Audio help.

vidiot57 wrote on 8/20/2005, 10:10 AM
Hi all,

I am working on a DVD of a concert that was shot in the early eighties..It was dumped from betacam to miniDV and the miniDV tapes were given to me to capture and edit for a DVD..When I capture in Vegas.. looks like i do not have stereo audio, i only have audio on one side, the other side is a flatline.. Could it be that was the way it was recorded ? Or maybe the dump from betacam was not correct ??

Maybe it was recorded as mono.. Anything i can do about this??

Thanks,
Mike m.

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 8/20/2005, 10:39 AM
I don’t know what might have happened in the dub, but in Vegas you can right-click on the audio, select Channels and then Left Only or Right Only to convert the audio to Mono. At least it will play out of both speakers with the same volume (since it looks like you only have a mono recording on one channel anyway).

~jr
vidiot57 wrote on 8/20/2005, 12:23 PM
Hello,

i went back to take a second look, and it kind of gets weirder.. I took the tape to my FX1 and used that, insted of my Panasonic deck.. Now here is the weird part..When i play the tape in the camera, and wear headphones i can hear the sound on both sides..Also when I hit the "Status" button on the camera as it is playing back, the little audio bars come up, and i see activity for L and R.. ?? But when the clip is captured, it only shows audio on one side, the other is flatlined..?? Any idea.. The camera is set to mulit sound -stereo
audio mix-shows a bargraph all the way to the left..
audio mode-16 bit..

It sure looks like something may not be right in my Vegas settings??

Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

PeterWright wrote on 8/20/2005, 11:10 PM
The camera setting may be spreading the audio to both sides for monitoring, even though it may originate from one.

Vegas will normally capture whatever's on tape, so I would suspect that the dubbing process caused this. Have you tried Left or Right only in Vegas if it sound ok I would go from there.
My previous camera did this when an external mic was used, and I got used to using Left only to put it out both sides, without problems
vidiot57 wrote on 8/21/2005, 7:14 AM
Hello,

If i set it to left or right only..You will then be pumping the one side to both sides correct? I know this is not true stereo, but will the stereo light come on the playing device??

Thanks,
Mike m.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 8/21/2005, 7:21 AM
> I know this is not true stereo, but will the stereo light come on the playing device??

Yes. If you render it in stereo then it will create a left and right track with the same information. As far as any playback device is concerned, it is a stereo signal.

~jr
ottowr wrote on 8/23/2005, 9:34 PM
If the footage was transferred to a camera such as the PDX10, or another Sony device that has the same Vegas stereo audio capture problem as the PDX10, you may want to try capturing it with Scenalyzer instead and see how that goes.

good luck!
Edin1 wrote on 8/23/2005, 11:15 PM
You will know it is really Stereo if the channels sound different at times, like having people scream on one side, and not on the other, or having any sounds significantly stronger on one side compared to the other. Anything that gives you an impression of space, and NOT just everything sounding the same as if it's originating from the middle of your head.
Stereo refers to spatial, in order words, giving the impression of space. Stereo (two) pictures (at slightly different angles) give you a 3D visual impression.
PeterWright wrote on 8/23/2005, 11:41 PM
There are ways of simulating a "sort of" stereo effect when you start with the same on both sides.
Basically applying differential settings between the sides, such as EQ, reverb etc - important not to overdo. You can even try moving one side to be fractionally ahead or behind the other.
NonsensMovieBV wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:53 AM
Well this sollution Peter mentioned is indeed a way to solve the feeling that everything sounds in the middle. However, you need to take this in consideration too: there are still mono televisionsets and there for a "faked'' stereo might give some problem in playback! Why? Because the phase is slightly changed and that may end up in a signal that becomes weaker and sometimes stronger (not a nice sound!). This occurs because when two of the same waves are shifted the might end up partly or completely in opposite movement (compression versus decompression) in the same time. Then they will cancel out. When you shift the track too much or when EQ-ing to hard, those phase shifts will have some cancelations or in the worst case a total cancellation.

Solution: After you EQ-ed or (phase)shifted the left or right track, check it by listening in MONO modus (if your program supports that). If it sounds like you got drop outs or the sound becomes much softer, you need to adjust again.

Another way is to make a 100% shifted track (phase reversed) so with a 180 degrees shift. Make a third track that you place exactly panned in the centre and the two other tracks(the one in phase and the one in antiphase) extreme left and right. Then push up the middle as far as it sounds in balance with the left and right track. (so you wont hear a 'gap' in the middle of the stereo sound, nor you should lose the wideness of the sound by making the centre track too loud) This way you don't need to move the tracks, you simply make stereo by having those left and right tracks in a 100% antiphase and you still got a mono signal in the middle that stays intact when playing on a mono device...For sure mono compatible!