What software is good for Turning Mono to Stereo ?

[VEBouto]

I have some old Beta Videos which still have a pretty good picture after all these years and i want to make them into some DVD's doing a straight capture from my Beta VCR to the Computer.
The Sanyo Beta VCR that i have is only mono and i was wondering whether there is some kind of software that will enhance the Audio from mono into something close to stereo?
Or even give it somekind of widening effect.
Thanks.

[tygrus2000]

You cant. But you can duplicate the same mono track to both stereo channels. SoundForge or Cooledit or just about any audio editor will do it.

[Gillies]

widening wouldn't do much i reckon. mono is mono. but u will be able to make it "stereo" during the encoding or capturing. u would have to edit the audio urself with an audio editor to make true stereo. but that's major effort.

[johns0]

One other suggestion is to try and find a hi-fi beta machine,might be hard to get but if the beta tapes were recorded in stereo hi-fi then the sound capture would be much better in true stereo hi-fi..

[VEBouto]

Hey guys thanks for the help.
What if i duplicate the same mono track on both channels like you suggest, but and this is just a thought.
If i open say the right channel in Sound Forge and cut off a few hundreds off a second off the track so it plays an absolute fraction before the left channel plays...hence giving it some kind of stereo effect....you know like when your listening to a cd and the guitar on the left speaker kicks in a fraction before the right speaker..giving it that stereo sound..but still keeping in time with the song.

Or what if i completely change the sound of the left side by EQ'ing it enought so there is a distinct difference in tone...still keeping the same pitch of course.

Do these suggestions sound ridiculous?

[lordsmurf]

Ridiculous. Stupid, quite honestly.

Dual up the tracks. It'll be fine. The only real "problem" with mono is it CAN be lower toned. CAN, not must.

Use SoundForge HIGH RESTORE filters (found on my site) to fix this.

[johns0]

Doesnt sound stupid to me.You could reduce the voices on one track so it sounds somewhat stereo.

[tygrus2000]

You will ruin the phasing of the recording and get garbled output. You can't recreate stereo unless it was recorded in that format to start with.

[Gillies]

well, technically u can. some movies have been remixed into 5.1 out of a mono master. mad max comes to mind. however it's a major effort to do and a pretty big waste of time for something from an old beta source. VEBouto if i were u, i would accept the mono sound.

[presto]

I doubt you'll get better sound than just putting the same track on each channel but it is hardly stupid to give it a try. There are programs that create simulated stereo from mono. You might like the effect even if the "audiophiles" think it is an abomination.

[junkmalle]

Just use a Y adaptor for your audio cables.

[lordsmurf]

I said stupid beause it will just be an echo effect, nothing more.

[BogieV]

I remember my old Yamaha Dolby ProLogic amp had program called MonoMovie. (I don't have any Dolby arround now due to the kids&neighbours problem ) It still sounded spatial and nice although mono.

I don't think he can make 'stereo' even after major effort. But it's good idea to search for some DSP spatial filter for the mono that has to be in both channles of coarse.

I'm interested myself is such plugin or filter effect exist?

[VEBouto]

I think i just might play araound with the Audio in Sound Forge like Lordsmurf suggested.
If there are programs that can simulate a stereo effect from a mono audio file, then that should at least sound better than the original mono ??

[NightWing]

There were boxes back in the 80's and 90's to do just that.

One that work well back then was an ADC Video Processor VSS-2 It has a function that did about the best you can have unless you have a hot rod sound editor and a lot of time.

[proxyx99]

I said stupid beause it will just be an echo effect, nothing more.

How so? This is often used to widen the eudio image on stage thus creating a simulated stereophonic effect. Familiar with dry/wet speaker concept? Effects used to spice up simulated stereo are delay (echo), reverb and chorus. Out of pure curiosity I found this link (on the subject of converting mono to stereo). Hope you find it helpful.

http://www.blazeaudio.com/howto/mono-stereo.html

[Cornucopia]

Notice the slight caveat at the end of that link:

These tricks won't make a mono recording sound quite as good as audio originally recorded in stereo, but, with some experimentation, you can make it sound pretty darn good.

Most people can easily tell the difference between true and synthesized stereo (which is what this is usually referred to as).

If you want an example of one of the best uses of synthesized stereo, listen to the Beatles "I am the Walrus". At about 1/2 way in, it changes to a mono-with EQ'd-synthesized stereo, just before John sings "sitting in an English garden..." On any good stereo, you can tell it's just a mono signal with the phasing being messed with. But, of course, for them and that particular song it works! It won't always work for other types of material.

I normally put this in the same category as Stereo-->Surround, Black-n-White-->Color, Monoscopic-->Stereoscopic, Std Def-->HiDef.
Sure, you can fake it, but unless you spend vastly inordinate amounts of time dicing things up and re-working them, it's usually not worth it cuz it's clearly not the real thing. I ought to know, I've spend hundreds of hours working on the above problems. Remember the adage: "You can fool some of the people all of the time,...."

Scott

[BogieV]

Very good link of advise but still not easy enough.
Unless you are doing some comercial project I wouldn't bother to spend the time to edit the audio in an editor.
Nothing within some of the video manipulating softs?
For example in VirtualDub you can add filters to process the image even while converting. How about having some sort of plugin to manipulate the audio in the same time?

Note: I'm just starting so I don't have any experince with the mentioned program - just challenging the possibilities.

[proxyx99]

To make it clear: making a stereo from mono is never gonna give the result which could challenge original stereo recording. I just use a Y splitter, never bothered with duplicating tracks, and eventually add a little reverb. One can also reverse the phasing etc. In my opinion not worth spending more time on it. These are just home projects, not film festival submissions.

[chicola]

VEBouto,

If you have an AV Receiver capable of simulating different sound profiles (including "recreating" stereo), you would just have to make you VCR mono output going through the Receiver and connect it's output to your PC. The video would be a straight pass to the PC.

In this case, a direct copy would do the job, without much software hassles. You could quickly change between your Receiver equalization profiles and see which one would be the best.

Just a thought...

[VEBouto]

Hey great idea Chicola, i might just give that a try.
& thanks proxyx99 for the link.

[fmctm1sw]

Fantastic topic. Different opinions, different ideas. This is why I check in about every day....

[gshelley61]

There are several vintage processors that can simulate stereo from a mono source... nowadays they are very inexpensive to acquire from eBay. Here's a few Archer units that have the stereo synthesiser/expansion feature, plus DNR. Might be worth a try since that is what they were designed to do:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50593&item=5716673462&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21166&item=3835891903&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14978&item=5717464400&rd=1


Here's an old ADC/DBX video sound unit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14978&item=5716204036&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[VEBouto]

Thanks gshelley61, i will check those ebay listings out.
I also thought that some of the real old Beta video clips that i have , i will just rip the audio off a cd then compress it to ac-3 then match it up to the Video that i capture, instead of using the original beta mono audio.
Iv'e done this a few times and its quite easy, so i'll use this as another option.
Thanks again to everyone for their ideas.

[c_hernandez32]

Supposedly Bose lifestyle units can turn mono TV shows into 5.1 surround sound. How, by forcing you to believe that you spent $3000 on the "best" speakers, when you actually bought crap. I don't know if that helps?