Video Audio Editing

[daveleonard]

I recently downloaded a nice movie I was looking forward to watching. When I played it the sound track played both English and Russian at the same time. There is no option to play one or the other of the languages. Using a video editor would I be able to untangle these two languages and only play the English? Thanks

[redwudz]

No. Can't be repaired unless they are on two different audio channels.
This was a somewhat common practice for movies converted in Russia.

[daveleonard]

Ok thanks, that is all I needed to know.

[jagabo]

A lot of Russian videos use a special technique where one channel has Russian+English (or whatever) on one stereo channel and Russian-English on the other. When you listen to this a a stereo track you hear both languages. But if you set the player to mix the channels as left+right or left-right you will get: Russian+English+Russian-English=Russian*2, or Russian+English-Russian+English= English*2. I don't think mamy players outside Russia support that type of mixing. But you can easily do the same in an audio editor.

One other possibility is that English is on one channel and Russian on the other. If that's the case you can just mute one of the channels. Most players have an option for that.

[daveleonard]

Well good, I happen to have an audio editor. I will see if I can figure it out. Thanks.

[jagabo]

All you have to do is downmix to mono. If that gets you the wrong language invert one of the stereo channels and downmix again. That will give you the other channel.

[daveleonard]

Thanks jagabo but what you are saying is way too advanced for me. Here is my problem: I have Audacity editor but it cannot open the video file. Audacity suggested I take out the audio file and put it in WAV format. I tried to open the video with my "Free Audio Editor" but of course it won't open it because it is a video file and not an audio file. What do I need to do? Is there an app I need to download? Thanks

[manono]

AoA Audio Extractor can demux just about any audio and convert to WAV audio from just about any video source.

[daveleonard]

I was able to extract the audio and convert it to an MP3 audio file. I loaded it into my audio editor but I find no option to mix the channels. I can add an audio tract and that's about it. What do I do now Thanks

[smrpix]

Adjust levels and output.

[jagabo]

Get the ffmpeg source plugin for Audacity. It will then be able to read audio from pretty much any A/V file.

After opening the audio in Audacity use Tracks -> Stereo Track to Mono. Do you hear only one language now?

[sneaker]

"Stereo Track to Mono" will not work because it mixes. If anything he needs to test "Split Stereo To Mono" and then e.g. delete one or the other new mono track.
http://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Audio_Track_Dropdown_Menu

[jagabo]

"Stereo Track to Mono" will not work because it mixes.

No, for the type of encoding that's often used in Russian videos Stereo Track to Mono is exactly what he wants.

[sneaker]

Ah, ok. I thought one channel would be Russian and the other one English but now I read your explanation above. Sorry for the confusion.

[daveleonard]

I downloaded the ffm peg and extracted all to audacity but when I try to open the file to work with the audio i get the error "audacity cannot open file, you must first extract the audio to an avi file. Or something like that. I was able to make an mp3 file of it however. Thanks

[jagabo]

I should have given you a link:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#How_do_I_downloa...ort_Library.3F

[daveleonard]

I downloaded the zip and plain win versions of the library and installed the library from win version. Then I went to pref to locate the file. But, audacity cannot locate the file. So then I went directly to where I loaded the library and tried locate again in audacity. No luck. I never did see the .exe file in the download. Audacity will open the mp3 audio file of the movie if this helps. Thanks.

[jagabo]

The plugin isn't an exe file, it's avformat-55.dll. Mine is located in the main Audacity folder.

[daveleonard]

Apparently the avformat-55.dll.mine is not in the zip or win file I downloaded to my pc. I cannot open a .dll file so I cannot check it but when audacity searches for it nothing is found. I downloaded both the zip (and extracted it) and the win file. Thanks

[jagabo]

You downloaded the wrong package. You want "FFmpeg v0.6.2 for Audacity on Windows.exe" or the ZIP version from here:

http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl

[daveleonard]

I hate to be a smudge/problem but audacity still will not open the video. Should I convert this file to another format? Thanks

[jagabo]

Did you tell Audacity where the dll is? Edit -> Properties -> Libraries -> FFmpeg Library -> Locate.

[daveleonard]

When I go to pref and try to "locate" audacity does not find it. I put it in the audacity folder twice and still audacity cannot find it. So then I browsed for the location but the file is not there in audacity where I put it twice so I cannot show audacity where it is. Besides, this is an executable file. It has its own installer which I used and installed. Confused.

[daveleonard]

Case closed.