audio Audio - Mono Channel With Multiple Tracks

[sbgaming]

Since 6.2x I have a situation with more than one audio being added to a project being split to left and right channel, even if the tracks are stereo.

e.g. 1st audio goes to the right channel, 2nd  to the left channel etc

I reloaded a previous project, and this is also happening to that project. so it is not my source. This is completely messed up.

In fact, if you have just one audio added to the project, it goes to both left and right channels.

Why does every release of VideoPad come out so broken? Every single one. I have produced over 800 videos with VideoPad. I am always hesitant to upgrade.

[borate]

See this thread.  The problem described may have been corrected in the latest version, 6.23.

If these suggestions do not remedy the issue, please share a short project that demonstrates it, and someone will check it out.  Here's how...

1.  Save your project.  Then, with it on the timeline, click the FILE menu. SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT AS to any convenient folder.

2.  Open the folder that contains the saved files and ZIP them all.

3.  Upload the zip file to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like.  It's free.

4.  Make the uploaded file public (share it) and copy the shared link.

5.  Paste the link into this forum.

[sbgaming]

1 hour ago, borate said:

See this thread.  The problem described may have been corrected in the latest version, 6.23.

If these suggestions do not remedy the issue, please share a short project that demonstrates it, and someone will check it out.  Here's how...

1.  Save your project.  Then, with it on the timeline, click the FILE menu. SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT AS to any convenient folder.

2.  Open the folder that contains the saved files and ZIP them all.

3.  Upload the zip file to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like.  It's free.

4.  Make the uploaded file public (share it) and copy the shared link.

5.  Paste the link into this forum.

Thanks, Borate. But I am running 6.23. Same issue. Even with old projects that were fine. It is nothing to do with the source files.

I use stereo for game content and mono for narrative commentary. Always have. If there is one audio track, it plays to both left and right channels, even if mono (as expected).  But as soon as there is a second audio track added to the sequence it then plays out of one channel only.

It's a bug. It needs a fix, not a workaround from 2017.

I rolled back to Videopad 5.32 and the problem has gone away.  It is clearly a 6.xx issue.

Unless fixed in 6.xx soon, I will be asking for a refund.

 

[borate]

Recorded a left-channel only voice here and it played in 6.23 only on the left channel whether it was the sole track or after stereo music was added.

That's the expected behavior, now that the earlier described bug has been fixed..

Then tested a voice that had been recorded onto both channels - and it played in 6.23 on both channels, whether or not there was a stereo track.

The solution is to record your voice tracks as center-channel mono, to both stereo tracks.

[sbgaming]

No. It has not been fixed.

800 plus videos produced using VideoPad and 6.xx is BROKEN.

25+ years in IT and I know how to determine if something is broken.

6.xx is BROKEN.

[sbgaming]

19 minutes ago, borate said:

The solution is to record your voice tracks as center-channel mono, to both stereo tracks.

2

It is. I use OBS to record, I use Audacity for post audio processing. Are you saying Audacity is not as good as WavePad. Please don't. That would just embarrass yourself. 

6.xx is BROKEN.

[sbgaming]

Going back to 5.32

 

[borate]

Both Audacity and WavePad are fine.

VP's earlier behavior of moving a single-channel recording to the center was incorrect.  In 6.23 that no longer happens.  If a left-channel alone is recorded, it now stays on the left channel.  Same thing in Audacity and WavePad.

Use a stereo mic, an inline adapter for a mono mic that will output to both channels, or perhaps an adjustment/configuration in the recorder app.

Virtually all mono recordings have identical waveforms on left and right channels, when played via two-channel stereo systems.  This is confirmed by viewing playback of an old mono vinyl record here.  It plays center channel. no matter what stereo device or application is used.

Please upload one of your source files to a server - DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like - make it public and link the file here.  Someone will check it out.

[sbgaming]

I don't think you understand. 

My audio is 100% fine. Has been for 100s of videos. 6.xx no longer fine.

I just moved the project files to Davinci, it works 100% as expected. It is VideoPad that is broken.

It's NOT incorrect if it is working as per user expectations. Stupid developers making arbitrary decisions that don't match use cases is the problem.

6.xx is BROKEN.

No. Audio is 100% fine. I won't upload.

 I will simply stick to the earlier version and do a charge-back.

[sbgaming]

57 minutes ago, borate said:

Virtually all mono recordings have identical waveforms on left and right channelsEqually when played via two-channel stereo systems.  

1

Mono. Play left and right. Equally. Across both channels. Unless explicitly set not to on a case by case basis. Like every other application except VideoPad 6.xx. Idiots.

