Mono to Stereo audio

How can I change mono clips 2 channel audio into Stereo 1 channel?
Do I have to recapture everything?
Thanks!

No you don't. Select the clips in the browser that are A1+A2 format and Make Offline from the File menu (importantly choosing the option - "Leave on Disk"!).
Now CTRL-Click in the browser on one of the selected clips where it says "A1+A2" and change it to "Stereo".
Finally select Reconnect Media from the File menu and they will now open up as Stereo clips with a single audio tab in the Viewer.

Martin Baker
www.digital-heaven.co.uk
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There is an easier way to do it...

Make Timeline active and press Shift+L to Unlink your video from audio and then select audio tracks A1 and A2 then press Option+L to make them stereo Pair, deselect audio tracks and press Shift+L again to link the audio and video together. I hope this will help.

Harry

use martins aproach if you have just captured your clips.

hary's aproach is ok if you have cut them into a timeline, but it woint fix the browser clips if you are still cutting.

Martin, you will be disapointed that your technique doesnt work in FCP5.
not even with Offline clips, i fear.
or have you got it to work in FCP5?

nick

Actually......Is mono better? Should I stick with 2 tracks?

When I go to Cntrl click the "2 Mono" track in the browser it says "no shortcuts"? any ideas?

<Actually......Is mono better? Should I stick with 2 tracks?>

up to you.
i like stereo pairs because i can rubberband both tracks at once.
often thats how my audio is recorded,
and even i have 2 mikes going to sep chanels, i work in stereo pairs, as the times i want to manipulte the volumes independantly are rear.

i DO pan my stereo pairs to the center if i've got sep chanels,
select once its in the timeline,
and control >
or modify menu > audio

"When I go to Cntrl click the "2 Mono" track in the browser it says "no shortcuts"? any ideas?"

either you havent made them offline yet,
or you're working in FCP5

nick

Yes, I am in FCP5....Is there a way to do it? Thanks a million for the replies!

not in the browser.

that's my point.

you'll have to use the timeline to make stereo,
Harry's got a couple of steps to many:
you can simply plonk all your rushes in a timeline, select them, and Option L

then make a new bin for your now-stereo rushes, and drag them back there from the timeline.
but when you match frame, you'll get Ch1+Ch2 in the viewer.

:-(
UNLESS....

you batch export your now stereo clips as reference files.
that is, NOT self contained.
the audio gets re-formatted, and is actual hard-media, but the pic is refering back to the original

nick

I am in the process of converting mono to stereo. I think stereo has a richer sound.

I recorded mono in 2 channels with slightly higher levels on one than the other.

Now that I am going stereo, I deleted the higher level track, duplicated the lower level track, and now I'm linking them as stereo pairs.

Problem one: FCP (I'm in 4.5) won't let me link the clips at the track level-- if I select both tracks and press option-L it doesn't do anything. It's making me link pairs clip by clip, which is verry slow. Is there a faster way I'm missing?

Problem two: well, this isn't really a problem, but earlier Nick wrote:

i DO pan my stereo pairs to the center if i've got sep chanels,
select once its in the timeline,
and control >
or modify menu > audio

Why pan them to the center? My audio controls seem to default to pan left ("-1". I've tried right, left, and center and can't tell a difference in sound, at least for the clip I'm working with. And it's another parameter to have to change manually, which is a pain.

Thanks!

sorry, dylan, no faster way with what you;re doing.

if you;ve got dual mono, which you do,
then there is no need to pan to the center at all.

in my case i had two distinct audio tracks: a mic on each of two actors.
it was disconcerting having one actor coming out the left, and the other coming out the right.

in your case, with exactly the same audio on both tracks, center pan, or stereo will give you the same result.

i cant hear them, of course, but i'd say there's nothing "richer" about the tracks you are creating.
dropping one chanel might make them a bit clearer.
doubling that up will do NOTHING but raise the volume by 3db.

you will also have the matchframe isues i mentioned.

if you match frame your clip, you will bring up the original 2 tracks in to the veiwer.

to get around that, you'll have to batch export as reference files

the "faster" way is to not do what you;re doing.
there is very little benefit to it.
if you had the same mic going to both chanels, but with one side a bit lower than hte other, then simply panning the original clips to the center without the fiddling around should give you almost exactly the same result.
and that could be done in one go:
drag to timeline, select all pan to center, drag back to new bin.
match frame issues still exist.

nick

Yes Nick I have noticed that the behaviour has changed in v5...

I have literally hundreds of pop video clips on archived disks and if I import these directly into FCP5 then the old trick of making offline etc doesn't work because it refuses to accept them as stereo clips (even though they have a single stereo soundtrack).

Seems that if you open an FCP4.5 project into v5 then the stereo thing works correctly. XML clip export from v4.5 into 5 carries the stereo status across correctly but weirdly reverses the channel pan if your original clip was A1+A2 and you changed it to stereo inside FCP4.5...it's a minefield out there :-)

At least the XML export panning bug has been fixed in FCP5 and audio mode during matchframe now works correctly to clips which aren't in the current project.

Martin Baker
www.digital-heaven.co.uk
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