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Subject:Isolating Left Side of Audio field
Posted by: Yep
Date:10/25/2014 12:57:42 AM

I'm trying to find a way of isolating the left side of and audio field on a stereo sound track. I'm not even sure if that is the correct terminology.

What I want to do is effectively split the track in two and mute everything from centre field to the right so that I can only hear what is on the left side of the field. I've tried using balance controls but that just seems to move everything over to the left side.

I'm sure there must be a way of doing this but can't figure it out.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Subject:RE: Isolating Left Side of Audio field
Reply by: Steve Grisetti
Date:10/25/2014 8:59:06 AM

How you do it depends on if you just want the left track to play out the left channel or if you want the left track to play on BOTH channels.

Subject:RE: Isolating Left Side of Audio field
Reply by: Chienworks
Date:10/25/2014 9:37:19 AM

Well, the simplest thing to do is to mute the right channel. You can select only the right by dragging the mouse below the center line in the right channel, or with newer versions simply click the "2" in the channel header at the left edge. Process / Mute will silence it. You'll be left with only the left channel.

If your intention is to create a mono file then Process / Channel Converter is the way to go. Select mono output and Left at 100%, right at 0%. You'll have a mono file containing only the left channel.

Note that these do not eliminate the center, they merely get rid of the right. Anything that was in both channels will still remain. There's no good way to remove the center. All 'center elimination' techniques end up combining the two channels so the result will be left + right combined. This stems from the fact that in a stereo recording, there really only are two things: Left & Right. Center is a phantom created by sounds that appear in both.

Subject:RE: Isolating Left Side of Audio field
Reply by: rraud
Date:10/25/2014 11:53:47 AM

Another method to create a mono file: right-click "Stereo" in the bottom most status bar, choose "1 mono" and select the desired left or right channel.
Note: If saved this is a 'destructive' process, so 'Save as' if the original stereo file may be needed..

Subject:RE: Isolating Left Side of Audio field
Reply by: Yep
Date:10/26/2014 4:05:50 AM

Many thanks guys - that was very helpful. I wanted eliminate as much as I could on the right and have the remaining left channel centred. With your help it was very easy.

So many thanks again for taking the time to educate the uneducated :)

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