balancing audio channels

[rmcellig]

I am using 1.3.12 in Puppy Linux. When I go to edit my radio show which is a 2 hour wav file, The right channel shows a more pronounced waveform than the left channel. i use the Channel mixer plugin to make both channels the same. I found that it takes a very long time to do this. About 20-25 minutes. On my iMac using Sound Studio, I just copy/paste from one channel to another in less that 3 seconds. Very fast. Is there another option I can look at in Audacity that will speed up my workflow?

Much appreciated,

Randy

[kozikowski]

If it's a mono show -- two channel mono in your case, then Tracks > Stereo Tracks to mono. See if that's any faster. Almost all players and sound managers know what a mono sound file is and it will play both speakers in a stereo system. Also, it will store at perfect quality in half the space.

Koz

[rmcellig]

Cool. Let me try that out. I will post back.

[rmcellig]

Much faster!! About 2 minutes. Now it shows as a single Mono waveform but the L/R indicator bars are showing output from left/right channels. Is this OK? Should I save my future files this way instead of the old way? They will still play back normally like you said in your previous post? so doing it this way is an acceptable practice? Pretty cool as long as I don't lose anything which I don't think I will. I just need reassurance. If this is a viable way of doing this going forward, I will do all of my radio shows this way. You mentioned that I might be able to save space as well?

[kozikowski]

Unless one side of the original performance is really damaged, the show work and quality are exactly the same. Audacity "knows" what a mono file is and presents it with equal left and right sound.

The show stores on the hard drive at almost exactly half the space.

If you run into problems, you can easily open the archived mono show:

Edit > Duplicate
Track Drop-down Menu > Make Stereo Track

And you're back to where you started. Many of the NPR and APR radio podcasts go out mono, so I don't think anybody is going to stop breathing over this.

Koz

[kozikowski]

There is another way to do this. Split the stereo show and delete the low track. Force what remains mono.

Drop Down Menu > Split Stereo Track
[X] delete the track you don't want.
Drop Down Menu > Mono

You can do that as fast as you can click.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Of course it's a given that you don't need any of that if you record the show mono in the first place.
Koz

[rmcellig]

That's cool! I am going to try that option as well and I think from now on I will save all of my shows as mono. When I save my shows, I export them mp3/192 for my web site. I would imagine the file size will now be smaller? Is the mp3 format I am choosing ok or should I choose something else?

My web site is http://www.mcran.com

[kozikowski]

Ding!
Wrong Answer.

MP3 compression is an indicator of quality.

A High Quality mono show can be compressed with 32 MP3 quality and produce an OK but not great show. Compress a High Quality Stereo show at 32 and you'll get bubbly garbage. Audacity uses 128 for Stereo default as most people can't tell there's anything wrong. That's the general compression value of standard iTunes compression as well -- although they use a slightly different AAC compression. In iTunes, you can opt for stereo 256 quality and that's the one I use.

If you compress your Mono show at 128 the compression damage will be almost zero at the same file size. If you wanted to, you could experiment with a higher compression for your mono show to keep the same quality as you had with your stereo show -- with smaller file sizes. What's the one between 128 and 64? I wouldn't use 64. That's too low.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Please note that MP3 compression damage is cumulative. If you open up a 32 quality MP3 file for editing, you would have to export it at 320 MP3 or WAV in order to avoid increasing the sound damage. So you can't re-edit MP3s in Audacity -- which brings us to the recommendation that you archive all work in WAV or other uncompressed format. You can always go down to MP3, you can't come back up.

If you have simple editing or cutting, you can get MP3 editors that do not recompress the work. That's simple cutting or maybe a straight volume change. Past that, you're dead. Any fancy filters or effects require recompression -- or staying at no compression.

I think we like MP3Split.

Koz