[borate]

Works here as tested with Mp3 files.  What file type is being imported into VP there?  Is it two-channel stereo or encoded for surround sound?

If you won't upload a sample project or voice file no one can help track it down and, if indeed it's a bug, fix it.  Good luck!

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

Downloaded a stereo test file in wav format. (Left, Right, centre ..In-Phase, Out-Of-Phase )  The WAV files are 48 KHz/16bit/Stereo.I placed this on Audio Track 1 with an image on Video track 1

The Audio correctly played Left side....Right side and then mixed. Exported as mp4 and it played correctly (Keeping preferred audio channels as per input....2)

I then split the track and dropped the right audio section onto Audio track 2 and dragged it back so it was below the left audio section on Audio track 1. When played in VP the left and right aspect of both tracks was retained as expected. Exported as an mp4 and the sound played as expected (right and left channels kept separate)

Added a mono mpeg4 clip (both channels presumably identical) to follow the image clip. Split the stero audio clip again dropped the right hand portion to Audio track 3. The whole sequence of three audio tracks played correctly with left, right and centre channels all mixing together but retaining the right/left/centre output.

This seems OK for me (VP 6.23) but perhaps sbgaming is using a different type of stereo file.

Nat

[sbgaming]

Mono track plays left only, despite having pan set to centre. This is not a "feature" nor is it correct behaviour. It is a bug. It was introduced in 6.xx

All other application tested play mono track equally left/right unless explicitly told not to. They do not make arbitrary decisions. 

Changing the audio pan in VideoPad makes no difference. Mono remains left channel only.

"In mono, only one loudspeaker is necessary, but, when played through multiple loudspeakers or headphones, identical signals are fed to each speaker, resulting in the perception of one-channel sound "imaging" in one sonic space between the speakers."

[sbgaming]

2 hours ago, Nationalsolo said:

"mono mpeg4 clip (both channels presumably identical)"

 

No. Mono is a single channel. It should be equally distributed in a multi-channel environment unless specifically configured not to. This is a well-established standard. VideoPad 6.xx breaks this standard. Therefore it is a bug.

[borate]

With all due respect, you are incorrect.   Mono, when played in stereo devices is not a single channel;  it is two identical channels.

Download a left-channel only mp3 file and open it in any player.  Tested here:  Creative Wave Studio, WavePad, Windows Media Player, PowerDirector, MPC-HC and Videopad. Every one of those devices plays the file as left-channel only, which is the correct behavior.  It will not be heard center channel, no matter where pan is set.  If panned right, there will be no sound, because there is nothing on the right channel.

Incorrect behavior in some earlier VP versions would cause a a left-channel only file to play on both channels - unless a stereo track was added to the project.  Then the left-channel track would be heard only on the left channel (as it should be), necessitating the workaround described in a related thread.

UPDATE:  The incorrect behavior is still evident in 6.23 for a non-center-channel mono file.  See below.

That procedure converted the left-only file into a true mono file - equal volume on both channels - resulting in a perceived centered audio image.

This is so-called center-channel MONO.  All voice recordings that are to be played on a stereo device should be recorded in this manner.

 

[sbgaming]

8 minutes ago, borate said:

With all due respect, you are incorrect.

Download this left-channel only mp3 file and open it in any player.  Tested here:  Creative Wave Studio, WavePad, Windows Media Player, PowerDirector, MPC-HC and Videopad. Every one of those devices plays the file as left-channel only, which is the correct behavior.  It will not be heard center channel, no matter where pan is set.  If panned right, there will be no sound, because there is nothing on the right channel.

Incorrect behavior in some earlier VP versions would cause a a left-channel only file to play on both channels - unless a stereo track was added to the project.  Then the left-channel track would be heard only on the left channel (as it should be), necessitating the workaround described in a related thread.

That procedure converted the left-only file into a true mono file - equal volume on both channels - resulting in a perceived centered audio image.

In my 50 years of recording experience we referred to this as center-channel MONO.  All voice recordings that were to be played on a stereo device were recorded in this manner.

 

Guess we disagree on definitions and technical standards then.

[borate]

A Videopad tutorial with a centered voice was brought into WavePad.  It displayed as center-channel mono (equal gain on both channels).

Converting it to a mono file discarded the right channel, resulting in a file that contained only the content of the left channel.  Yes, this is the type of mono file that you describe.

Still, as seen in Wavepad, the result sports both left and right channel audio, but that centered audio is now strictly what WAS the left channel of the original stereo recording.

