Stereo recording problems with Audacity
Question:
I have 2 tape decks with two tapes. On each deck I feed the one Left output and the other Right output to my PC linein sound card. Using Audacity editor, I split the converted output to a left and right track and duplicate each track. I was expecting a stereo output from each of the duplicated track but I got only a mono output.
How would I get a stereo output from each separate Left and Right track?
Answer:
I can think of three possible solutions for this problem.
1) The cabling that runs from your left/right output to your PC input is not stereo, but mono. Some Y-splitter cables split audio into two channels, but they keep a mono audio format. Make sure the cabling you use for Audacity specifically says it’s a stereo cable.
2) In Audacity’s Edit->Preferences menu, check the Recording settings in the “Audio I/O” tab. Make sure “Channels” is set to “2 (Stereo)“.
3) If neither of the above fix your problem, you could always do the following:
a) Record the left audio track with Audacity. Save this file.
b) Record the right audio track with Audacity. Save this file.
c) Use Audacity to combine the files into a single file with two (stereo) audio tracks. While it’s a little more work, and takes twice the recording time, this will give the result you’re after.
Deon D'Lise:
Just like the other enquirer,I too have tried to record stereo with Audacity but it will only record mono.
1 December 2008, 8:48 amI have checked everything, and find that my copy of my sequencer program ‘Cubase SX3′ also ‘Fruity Loops’ also ‘Reason’ also ‘Ableton Live’ and others- all professional audio programs have no problem receiving the same stereo signals.
Whilst my sound-cards -M-Audio Audiophile 9512- again a ‘professional’ product also responds correctly to stereo input.
In view of all the above, and also your previous response, consider that perhaps, you don’t know what you are advising about?
Possibly you may care to download and try out the program for yourself?
Since it is obvious that there is a big fault in Audacity, and the plain fact is that ‘Audacity’, as presently constituted/ supplied, is a mono-only recording utility.
I guess that it combines both L & R stereo signls as a mono signal, hence- pretty useless.
Deon D'Lise:
You can create- from preferences, a set of ’stereo’ tracks to record on untill you are blue in the face, but as soon as you hit ‘record’, it immediately creates a new Mono track and records to this, leaving the created stereo tracks blank.
1 December 2008, 9:04 amIn the distant past, I recall- somehow- managing to record stereo, but when I saved these- both as ‘exported’ Mp3 and ‘Wav’they turned up in the file as separate left and right hand mono channels.
For such a seemingly ’simple’ utility, it does seem to have some inherrent complexities, pity!
However, I find it handy for recording snippets of BBC radio- talk- broadcasts in mono of course.