On my Zoom H2, I accidentally recorded 4 channels instead of stereo. I'd like to use my Audaicty 2.1.3 on Windows to mix it back into stereo.
The files I have are filenameMS.wav and filenameXY.wav
I'm not sure if that meant the mic switch was set to "4 channel" or "Mid-Side"
Any advice on how to mix these down?
Thanks....Lyle
Mixing 4-channel files from Zoom H2 into Stereo
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and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".
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This forum is for Audacity on Windows.Please state which version of Windows you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".
Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
Re: Mixing 4-channel files from Zoom H2 into Stereo
If you only used two microphones, you can just ignore the mid-side file. The XY file should be normal stereo.
Mid-side is the L+R sum (mid) and the L-R difference (side). It's the same information and it still uses 2-channels, but it's in a different format. It's simple math and formats can be converted back-and-forth losslessly.
There are microphone techniques that allow you to record the L+R and L-R directly on a regular stereo recorder, but it requires a figure-8 microphone to pick-up the left & right sounds out-of-phase, while rejecting the center. Then at some point it gets converted to regular stereo. M-S allows some "tricks" such as equalizing the "center" differently than the left-only and right-only sounds.
Mid-side is the L+R sum (mid) and the L-R difference (side). It's the same information and it still uses 2-channels, but it's in a different format. It's simple math and formats can be converted back-and-forth losslessly.
There are microphone techniques that allow you to record the L+R and L-R directly on a regular stereo recorder, but it requires a figure-8 microphone to pick-up the left & right sounds out-of-phase, while rejecting the center. Then at some point it gets converted to regular stereo. M-S allows some "tricks" such as equalizing the "center" differently than the left-only and right-only sounds.