Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

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Stuartfox
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Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Stuartfox »

Is there an easy way to split a stereo audio track into 2 mono ones in DP?

I am probably being slow - but I can't seem to find an easy way without bouncing....

Stu
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by James Steele »

Stuartfox wrote:Is there an easy way to split a stereo audio track into 2 mono ones in DP?

I am probably being slow - but I can't seem to find an easy way without bouncing....

Stu
Are you recording your stereo audio tracks as interleaved files? Because if not, and you're still set to SD2 file format, one way is to go into the finder and find the stereo pair of files that will look something like this:

Drum Bounce.L.sd2
Drum Bounce.R.sd2

Change the file name to something else like "Drum Bounce Left.sd2" and "Drum Bounce Right.sd2" so that you remove the ".L" and ".R" which is how DP knows to keep them together as a stereo pair. Then drag each file independently onto a new mono track and you should be good to go.

Again, this presupposes using a non-interleaved stereo format. If you're interleaved, you may need to use some other method which I'm not familiar with offhand.

What you could do if it IS interleaved is go to your Soundbites window and export the stereo audio file as de-interleaved SD2 and then edit the file names as show and import. Hope that helps.
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by James Steele »

The more I think about it, I don't know if that would really save much time or not? You could just pan the track hard left and then use the "Freeze" command, then repeat with the track panned hard right, perhaps. Hmmm...
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Dan Worley »

I've used this method in the past. It requires recording the pass in real-time.

1. Output the stereo track to a stereo bus. Pan to center.

2. Go to Bundles and add two mono buses the same as the stereo bus. For instance, if you used stereo Bus 1-2, also create a mono bus for 1 and a mono bus for 2.

3. Add two mono audio tracks and set one of their inputs for bus 1 and the other for bus 2 and record enable them.

4. Record.

Just a note of interest: I've also used this method to fold-down (or comp) mono compatible stereo tracks (electric guitar rhythm tracks, for instance) to a mono track by using the Trim plug on the stereo track. It's been awhile since I've done that, but if I'm remembering right, you have to use the Trim plug when doing the fold-down because if you hard pan the mixer pan you lose one side or the other.

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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by HCMarkus »

Insert Trim plug in, turn off one channel only, and pan the remaining track to taste in Trim. Duplicate the track, turn off opposite channel only, and pan. A quick and dirty solution, but if your computer is maxed out, the extra overhead may be undesireable.
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by philbrown »

James Steele wrote: Change the file name to something else like "Drum Bounce Left.sd2" and "Drum Bounce Right.sd2" so that you remove the ".L" and ".R" which is how DP knows to keep them together as a stereo pair. Then drag each file independently onto a new mono track and you should be good to go.
You can just drag the files right onto the left side of the TO and DP will create the new mono tracks for you automatically.
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by James Steele »

philbrown wrote:
You can just drag the files right onto the left side of the TO and DP will create the new mono tracks for you automatically.
Doh! I forgot about that! Thanks Phil!
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newrigel

Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by newrigel »

Stuartfox wrote:Is there an easy way to split a stereo audio track into 2 mono ones in DP?

I am probably being slow - but I can't seem to find an easy way without bouncing....

Stu
I wished... there's no way of only highlighting one side and copying it, then creating a new mono file and pasting.
But to fix that I set up DP to use Amadeus Pro as my external editor and when I highlight a stereo (or any) file, it opens up in AP. So if you highlight a stereo track in DP and go to audio "edit in waveform editor" Amadeus launches and you'll see two files now. Then you just "save as" and name the file appropriately and it will save it in the file source's folder (the sessions audio folder) then just import the files as usual. You'll get each side instead of getting an interleaved file. This is what I've been doing for a while and it's pretty fast.
I have it set up to do edits that DP sound bite editor lacks.
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by daniel.sneed »

Not in front of my DAW now, but AFAICR, AudioFinder provides this as a routine.
http://www.icedaudio.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Shooshie »

philbrown wrote:
James Steele wrote: Change the file name to something else like "Drum Bounce Left.sd2" and "Drum Bounce Right.sd2" so that you remove the ".L" and ".R" which is how DP knows to keep them together as a stereo pair. Then drag each file independently onto a new mono track and you should be good to go.
You can just drag the files right onto the left side of the TO and DP will create the new mono tracks for you automatically.

Could you elaborate? I've been trying to do this, and I just get stereo tracks no matter what I do, even if I just drag ONE SDII file into the TO. (it knows the other one is there!)
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by newrigel »

Shooshie wrote:
philbrown wrote:
James Steele wrote: Change the file name to something else like "Drum Bounce Left.sd2" and "Drum Bounce Right.sd2" so that you remove the ".L" and ".R" which is how DP knows to keep them together as a stereo pair. Then drag each file independently onto a new mono track and you should be good to go.
You can just drag the files right onto the left side of the TO and DP will create the new mono tracks for you automatically.

Could you elaborate? I've been trying to do this, and I just get stereo tracks no matter what I do, even if I just drag ONE SDII file into the TO. (it knows the other one is there!)
Because it's imbedded in the bit header.
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Stuartfox »

Woah, I started something with this question - I just used the trim - great idea - its only 'cos I'm working on a doccumentry with a temp score in one channel and the dialogue in the other.

I do have another equally dull question I will post in a new thread...

Cheers guys.

S
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Mr. Quimper »

This is one thing that I really miss from Pro Tools that I hope DP will implement in the future. It's so easy in PT to just drag a stereo region into 2 mono tracks or drag two mono regions into a stereo track that I don't even think about it there.

MOTU gave me a floating control panel and floating quicktime movies and automatic backups. Would I be greedy to hope for this too? :mrgreen:
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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by Dan Worley »

Mr. Quimper wrote:This is one thing that I really miss from Pro Tools that I hope DP will implement in the future. It's so easy in PT to just drag a stereo region into 2 mono tracks or drag two mono regions into a stereo track that I don't even think about it there.

MOTU gave me a floating control panel and floating quicktime movies and automatic backups. Would I be greedy to hope for this too? :mrgreen:
Sounds like we ought to rub your head for luck. :wink:

It would be nice but it's not that important to me. I actually like sub mixing and converting tracks in real time. It gives me time to actually listen and consider things. Know what I mean?

c-ya,

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Re: Splitting stereo audio track into two mono ones

Post by martian »

Mr. Quimper wrote:This is one thing that I really miss from Pro Tools that I hope DP will implement in the future. It's so easy in PT to just drag a stereo region into 2 mono tracks or drag two mono regions into a stereo track that I don't even think about it there.

MOTU gave me a floating control panel and floating quicktime movies and automatic backups. Would I be greedy to hope for this too? :mrgreen:
i'd be happy as about this too .. its great feature in protools...

audiofinder is my way of doign it - just set it to be the ext editor in dp and ucan command jkey it it over,,, and if u bypass the processing folder in AF it will put the audio in the audiofiles folder - so cutting out on dupoed audio everywhere,..
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