mono to "stereo"

[BillWarren]

I have some old reel-to-reel monaural recordings that I want to transfer to CDs. How do I get the one channel to duplicate so I can hear it through both speakers? I have tried copying the left channel recorded track and then pasting it into the right channel and it seems to work, but is this the best way? I am using OS 10.5.8 and Audacity 1.3.12.

[billw58]

So when you make the recording, Audacity records a stereo track, but with audio in the left channel only? You can fix this at the recording step by going to Audacity > Preferences, the Devices section and choosing "1 (mono)" under Recording, Channels.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... references

Or you could feed the mono output of the tape deck into both channels while recording.

Assuming you have a stereo track with audio in the left channel only, you can go to the track control panel drop-down menu

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... -Down_Menu

and choose "Split Stereo to Mono". Then delete the empty track.

In either case (recording one mono track, or creating one mono track from a left-channel-only stereo track), click on Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track. The addition of a stereo track forces Audacity to export a stereo file suitable for burning to a CD.

What CD burning software are you using? I believe iTunes and Toast will happily accept mono files for burning to CD.

-- Bill

[kozikowski]

Whatever you do, the process is easier in Audacity 1.3.12.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

If you use an Intel Mac with Leopard or Snow Leopard, then it's only a matter of time before the older Audacity does something messy to you. It's no longer supported or updated.

But so far, this is a normal problem and you may not need to upgrade.

If you set up the whole system to run in mono (Audacity > Preferences... restart when you make changes), you should not need to worry about any of this. You can capture the show in mono and export a mono track which should drop into your Music CD burner.

I say should because I have an older burner that doesn't work like this. iTunes should. Try it.

Koz

[BillWarren]

So if I export a mono track, iTunes will burn a CD with this track on both channels, not just one?

[billw58]

So if I export a mono track, iTunes will burn a CD with this track on both channels, not just one?

That is my understanding. I've never tried it. This is assuming you have a true mono track, not a stereo track with audio in one channel only.

-- Bill