Questions about Audacity.

[Jay]

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?

[Jonas]

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.

[Jay]

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. 

[Jay]

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.

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)?

[hypehat]

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

[Jay]

But how do I make a new mono track?

[hypehat]

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

[Jay]

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

[hypehat]

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....

[Jay]

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.

[Jay]

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

[Jay]

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?

[Jay]

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.

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

[hypehat]

Because Audacity rarely operates on reason or rhyme? 

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.

[Jay]

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

[Jay]

Because Audacity rarely operates on reason or rhyme? 

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.

OK, I gave up on Audacity.  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.

[hypehat]

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....

[Jay]

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*

[Jay]

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

[hypehat]

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

[Jay]

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. 

[hypehat]

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

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?

[Jay]

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?

[hypehat]

"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'....

[Jay]

"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".