Audacity Forum

Hello, I apologize in advance if this has been posted recently and I didn't recognize that it had.

I need to play 2 .wav files at the same time in 2 different ears. I thought that by designating one file as "Left Channel" and the other as "Right Channel" and then combining them into a stereo track might do it but that's not exactly what I wanted (the sounds play in both ears). I want to be able to designate one sound to play in the left ear and another sound to play in the right ear at the same time, and then save that as one .wav file.

Thanks for any tips.

Import the 2 WAV files into Audacity.
Use the "pan" slider (below the track name, marked "L____R") to pan one track to the left and the other track to the right.
You should now hear one track playing from the left side of your headphones and the other from the right.
From the File menu, choose "Export" to create a new WAV file.

If you combine them with with the drop down menu on the first audio track "Make Stereo Track" it should work. If you try to export two separate monophonic tracks, you'll get a monophonic track that mixes the two equally. Making one the left channel and the other the right channel does the same as panning one hard left and the other hard right. But panning allows you to mix the wave files into both channels with each one at a different level within each channel.

stevethefiddle wrote:Import the 2 WAV files into Audacity.
Use the "pan" slider (below the track name, marked "L____R") to pan one track to the left and the other track to the right.
You should now hear one track playing from the left side of your headphones and the other from the right.
From the File menu, choose "Export" to create a new WAV file.

but the actual hardware reproducing the sound may allow some leakage from each side to the other

Thanks! I'll try this today when I get home.

stevethefiddle wrote:Import the 2 WAV files into Audacity.
Use the "pan" slider (below the track name, marked "L____R") to pan one track to the left and the other track to the right.
You should now hear one track playing from the left side of your headphones and the other from the right.
From the File menu, choose "Export" to create a new WAV file.

Actually, I remember that I did try this and I'm still hearing the sounds in both ears. Would you guys attribute this to the earphones I'm using then (but I was able to do 2 sounds in each ear when I was using Matlab and it worked with these earphones)? Might it also have something to do with the way the sound was recorded?

Thanks!

whomper wrote:but the actual hardware reproducing the sound may allow some leakage from each side to the other

and the user may be deaf in one ear, or completely deaf, or may be playing back through a mono guitar amp, or through a telephone... but these things are outside of the control of what can be done by Audacity. ranarenee was asking how to perform a task in Audacity, which I answered and Ctrl+N provided an alternative method. Until these methods have been tried it is pointless confusing the issue with if's and but's about possible complications. The aim should be to assist the user, not to add confusion.