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I have a few questions about Audacity and I was hoping somebody could help.

1. Once you save an Audacity file, how do you convert it to something like Winamp, or an AVI. file?

2. I was playing around with "panning" between the left and right channels. I noticed on a recording that there are certain instrument and vocal elements that are only on one particular channel. My question is, how do you take one channel of a song(the left, for an example) and move it to the other side(the right)? In other words, I want to be able to hear a specific channel of a song, but on both the left and right speakers playing simultaneously. Is there even way to do that with Audacity?

1. You want to export the file to be able to save it as any file format that isnt Audacity's.

2. You can highlight the whole channel, copy it, and paste it on a new mono track.

Thank you! I just tried to extract and it worked.  ;D

Could you try to explain a little more clearly on how I paste it on a new mono track? I copied the specific channel I want. But I'm stuck on what to do next. Where do I go(edit, view, transport, etc)?

Make a new mono track, then paste your copied audio into that. Simple.

But how do I make a new mono track?

In my latest copy of Audacity, it's under Tracks>Make New. but in older ones, it's under Project iirc

The track that I'm using is stereo and it is telling me copying a mono track to stereo isn't allowed.

well, no - I don't think Audacity can divide it against itself... The result would be something like duophonic, right?

In response to your initial question, Split your stereo track. Now, there should one marked left, and the other right. Click on the dropdown menu on the track, and instead of Left make it Mono. Delete or mute your other track.... If you want it 'stereo', instead of making it mono, duplicate it and turn the duplicate to Right....

I can't get the split function to highlight to be able to click on it. I can do "split new", but the new track is the left one, just like the first file.

Edit: I just now got the split function button to work, but when I click it absolutely nothing happens.

I figured it out!!  ;D Thanks a bunch for all the help!!  ;D

I have one more question about Audacity. Let's say that there is a recording with an equal amount of vocal and instrumentation on each channel. Is there a way to totally remove the vocals of a track, and keep the music? Whenever I hit the mute button, it mutes the entire track. Or can it be done in Adobe Audition?

Ok, I did it once before a few days ago...so why can't I do it now? lol

Because Audacity rarely operates on reason or rhyme?  ;D

I don't know about your new query - you could try making it Out Of Phase, i suppose. which I think you can do with a click in the latest version - vocal remover, or somesuch.

Alternately, split your stereo track ( i think you got confused last time, as theres the dropdown menus on the top of the window, but I meant the one on the track itself - that little arrow).

Make both mono, on the same dropdown menu.

Then select one track and invert it - voila, you have  removed yr centre channel and hopefully a big chunk of vocals. Although this is rarely perfect.

Oh, perhaps I should mention that I'm using Audacity 1.3 Beta, if that makes any difference.

OK, I gave up on Audacity.  ;D I managed to do what I wanted using Cool Edit Pro...and the damn time limit for saving files expired on my demo version. I have the greatest luck.  ::)

I'm confused about when you said split the track. I have two options, "split new" and "split". I did "split" and absolutely nothing happens. If I click "split new", it creates a new track...but it's just an empty space. No file is there.

It's an option on the track itself, not on the menu across the top! Click on the arrow just by the name of the track....

*deleted*

Ok, I split the track on the drop down menu, but they are both marked as the right channel.

Get back in that  dropdown menu, should be able to change that! Options for Left, Right, or Mono...

Ok, let's start at the beginning*. When I load the file into Audacity, I go into the "drop down menu" and split the track? Do I have to "highlight" file file first, before I do anything?

*I'm sorry if I'm bugging the hell out of you by now.  ;D

You can post me a beer if this gets REALLY out of hand  ;D

Yeah! We're talking a stereo track into two mono tracks, right? If, for some reason, both of them claim they are right channel, you can change that in the same menu again.... What next?

What I would like to do is take the right channel of the recording and move it to the left side, so you hear music coming from the left and right speaker, but only the right channel. I panned the track to the right channel and saved the file. Should I use that file, or use the original? I'm using the "right channel only" version I saved last night. Anyway, I load the file in Audacity and "highlight" it. I then go into the little drop down menu on the file itself, and not the one at the top of the page, right? I clicked on "Split Stereo Track" It is now showing two files, and both are panned to the right side. Now what? I tried panning one of the files to the left side, and then muted the channel. I'm stuck on what to do next. Have I done it right so far?

"What I would like to do is take the right channel of the recording and move it to the left side, so you hear music coming from the left and right speaker, but only the right channel."

If I parse this correctly,you can use that same little drop-down menu to take your single, right channel track and make it mono, hence it comes out both speakers. Either delete or mute the left channel.

Just to clarify, when i say it's labelled left right or mono i'm talking about the little dialogue just under the name of the track, not the panning dial - that will stay central despite the track only playing out of the right speaker, in a spectacular feat of logic.

I'm kinda confused as to why both are coming out as 'right channel' when you make the split, though - are you panning the Stereo track to the hard right before splitting? It should become two tracks, one marked 'left' and the other 'right'....

I can see in the drop down menu an option to make the track mono, but for some reason it is not highlighted, so clicking it does nothing. There is also an option to "split stereo track to mono".

I have two versions of the recording. One is the "regular" version with the right and left channel, and one that I panned to the right channel only. Which one should I be using? So far I have been using the one that is panned to the right side only.

