How do I set left/right channels with Audacity 2.2.1?

[DSperber]

I feel a bit stupid here, because I simply cannot find how to do this with the newest Audacity 2.2.1. Will someone please just push me in the right direction.

I had previously been using 2.0.6 and noticed today that 2.2.1 was the latest version when I was about to do something I knew perfectly well how to do with 2.0.6. So first I updated to the latest 2.2.1, and then started my simple task. I just wanted to extract the DD5.1 audio (AC3) out of an MPG video clip I had made (using VideoRedo) from a Windows Media Center WTV file recording. The goal was simply to convert this 5.1 audio to FLAC, down-mixing the 5.1 channels into 2-channel stereo.

With 2.0.6 this was a trivial task. Just open the MPG file and all six tracks appear. With DD5.1 the six tracks are: L, R, C, SUB, LS, RS. Initially they are all treated simply as six "mono" tracks by Audacity.

Then for each of the four left or right tracks (i.e. 1, 2, 5 and 6) just click on the small down-arrow on the right side of the little track label at the top of the information area on the left side of each track. A dropdown menu appears, with "mono" currently checked, but with "left channel" and "right channel" shown directly below.



So for the two left channel tracks I click on "left channel", and for the two right channel tracks I click on "right channel". Now I have the left/right channels assigned properly. And the remaining two C and SUB they are already defined as "mono" and so will be downmixed equally into the new 2-channel stereo FLAC audio-only file I am creating.

Then I simply click on Tracks -> Max and render, and a new downmixed 2-channel stereo result appears. I then click on File -> Export audio..., and with FLAC selected I simply navigate to the target folder and name the file as I want, and VOILA! I'm done.

Imagine my frustration when I embarked on the exact same approach using the newly upgraded 2.2.1 of Audacity. For some reason they have clearly MOVED the track channel designation mechanism to somewhere else, which I simply cannot find. Unless there is already an understanding about the channel assignments from the opening of the MPG file itself, I don't know how to now designate which of the 6 channels is left or right, so that the down-mix to 2-channel stereo is correct. And even if there is already an understanding about the channel assignments without my having to specify them, what if I wanted to reverse channels or otherwise fool around? Surely I should still be able to identify each track and how I want it treated, and you'd think it's still available in 2.2.1 but just moved to some other menu navigation location.

Here is how that new 2.2.1 dropdown list looks, which you'll notice DOES NOT HAVE the "mono" or "left channel" or "right channel" items as appeared on the 2.0.6 dropdown list.




So, please, can someone direct me to where and how in Audacity v2.2.1 I can now assign my tracks as left or right (or leave them as mono), for purposes of downmixing into a 2-channel stereo result?

Thanks.

[netmask56]

The text of your post seems to indicate you posted an image of the new menu? Not showing. Maybe you should ask on the Audacity Forum, I did that when I had a problem and got an answer almost immediately

[hello_hello]

Did the left and right channel options ever make sense? I don't use Audacity much but I recall if you had two mono tracks (for example) and set one as the left channel, it'd still show as a single channel panned centre but it'd only come out of the left channel. If you panned it to the right there'd be no output from that track.

You can still pan mono channels left and right or join them as stereo tracks or split them etc, so maybe the left/right channel options were removed for being potentially confusing? Or maybe I never understood their real purpose, if they had another one.

[netmask56]

How Dolby Digital decoders downmix 5.1 to stereo.

The default downmix levels for Dolby Digital 5.1 are:
Center: -3dB to Left, -3 dB to Right
Left Surround: - 3 dB to Left
Right Surround: - 3 dB to Right
LFE: Ignore, Not Downmixed

[raffriff42]

maybe the left/right channel options were removed for being potentially confusing?

I agree; the menu items are still available but they have been 'buried' in the menus:
http://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Tracks_Menu#Pan_.C2.A0


[Attachment 44726 - Click to enlarge]

[hello_hello]

maybe the left/right channel options were removed for being potentially confusing?

I agree; the menu items are still available but they have been 'buried' in the menus:
http://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Tracks_Menu#Pan_.C2.A0

Ah yes.....

Although I'm not sure that's the same as the old left/right channel options because when using the Tracks/Pan/Left,Right,Centre menu it adjusts the pan slider for the selected tracks accordingly, whereas previously I think the pan slider remained in the centre.

Is it just me or is the new GUI look somewhat fugly? At least it does on XP with the "classic" Windows theme because it's a mixture of two styles. I've never been a fan of the "flat look". I'd hoped it was a phase that would pass fairly quickly.

[DSperber]

maybe the left/right channel options were removed for being potentially confusing?

I agree; the menu items are still available but they have been 'buried' in the menus:

Many thanks.

Personally, I find the use of the term "Pan" non-inuitive, but then I'm not a professional audio person nor am I the software author. But given that I obviously didn't just immediately investigate the Tracks menu in my hunt for where the feature would now be located, and select that PAN item assuming that's where I would find the LEFT/RIGHT/MONO control... well, to be honest, I think the choice of "PAN" as the heading wasn't something I would have guessed at. I don't know why it was moved from the dropdown list heading each track itself (where even rookie me found it immediately, investigating what that down-arrow FOR THIS SPECIFIC TRACK would reveal), but if they took an opinion poll I would vote "negative" on whether this was a good change or not. I honestly question why it had to be disappeared from that down-arrow list at all, even if PAN was to be added to the Tracks menu.

Oh well.

And once the LEFT or RIGHT is selected and the "channel" graphic on the track simultaneously moves, I now assume I could have just directly pulled that "pan" slider (drawn on each track) all the way left or right in the first place to accomplish the identical result of designating the nature of this track. I probably didn't need to use the dropdown arrow menu with the old 2.0.6, and I probably don't need to use the Tracks -> PAN flyout with 2.2.1. But then I'm not fluent in Audacity, so once a long time ago when I learned how to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish, I just never experimented further.

Anyway, thank you again for the much appreciated instructions for how to get this done with 2.2.1.