How to Fix Audio Only on Left Side: Stereo to Mono Conversion in Pro Tools

How to Fix Audio Only on Left Side: Stereo to Mono Conversion in Pro Tools
In this video, we talk about how and why we sometimes end up with a stereo track with audio only on one side! We also talk about a couple of ways to fix this issue in Pro Tools. Hope you like it!
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[@Only1Science]

Great video! You can also right click any stereo track and select "Split to mono" and delete what you don't need. It's the same process, but that works best for my workflow.

[@eldhaww8326]

Thanks for sharing it ! Bless

[@BrendaK66]

Very helpful! I am working on my first "outside project" (mixing job in addition to composing/recording string arrangement), and faced with loads of stereo tracks that I expect would normally have been recorded in mono, which appears to be adding noise and muddiness to the mix while unnecessarily consuming CPU resources. These solutions are more efficient than the workaround I figured out on my own to clean up and edit the session. What's interesting though is that I am finding in this project that the left channel seems more prone to containing the unwanted noise, and by muting or deleting that and keeping what signal remains on the right channel, it's giving me a cleaner sound that aligns better to the rhythm tracks. Thank you!

[@CatoNoise]

Oh yeah, I've actually seen that (noise is worse on one side than the other) issue with the CEO network audio that I process. I think maybe it's something about the way some recording devices tend to break or develop noise over time? It's really weird.

[@timothyblack5054]

Thanks so much, this issue was driving me crazy!

[@MimreTV]

Thank you, I made that mistake myself, but now after using you method, it's solved 😀

[@bryanwest9216]

Brillant. I had a rough band recording in stereo with keys way out of balance. As it turned out they were mainly on the right track which I can now balance with the other track

[@nilsunderseer2157]

If thats an issue what your "students" often have, they should probably consider another education. The simple information what all this video is about comes actually at 5:30 and is quite the most complicated way to do it. First of all: PT supports right click menu on track > "convert to mono" which is doing exactly this what she is doing with drag and drop and far too many steps involved. Besides that dragging the wrong way can cause nudge issues and the right click command copies all exisitng data with it into the new 2 mono tracks automatically. And second: the more interesting way would be to keep the original track integer to possibly come back to it if it was the wrong decision or simple to know that it is based on a previous stereo track. Splitting all the tracks could become VERY messy in film sound design and mix sessions like for cinema with over 400+ tracks, what we have often here on desk. You better find a way to just run the left channel with a discret stereo or channel mixer plugin like the pro tools "downmixer (stereo>mono)" plugin or by routing the left channel into a mono aux. Which would be the best option if you have multiple tracks with the same issue and the same needs of channel mixing.

[@blackazuul]

THANK YOU

[@eldhaww8326]

Thanks for sharing !

[@ignaciorosado6811]

this is exactly the help I needed

[@studio48v43]

Awesome!

[@HimanshuAryan-v7r]

thankyou

[@northcarolina7742]

YOU SAVED MY LIFE WITH THIS!!! 🔥

[@CatoNoise]

Woohoo! Glad to help!

[@Dr-Pepper15]

I recorded all of my audio through a 2 channel interface in mono tracks and yet it only goes through the left ear as a matter of fact the whole session is all in the left ear any solutions to that?

[@kkrotobeatz]

i should pay you for helping me out👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@OttoLeeProductions]

Amazing video thank you!

[@Haitian.Peachh]

thank you so much! omg this solved my problems :)

[@CatoNoise]

Oh good! I'm glad to help ^_^

[@MH-il1lk]

Thank you!

[@SAMUEL-we1lx]

Thanks for this video

[@CDanger]

thank you

[@Salman-Q]

Hello, This may not be the best place to ask, but can you put a video explaining how headphones/monitors produce sound that seems mono or stereo. To me they are just pumping up sound but how do the speakers decide to make it seem like it's inside my head or it's surrounding my ears as in stereo. Thank you :D

[@sawndesmahat2000]

thank u

[@jatinshasan]

I want this help for fl studio

[@chieh-anyu409]

Thank you for great info! Is there anyway that you could swap left and right channel in pro tools first?

[@CatoNoise]

I'm not super familiar with what Pro Tools First has and doesn't have, but I think you should still have the pan knobs in the mix window (above the faders, just a little below where it says "auto"). You can just turn each of those so that they're all the way to the other direction, and that will make it so that the channel that was previously panned to the left is now panned to the right, and vise versa. Let me know if you have any trouble and would like any other help with that, good luck!

[@chieh-anyu409]

@@CatoNoise thank you so much! I’ve tried that, and I am just wondering if it actually messed up the recording itself since I don’t really know how pan works. I was recording a classical chamber work and just found out afterwards that I accidentally plug the mics in the wrong channel so the left and right was reverse

[@CatoNoise]

@@chieh-anyu409 oh cool! Yeah, it shouldn't mess anything up. They call the first channel the "left" and the second one the "right", but you can actually pan them whichever way you want to, so they're sometimes a bit of a misnomer. Good luck with your project!

[@chieh-anyu409]

@@CatoNoise Thank you for your video too!

[@BobBailey1]

Excellent vid! I have a slightly messier problem I'm curious about. I have a stereo performance clip (entire band on a stereo file), but the lead gtr is mistakenly panned to one side. I want to make the guitar to seem to have been recorded stereo. What steps might you take to do this?

[@CatoNoise]

I'm assuming they don't have the original raw files, or stems, that they could send to you?

[@BobBailey1]

@@CatoNoise No, it was simply a stereo interleaved file. I may have figured this out and we'll see what we end up with. I made a duplicate file and did a 'stereo flip.' It's about as good as it will get. Thank you for the quick reply though!

[@MrLahdeeda]

I recorded a whole session (song) on protools and at first audio was coming out on both sides and now is only on the left. Any suggestions? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[@CatoNoise]

I'd check your panning for your master fader (and other tracks), and look at the meters to confirm that there is audio going out that right channel. If you can see signal on the meters, that tells you a lot about where it's happening in the signal chain. Then, I'd check with another playback system (different pair of headphones, different set of speakers, whatever) to confirm it's not your actual headphones/monitors that are doing it. If you have an interface, I'd check that that isn't causing it. Also, if you have, for example, headphones with an adapter, make sure your adapter is a stereo adapter (TRS, not TS). Let me know if none of that works?

[@MrLahdeeda]

@@CatoNoise Thanks, I got the monitors working but no sound is coming out from the headphones.

[@CatoNoise]

@@MrLahdeeda Sometimes there's a separate volume knob for headphones on interfaces - have you checked for that? Otherwise, I would check that those headphones work on a different device. If they do, then you know it's not the headphones and it's something about your setup. Are you using an interface? If so, I would make sure the headphones are plugged into the interface and not directly into your computer.

[@BigMeachBoy412]

All that Talking for nothing Just get to the Point Your Students be sleep an bored sheesh

[@ENDOFFEB]

!!!

[@therealTrippin]

that wasnt helpful at all, you explained how to fix something if you made a stereo track, i made a mono track and it still only comes from one side.

[@CatoNoise]

Yeah, then this video isn't talking about your issue. Have you checked your pan knobs through the entire signal chain? That's what I'd check first in this case.

[@primee5730]

Too much talking... Just get str8 to the solution...