Use the regular one, then the right channel should behave itself....

all you should really have to do is split the channel, then click the right channel into mono and delete/mute the left channel!

Shall PM you my address for that beer  ;)

Ok, I loaded the regular version, and in the drop down menu I have two options which are highlighted. Split stereo track, or split stereo to mono. Which one do I click?

Stereo to mono! Then mute the top one - Audacity stacks them left-right = top-bottom... that do it?

That did it! THANK YOU!!  :bow  :drunks :beer :beer :beer :drunks

Remember Jay, Brian Wilson did not have audacity!

Not necessarily. It depends on the meaning. He had the audacity to let "Doctor" Landy have a songwriting credit.  ;)

That's an interesting thought though. I often wonder what it would have been like if people like Brian Wilson or George Martin would have had access to Audacity or Adobe Audition back in the 1960's.

They'd have been bogged down with 'why the f*&*#?k isn't this f@*&ing working, f&%$k this, I'm off to the pub'  ;D

Glad it worked, finally!

Guess what? I have a new Audacity problem.  ;D I put in a cd from the beatles stereo remastered box set into the computer. I wanted to put a song in Audacity. But when I tried to send a song to Audacity, I got this message: Audacity recognised the type of the file as 'C:/Users/SusanSmith/Desktop/08Happiness Is A Warm Gun.wma'. Importers supposedly supporting such files are FFmpeg-compatible files but none of them understood this file format'.

What the hell does that mean? lol It won't let me put any songs from the cd into Audacity.

simple - Audacity doesn't like the file. Try converting it into a mp3? itunes can do it, although not sure about Windows Media Player...

The box set says that it's been incoded to keep you from burning copies, so I thought it might be because of that.

The weird thing is that I have it as a winamp file, and every winamp file I've had so far has worked in Audacity.

I figured out how to convert files to mp3. I'm going to have a lot of fun with the Beatles remastered stereo set!!  ;D

I have yet another Audacity question. How do I join two separate pieces of music together? I have two pieces of music, and I want to put one at the end of the other, to make one extended piece of music.

Surely you can just use the little <-> arrow tool to put them next to eachother, then export the whole shebang?

Where do I find it? I don't see anything like you described.

Next to the record button there should be a block of 6 'tools' - normally the one which looks like a capital I is selected. There should be one that kinda looks like <-> in there, which enables you to move audio about. That clearer?

My Audacity tool bars didn't look like that at all. But I went into "view" and clicked the "reset tools" button, and it rearranged the tools bars, and it looks pretty much like you described above. I found the "capital I" and the <-> buttons. Now I just have to figure out how they work. lol  ;D

Ok, could anybody give me a few pointers on how to edit recordings together? I managed to do it once, but of course, I can't figure out what I did. lol

*cough*

Thats really vague. What are you trying to do? How many recordings? Edit how?


I should say, tenatively, that using the aforementioned <-> tool can get the separate clips lined up next to each other, where exporting it will give you an mp3 of it.

I'm working on a few SMiLE mixes. I'm trying to edit a few pieces of different Vegetables mixes together to make a new mix. I can put a recording on top of another so they're both playing at the exact same time, but that's not what I want. I want to connect the sound files so one plays where the other one ends, to make one extended piece of music. Did that make sense?

Take your first track, splice where you want it to end, delete the excess, then splice the section of the second track where you want it to start, delete the excess, and drag it to connect to where the first track ends.

How do I drag it?  ??? I don't see a way to do it. I have every individual piece edited the way I want it, all I need to do it connect the parts together.

Nevermind.  ;D I figured it out. Apperantly I had to click on the "<->" icon before I loaded a song in.

OK, I'm having problems with Audacity again. I'm hoping somebody here can help me out. I'm trying to piece together two seperate pieces of music together. I tried it last night and everything worked ok, so I know I'm just doing something wrong. Why can't I get one sound file on the bottom, and the other above? It keeps opening a second Audacity main page, instead of having one file directly above or below a secod one. Did that make sense? I hope it did. lol Anyway, whenever I've edited two pieces together, I always have one file right below the top one, and I just slide the file to the top and just move it to where the other sound file ends. I've been pressing the "<->" icon, but it's not working the way it did last night. lol

You should just be able to select "Project>import audio" and it will add a new separate stereo track below whatever is already there. Not sure what the problem would be if that doesn't work.

Thanks, I figured it out a few days ago. I was trying to open from the "recent files" in Audacity itself. I forgot that you have to save files and then import them from where you saved. I still make a few noob mistakes sometimes.  ;D

Now, I have a question!

I know the whole 'split track to mono>invert one channel' removes the centre channel. Now what I posit to you is.... how do you keep the centre? From my limited knowledge, I'm wondering whether it's possible in Audacity? Is that where the hardcore spectral analysis comes in?

I was just about to post another question.  ;D I want to be able to hear one recording in one channel, and something different in the other channel. Two different recordings playing at the same time, only seperated between channels. I know how to combine recordings to synch up, and I know how to edit one section to play directly after the other ends, but not how to do what I've described above. I know how to save a recording that I panned to one side though. If I save the right channel of a recording, and the left channel of another, what happens when I try to put them together? I don't want to have an equal amount of audio on both sides. I want to be able to hear specific sounds on each seperate channel. Confused yet? I am.  :lol