images.

I'm surprised about this, because I was under the impression that WAV has better support for metadata. Perhaps I am thinking of Broadcast Wave?

Broadcast WAV metadata as I understand it is very specialised, to do with radio automation, database archiving and file synchronisation/exchange. Besides, iTunes doesn't recognise any metadata in WAV files of any sort.


Gale

[NY2LA]

I think I'll use those RIFF Info fields that Audacity supports.

How many characters allowed in Comments? 256?

It's a shame that not many players read this metadata. Maybe that situation will improve, considering Audacity and Adobe Audition support it.