Left/Right Channel Assignments?

Sol M. wrote on 6/18/2003, 11:27 AM
I just did a video project yesterday that involved the following:
-Interview with lapel mic on channel 1 (left)
-Music track with 2 channels (left/right)

Quite simple I thought, but when it was dubbed to VHS and played through a mono vcr piped through a soundboard running all audio on only one channel (right), only the music came out! No voice whatsoever!

I'm just trying to understand this because throughout my whole editing session, I could hear the interview audio perfectly fine through both speakers. I seems as if I got a stereo mix with the interview audio coming out of only one channel (in this case, the left channel).

What can I do to:
1)Make sure the audio (from one or both channels) is divided equally amongst both channels?
2)Be sure that this never happens again?! (it wasn't pleasant to edit for 5 hours and the piece not be shown due to the audio problems).

Any info is greatly appreciated!

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 6/18/2003, 1:37 PM
Place the audio portion of the clip into your project twice, on two separate tracks, synced with each other. Right-mouse-button-click on the first one and choose Channels / Left only. Do the same with the other one choosing Channels / Right only. You now have two mono tracks that you may mix as you wish.

If you want something even simpler you can choose Channels / Combine, but then you lose the ability to adjust the levels of the interview and music independantly of each other.
Sol M. wrote on 6/18/2003, 8:30 PM
If I choose 'left only' or 'right only', does that mean that the audio will be routed only to the left or right respectively? Or does it mean that I can choose the left or right (or both) channel to be spread out across the left and right channels?

What I find confusing is that even if I choose something like 'left only', I still am unsure of what exactly may happen upon finally printing to video, due to what recently happened to me. I guess I just have to experiment to quelch the uncertainty, but I would sure welcome any signs within Vegas to tell me how my audio mix is going to work out. Any ideas?
midigod wrote on 6/19/2003, 8:24 AM
"Or does it mean that I can choose the left or right (or both) channel to be spread out across the left and right channels?"

That one.

To find out what will happen when you print to video, I would monitor through the deck you'll be recording to. It sounds like you were monitoring from the computer upon mixing, but the vcr upon playback. Not a good plan, especially now that you know that only one channel is being used for your playback monitor.

If you can't reliably do that, I'd run a mono mix, meaning selecting the audio channels as previously described, and panning all the channels you use to the center. Since you cannot hear what the final product will be, you'll have to depend on using the meters to make sure you're actually in mono.
CorporateSound wrote on 6/20/2003, 8:54 AM
Back to the original question, how did you output the program from the computer to VHS? What model of VHS deck was it recorded on?
Sol M. wrote on 6/21/2003, 6:29 PM
I simply printed the sequence to DV, then later connected the dv cam to a vhs deck (stereo) and recorded it to vhs.