Editing only one (left or right) channel in stereo recording

[Leonardo]

I have just downloaded the free WavePad 3.05 version. Looks pretty good to me, much better than other audio editors I have seen.

Yet I encounter a problem that is new to me, which did not occur in other software like Audio Editor Gold or CoolEdit.

When recording in stereo from an external source, e.g. a cassette or tape deck, the difference in volume between the right and the left channel may be quite big. During the recording, there is no wave shown in my screen, so I can't check this. It's only when the recording is finished that the wave is shown and that is where I discover the difference between the left and the right channel.

I can't find any option where I can select the soft channel only in order to amplify that channel to make it equal to the other one. When I choose option Amplify, WavePad amplifies both channels.

 

Is there a solution, or is this something that I have to get used to? Previously I used Audio Editor Gold, and never had this problem there.

Thanks!

[Guest nchgb]

I believe WavePad records whatever is sent to it. If the volume is not centered correctly, check your Windows volume settings (double click on the speaker icon in your system tray) and make sure that they're all centered. If need be you can correct the problem here as well.

[musikone]

I believe WavePad records whatever is sent to it. If the volume is not centered correctly, check your Windows volume settings (double click on the speaker icon in your system tray) and make sure that they're all centered. If need be you can correct the problem here as well.

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By "here," I assume that you are referring to correcting the problem of a channel unbalance using WavePad in its normal editing function; i.e., _after the recording has been made_. If this is what you are saying is possible with WavePad, then this is certainly news to _me_! Have you ever done it? Even if you have not, exactly how would you go about adjusting the volume of just _one_ of the two stereo channels, without affecting the volume of the other channel?

 

I believe that this is the question which was asked.

 

 

Musikone

[in my normal "interpreting" function :-)]

[Leonardo]

Thanks for your support, but it just makes no sense to me why there is no option to select only one channel in order to amplify that only channel; everybody who tries to make a stereo recording in WavePad should see that there should be a way of balancing both channels!!

 

By doubleclicking the speaker in the right bottom corner of my screen I can't solve this problem; the amount of amplification needed is only visible when the entire wave is in your screen, so AFTER recording.

In other Audio Editor software selecting only one channel never seems to be a problem at all, you just select the left or right channel wave and then amplify that selection. If WavePad is not able to select only one channel, what it the advantage of WavePad anyway? Even every single old-fashioned analog cassette deck is able to do that!!!

 

If no "one-channel-selection" - tool is available, there's no use in buying the WavePad software. Then you could better stick to software that has better performance.

 

Best regards

[Manxman]

I have just downloaded the free WavePad 3.05 version. Looks pretty good to me, much better than other audio editors I have seen.

Yet I encounter a problem that is new to me, which did not occur in other software like Audio Editor Gold or CoolEdit.

When recording in stereo from an external source, e.g. a cassette or tape deck, the difference in volume between the right and the left channel may be quite big. During the recording, there is no wave shown in my screen, so I can't check this. It's only when the recording is finished that the wave is shown and that is where I discover the difference between the left and the right channel.

I can't find any option where I can select the soft channel only in order to amplify that channel to make it equal to the other one. When I choose option Amplify, WavePad amplifies both channels.

 

Is there a solution, or is this something that I have to get used to? Previously I used Audio Editor Gold, and never had this problem there.

Thanks!

 

I also just downloaded the FREE version WavePad so that I could transfer some OLD reel-to-reel tape recordings.

These old recordings used the Left and Right Channels as separate individual tracks for the recordings.

Now that I put them in WavePad I need to separate them to produce individual Mono tracks.

I wonder if I am also stuck with the same problem of not being able to treat the Left and Right tracks individually.

 

Thanks

[Leonardo]

Hi Manxman, yeah, that's exactly my problem! In my case I copy radio plays from reel-to-reel to mp3. Though reel-to-reel has much more charm, the sound quality of the tapes (reels) decreases with the years.

WavePad has a strong recording performance: easy, quick etc. Editing both channels at the same time is fine too. It's only when it comes to editing only ONE channel (which is unavoidable since reel-to-reel recordings are never 100% balanced) where the problem starts.

I follow the next steps: first, I record my reel-to-reel to mp3 in WavePad, then cut the silence at the very beginning and after the end of the recording, together with some other editing, then save the file as mp3. Then I open my old editor, which is Audio Editor Gold, open the mp3 file there and edit the channel that needs to be edited (Audio Editor Gold has this option as a standard setting but the program is very slow and takes a lot of virtual memory; so I record in Wave Pad and then balance the channels in Audio Editor Gold).

I agree that this option should be standard in WavePad, but apparently people don't see the point.

It's not a very nice solution, but it works for me.