Nested project should work.

Can be done fast and free with Audacity.

No sense in rendering an intermediate - just pan one left and the other right. If you would like to adjust the volume of left and right togethe, i.e. linked, (and if expecially if you have other tracks) send these two to a bus and use its volume control.

[b]just pan one left and the other right.[b]

Yep, but the OP apparently doesn't want to live that way.

right...its more a matter of the problem of vegas not having show/hide or groups or folder tracks...its about the clutter

Just do as tidbit originally suggested, only "Render to New Track" and delete the original tracks. Problem solved.

Well, you didn't say you needed to use the file as stereo in Vegas. From reading your question i had assumed you wanted to create a new output file.

However, in any case, panning them left & right in Vegas is way simpler and easier than any other method in just about any other software. It's a heck of a lot more seps to do this in either Sound Forge or Audacity. You can then shrink the two tracks to half height and then they'd look like a single stereo track. About the only penalty is that you'd have to treat them individually if you add effects or envelopes. In that case, rendering to a new track is an elegant solution.

Just a tip.
I think if you want to pan a mono track hard left or right you might want to change the pan pot to Constant Power or some such. Sorry Vegas machine resting so I can't be more specific but if you find your levels aren't what they should be right click the pan pot and try a different pan method.

Bob.

i usually put it @ 0dB

I would love to see this Pro-tools feature in a new version of Vegas.

Just grab 2 mono files and place them on a new single track as a stereo file.

As long as we stay away from the mono track / stereo track nonsense that is....

JHendrix,

Update: I was playing around with my Wave Agent beta today to answer another poster's question, and noticed it will do exactly what you want it to, and very quickly, too!

It's no longer beta, and still free. Mainly a metadata editor for .bwf, but lots of useful tools for audio editors, as well.

Thought you would want to know . . .

"I would love to see this Pro-tools feature in a new version of Vegas.
Just grab 2 mono files and place them on a new single track as a stereo file.
As long as we stay away from the mono track / stereo track nonsense that is.... "

"Stereo" is a consumer term. Pros work with tracks.

And one of my pet peeves is the whole concept of "stereo," at least using speakers. If you're using headphones then the following does not apply.

A quick recap (from Wikipedia): "During two-channel stereo recording, two microphones are placed in strategically chosen locations relative to the sound source, with both recording simultaneously. The two recorded channels will be similar, but each will have distinct time-of-arrival and sound-pressure-level information. During playback, the listener's brain uses those subtle differences in timing and sound-level to triangulate the positions of the recorded objects."

So far so good, the human brain interprets the time of arrival of the wavefront at both ears to derive the apparent source location. So you record what each ear would hear and then at a later time present it to the listener to recreate the original sounds. BUT THIS IS ONLY TRUE WHEN PLAYING BACK THROUGH HEADSETS, where each ear only hears what it's supposed to. If the recording is played back through speakers, now each ear hears not only what it's supposed to, but it also hears the sound destined for the other ear, with the accompanying time delay that is caused by the relative speaker placement. That the human brain is able to sort out this melange of information and make some sort of sense out of it is just a marvel.

There's a fallacy in that summation, which is that most pop music these days isn't recorded in stereo. Every component is close-mic'd in mono, then artificially placed somewhere in the stereo field during mixing. This does much more accurately reproduce a stereo sound field when listened to through speakers than had the source been recorded with a pair of distant mics. True, it's artificial, but it does work well.

Even that aside, that article seems to be a pessimist's worst-case scenario. I've recorded a lot of concerts, a lot a lot a lot. Most commonly i'll use an xy mic placement somewhere between 20 and 40 feet away from the stage. I'll then listen to the playback in my living room with a pair of speakers set in adjacent corners. According to that article i should have a field of mush. On the contrary, it is very apparent where instruments were on the stage. Left-to-right placement is easy to pick out. The experience is much more enjoyable than a mono recording would have been. I'll admit it may not be as accurate as using a headset would be, but that doesn't diminish the effectiveness at all.