Divide the two channels of a track in different files

By Jose María Ortiz Silva, 31 October, 2012

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macOS and Mac Apps
Hello, My name is Jose and I am writting from Spain, so the first thing is to apologize for my English, I hope that you andestand me well. I have an audio track with two different channels, one left and one right. The left channel is my voice and the right of a person's voice by skype. I would separate the audio from each of the channels in two different files, I have heard that it can be done with amadeus but have not found a way, not if it is not accessible. Do you know if this can be done? Thank you very much.

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By Esther on Monday, November 5, 2012 - 08:28

Amadeus Pro has an option to split a stereo track into two mono tracks. You can either navigate to the "Split tracks" button in the toolbar, where it is the third button after the "record" button (e.g., "Add track", "Delete track", and "Split tracks"), or you can select the "Split to Two Mono Tracks" menu option under the "Tracks" menu on the Amadeus Pro menu bar. Either option will perform the same function. Once the tracks have been split, there will be two separate tracks in the scroll area. You'll be able to tell this because when you navigate or right arrow past the track name, volume slider and play check box to the playback channel pop up menu button, instead of "front" VoiceOver will announce "front left". Then, if you continue to navigate in the scroll area, you'll reach a playback pop up menu button labeled "front right". If you press command-z to undo the "split tracks" command and then continue to right arrow through the controls of the scroll area, the pop up menu button will change back to "front". So one way to make two separate mono tracks of the left and right audio channels is to split the tracks, then in the scroll area first uncheck the "play" check box (using VO-Space) for the track with the "front left" playback channel and use the "Save a copy as…" option under the "File" menu on the Amadeus Pro menu bar, and name your track (e.g. "Right track"). Then go back to the scroll area and check the "play" check box of the track with the "front left" playback channel and navigate to the next "play" check box for the "front right" playback channel and uncheck it. Then use the "Save a copy as…" menu option under the "File" menu again and name your track "Left track". For example: 1. Open your file in Amadeus Pro 2. Press Control-F5 to move to the title bar 3. Navigate with Right arrow (in QuickNav mode) or VO-Right arrow to the "Split Tracks" button and VO-Space 4. Interact with the scroll area (VO-Shift-Down arrow) and navigate to the "play" check box and uncheck it (VO-Space) (You can continue to navigate to the playback channel pop up menu and check that VoiceOver says "Front left") 5. Press Control-F2 (or VO-M) to move to the menu bar; press "F" to move to the "File" menu; arrow down to "Save a copy as…" and press "return" 6. In the dialogue window type in a name for the right channel and save the track. (You'll be shown a warning that the track will lose information and be flattened into a single track; proceed anyway). 7. Press command-z to undo your last action, which will check the "play" check box of the left channel 8. Interact with the scroll area and navigate past the "play" check box and playback pop up menu for "front left" to the next "play" check box for the right channel and uncheck it with VO-Space. Again, you can continue to navigate to the second playback menu button to verify it is set to "front right" 9. Press Control-F2 to move to the menu bar; press "F' to move to the "File" menu, and arrow down to the "Save a copy as…" and press "return" 10. In the dialogue window type in a name for the left channel and save the track. 11. You're done. You can press command-z again to check the "play" checkbox for the right channel, and if you want to rejoin the two split tracks of your input recording you can press command-z a seond time.

Thanks a lot, your explanation was wonderful. I was using Amadeus Lite so I diden't find the options, I downloaded de pro version an all work OK. An other question, is possible to save file in mono? I mine, now i save the file and my voice hare yn the left chanel and i'd like thae its in the center. Thanks again.

You can open your saved track in Amadeus Pro and use the "Convert Track to Mono" option under the "Tracks" menu on the menubar to get mono versions. If you just want to save the left channel directly as mono, there's a faster way to do this. After you split your tracks in step 3: 4'. Move to the "Tracks" menu on the menu bar (Control-F2, press "T") then arrow down to "Delete Track" and press "return" Then use step 5 to use the "Save a copy as…" option of the "File" menu as before, and in the dialogoue box type in the name of your left (not right) channel track. This will save a mono copy of your left track. You can use Command-z to undelete that track. What happens when you split tracks is that focus for Amadeus Pro's selection is on the last track in your multi-track project, which is the right channel. Deleting the track with current focus leaves only the left channel, so when you do your "Save a copy as…" command there is only one track present, and it is saved as mono. You can verify that only the left track is present by pressing the space bar to play. A sighted user would click with mouse or trackpad in the waveform region of the scroll area to select a track. You can experiement with moving your cursor to a control like the first "play" checkbox for the left channel in the scroll area, turning VoiceOver off, then stroking down a short distance with your Trackpad or moving your mouse down and clicking to select the left channel, then turn VoiceOver on again. If you try this, you may need to first route your mouse cursor to your VoiceOver cursor (VO-Command-F5) before turning VoiceOver off, if your cursor tracking is set to "Mouse Cursor Ignores VoiceOver Cursor" under Navigation in VoiceOver Utility. Once you select the left channel, you can use the "Delete Track" option in the "Tracks" menu on the menu bar, check by pressing space bar to play/pause the track that you really have the right channel, then use the "Save a copy as…" option of the "File" menu to save a mono copy of your right channel. The alternative is to follow the earlier directions of my first post for creating a cipy of the right channel by unchecking the "play" checkbox for the left channel's track. If you also change the popup menu button for the track that has "play" checked so that it is set to "Front" instead of "Front left" or "Front right", you'll generate a stereo version when you apply the "Save a copy as…" option, with the same track in both right and left channels". In either case, when you save your result as a stereo track, you can read it in again to Amadeus Pro and use the "Convert Track to Mono" option in the Tracks menu. Remember that with Amadeus Pro you can undo your previous commands with Command-z and go back multiple steps this way, so don't be afraid to experiment. You can also take the precaution of making a copy of your track before editing. HTH. Cheers, Esther