Audacity Forum

Hello everyone,

I just extracted the audio from a homemade DVD. Apparently whoever was recording it set it to stereo but the right speaker didn't pick up any thing! How do I change this in Audacity? Is there a way to make this a full MP3, that is to say, not just half?

Thanks for your help!

sopps wrote:I just extracted the audio from a homemade DVD. Apparently whoever was recording it set it to stereo but the right speaker didn't pick up any thing!

That is not uncommon. DVDs support both mono and stereo. If the recording was made with mono recording, then the extracted audio will probably come out as one audio and one silent channel in a stereo track.

If you want the track as an MP3 and you want it to play through both left and right, the optimum way to do that is to convert it into a true 1 channel mono recording. It will then play through left and right, and will be considerably smaller file size than making a 2 channel MP3 (but will sound exactly the same).

Import the track into Audacity.
Click on the track name, and from the drop down menu select "split stereo track".
You now have 2 single channel tracks.
Delete the silent track (click on the [X] in the corner of the track)
Click on the name of the remaining track and select "mono".
Export the audio file.

If for some reason you specifically need to end up with a 2 channel track (not likely) then before you Export, add an empty stereo track to the project.

(These instructions are for Audacity 1.3 but I think it is the same in 1.2)