Splitting stereo to L/R mono tracks

I have a stereo WAV file of a conversation with two mics, one in each input, so they appear to be panned hard L/R. I'd like to split the stereo file into two mono files, one with the left channel and one with the right channel, so I can edit them in multitrack. I have not found a solid conclusion as to how to do this for LPX 10.3.2. I'd prefer not to use an external editor for this one, seemingly simple, function. Thanks for your help in advance!

I think that you could achieve this by loading the wav file on 2 different tracks, pan hard left and hard right accordingly each track, then bounce-in-place each track. Then follow one of the method described here.

That is brilliant! I have seen that asked before (may have even asked it myself) but never seen an answer so simple and perfect..

 

Steve

I'll give that a try. Thank you David!

Excuse me, guys, this is NOT the same as splitting left and right.

Or am I wrong?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems that when you pan left, you sum the two channels and drive them toghether to left...

Excuse me, guys, this is NOT the same as splitting left and right.

Or am I wrong?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems that when you pan left, you sum the two channels and drive them toghether to left...

Not sure which post you're referring to exactly. My solution (framed in green in this thread) does not involve panning and is indeed splitting left and right.

Excuse David, u're right, I was refferring to another post. ...but... how to "...click hold its input format..." ?

Clickhold this on a channel strip:

I would place the audio onto a stereo audio track and click hold its input format, choose Left, bounce in place (don't include volume/pan), then choose Right and bounce in place again.

 

How is it possible not to include volume/pan in this case.I don't see an option to include or exclude them.

I would place the audio onto a stereo audio track and click hold its input format, choose Left, bounce in place (don't include volume/pan), then choose Right and bounce in place again.

 

How is it possible not to include volume/pan in this case.I don't see an option to include or exclude them.

In the "Bounce in place" dialog:

 

Sorry to bring this up again.This track splitting way suggested by David is excellent.But the only thing is that now while experimenting with a recording done with Apogee Duet with 2 mics connected left & right ,I find the quality & depth of each mic lacking (while soloing them )when compared to recording just a mono signal with just 1 mic connected to duet.Not sure why! Do I need to change the Logic pan settings anywhere? Right now it's the default pan setting.

 

Thanks.

That's the reason we record some things in stereo. They sound better. Summing them to mono is not the same sound. And that's not just Logic. All recordings are that way. Stereo is a beautiful thing in the right setting. So is mono.

 

Steve

That is definitely true.But I was surprised that when soloing the individual tracks in mono, the same mic sounds different when it was done as a stereo record (now in mono mode) than just feeding a single mic into the left channel of the Duet's input.

the same mic sounds different when it was done as a stereo record (now in mono mode) than just feeding a single mic into the left channel of the Duet's input.

It should sound exactly the same, except for any gain change applied by the pan law. Test it with a pan law of 0 dB and you should get the exact same sound, same level.

Will figure out what pan law means but when I finally checked it,it sounded the same.I must have had the left,rights confused.But I’ve been curious about the waveform: When recording in stereo each channel’s wave form is either above or below the center line.While recording mono the wave form looks full on both the sides.So overall is there any loss in quality while recording on just one channel although Logic has the convenience of choosing mono or stereo,left ,right in the channel strip?

Will figure out what pan law means

It's a setting under File > Project Settings > Audio which affects how gain is adjusted (normally it's automatically increased) while you pan a sound from the center to one of the sides.

 

When recording in stereo each channel’s wave form is either above or below the center line.While recording mono the wave form looks full on both the sides.So overall is there any loss in quality while recording on just one channel although Logic has the convenience of choosing mono or stereo,left ,right in the channel strip?

No loss in quality, the waveform is only a representation of the audio data in the audio file and because a stereo signal has two audio signals, a stereo audio region displays the two waveforms that way, while the mono region takes advantage of the full space in the region and shows you a bigger waveform. It's only cosmetics.

Converting interleaved stereo files to split stereo files is still possible in the Project Audio Browser. Just right click on the audio file and choose Copy/Convert File(s), then in the ensuing dialog choose "Stereo Conversion: Interleaved to Split", uncheck "Add resulting files to Project Audio" (to prevent Logic from re-interleaving the two resulting mono files) and choose *a different* destination folder than the one the audio file is in (if I use the same folder I cannot get this to work reliably, probably because of a bug)

Just checked, you don't need to choose a different folder as destination, but in that case you will need to change the destination file name (so if the original stereo file is called "My Greatest Hit.wav", you cannot use that name)

Oh and if you want to use the resulting mono files separately, you must change their file name extension - if you keep the .L.wav and .R.wav extensions, Logic will re-interleave the files upon importing, you will not be able to import them as separate files.

Awesome .Thanks for the excellent responses.

Awesome .Thanks for the excellent responses.

You are welcome!