However, the single file reverts to left-channel only if a stereo track is added.  This indeed is  likely what you see in 6.23.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

sbgaming wrote:... "Mono track plays left only, despite having pan set to centre. This is not a "feature" nor is it correct behaviour. It is a bug...."

I have to agree with this.....see below

Also in my post I stated that my mpeg4 clips were mono  In fact  they do indeed have two channel sound as shown by the properties that VP put out for the clip. I have to say I have never noticed a stereo effect in clips from his little Toshiba camera  (I do use stereo sound camera with this one when recording my orchestra rehearsals from time to time)  but as a result of this thread I took a closer look at the manual for the little Toshiba. This doesn't actually mention stereo sound in the specs but the mic is labelled a stereo mic. The holes for the mics are in fact very close together on the camera so the stereo effect is minimal but the output IS two channel.

Borate wrote:   "However, the file reverts to left-channel only if a stereo track is added"

I have confirmed this with the addition of another anomaly....

As a test I created a short .avi using a webcam. This had a single mic and the resulting clip was shown by VP to have a single audio channel.

1. On its own on Audio Track 1 (stereo pan setting center) it seemed to play OK BUT the stereo pan box in fact behaved like a fade control. Moving it from extreme left to extreme right the soundtrack simply faded out. The sound did not go from left to right speakers (in earphones) I was expecting the single channel sound to start in the left ear and transfer to the right ear. It didn't do this,. Two channel soundtrack from my normal mpeg4 clips does so.
2. Adding a normal mpeg4 clip to the same Video track so as to follow the ,avi  corrected the left-right sound output for the .avi
3. Pulling the avi up to the overlay track (avi audio now on track 2 with the mpeg audio on Track 1) the avi audio was now only heard on the left. It should central. The mpeg audio (the only one with the slider) went from left to right with the slider as was expected.

Nat

[GregBr]

SB Gaming, how did you roll back VideoPad to a previous version?  I'm ready to record season 2 of my Youtube channel and VideoPad use to ask me which audio tracks in my MP4 files I wanted to import. It no longer does.  I use to be able to make my video recorded with OBS64 as an MP4 file with the desktop on channels 1 and 2 and my voice over on channel 3.  I'd then copy the file and make a 2nd file called EpsiodeXX_ voice.mp4

I'd import the first file and VideoPad would ask which audio tracks to use, I'd select 1 and 2.  I'd then import EpisodXX_voice.mp4 and tell it to use track 3. I'd then de-couple the video and audio tracks on the voice file and delete the video track.  That way I'd have a stereo track for the desktop and my mono track centered for my voice and only a single video track

But VideoPad no longer ask me which audio tracks to use when I import MP4 files.  I've cleared the disk cache under the options menu with no luck.

I agree, it's really frustrating.  It use to work.  

 

 

[borate]

Is this the licensed (registered) version of VP?  If not, there are limitations on the number of tracks and some other features after a trial period.

If a track is available you should be able to drag the audio to the area beneath an existing audio track where it states "drag and drop your audio clips here to mix."

[sbgaming]

8 hours ago, GregBr said:

SB Gaming, how did you roll back VideoPad to a previous version? 

...

I agree, it's really frustrating.  It use to work.  

 

 

 

When I bought the updated version it asked if I wanted to take a backup when installing. After past experience, I always do now as I can't recall a single release that has not had some new quirk or breaking bug. If you email support they will send you a download link for the previous version.

What I suggest is you use audacity to open your file, it will ask which tracks. Then export as "multiple" and add those files to your project as a workaround. This is how I get my multi-track audio as VP has not asked or provided a split function for some time now. My source from OBS is mkv, and yes, it always used to work until a few versions ago.

[c_major]

Sorry for the late reply - we've been away for a long weekend.

Through investigation, we did found a bug - if all clips on a track are mono, the mono signal will not get distributed even the output is stereo.

We apologize for the inconvenient and will get it fixed in the next release.

[Tomus]

Hi,

 

I have a similar issue that probably is the same bug? Thought I'd share, just in case.

If I add a mp4 video file from my gopro its is in stereo, but if I add a mp3 music file from Youtubes library, I can suddenly only hear the mp4 video in the left channel. The mp3 is stereo.

If I remove the mp3 music file, the mp4 videos sound is back in both channels.

 

Is it the same bug?

[borate]

Quote

Is it the same bug?

No doubt.  If you mute the stereo channel/s as a test the mono mp4 will probably move to the center.

There's an easy workaround, while the developers address the issue.