How to make the final stereo master?

This is so simple. I have two tracks in multiview. My goal is to end up with a stereo wave file with track 1 on channel 1 and track 2 on channel 2. If I try to export I get a mix down of both tracks on both channels.
Help please!

Laura

Having one side of a stereo mix on Track 1 and the other side on Track 2 in MV is not a stereo master.

I have no idea why you wish to end up with such an arrangement but here's how: Do the mixdown as you describe and you end up with a stereo file in Edit View. Highlight one side only of the mix, copy, and paste it into an empty EV in a new session. Make sure you choose Mono when selecting the properties of the new EV or AA will convert your mono file back to stereo. Then select Edit/Inset In Multitrack and your mono file will be inserted into Track 1 of MV.  Repeat for the other side into a new EV and insert into Track 2. Audio files can be cut, copied, and pasted just like text files in a word processor.

Make sure that you use a new EV with mono properties for each track.

-Phil

Having one side of a stereo mix on Track 1 and the other side on Track 2 in MV is not a stereo master.

I think you may be misinterpreting what the original poster wants, since they did mention mixing to a stereo wave file.  And I'm wondering whether the OP has panned the separate tracks in the multiview.

... My goal is to end up with a stereo wave file....

Do the mixdown as you describe and you end up with a stereo file in Edit View.

...since they did mention mixing to a stereo wave file.

It would seem that we are all in agreement....

The only way that you end up with a stereo wave file is to do a mixdown. (and, yes, that should include panning the tracks)  After that, you can separate the sides of the mix and do with them whatsoever you wish. I just don't see the point of putting them on Track 1 and Track 2. That's not stereo! That's 2 mono tracks! What's going to happen; are they going to be mixed again?

-Phil

Thank-you Phil and everyone else for your responses. I won't get a chance until tomorrow to try out your suggestions. I'm not entirely sure if we are on the same page - which is probably my fault as I'm not in any way a sound techy. I thought it might clarify things a bit if I tell you what it is I'm up to.

What I have done is recorded a series of tones in pairs, one slightly higher in pitch than the other - say 1000Hz and 1200Hz. I want to play these tones simultaneously from seperate channels - into the ears of bats as it happens. So I want to end up with one long wav file with each of the "stereo" channels containing one or other of the tones but with absolutely no crosstalk.

I produced the tones with a tone generator and recorded that using the wave editor in Audition. I was able to chop out 100ms pieces of the sonud tones and arrange them in the multitrack view with 100 ms gaps of silence. There are several hundread of these sound pulse pairs - all very precisely arranged and Audition is great for that. Now of course I can simple play the multitrack in Audition, but what I really want is to convert what I have made into a two channel wave file (I won't use the term stereo again as that implies some kind of sound stage effect). I want the L and R channels to be distinct and precise. Then I can just play my wave file with something like media player though a 24 bit sound card into special headphones.

Maybe I have gone wrong somewhere with my work-flow - but thats is the best I can explain it. Sorry if too much info, but I hope it clarifies things a little. And thanks again for your help!

Laura.

Assuming that you have both of your tracks sliced, diced, and whatever else you have done to them, it's a relatively simple matter. Set the track properties to pan Track 1 all the way left in the mix. (That means that there will be none of Track 1 in the right channel at all.) Do the same for Track 2 but go all the way right. Then mixdown to a 2 channel stereo file, which will appear in Edit view, and save. Track 1 will be in the left channel and Track 2 in the right channel.

On your playback device, all you need to do is pan left or right depending on which series of pulses you want. For instance, if you burned the stereo file to a CD and played it through a boombox, the balance control would let you choose which side of the file was audible by going all the way right or left. The middle position would play both channels equally loudly. It sounds like this is what you're looking for.

Good luck!

-Phi

BTW, any number of music instructional CDs are made exactly like this. For instance, a saxophone track might be panned to one side while the rest of the band is panned to the other. When you put the CD on your stereo system, you can pan one way to hear and practice ONLY the saxophone, and then when you have it right, you can pan the other way and play along with the bandl

I produced the tones with a tone generator and recorded that using the wave editor in Audition.

If you do a similar exercise again, you could save yourself some work by using the built-in tone generator .

Hi Phil-

I've been doing what you suggested - messing with it all morning in fact, but with no luck. Just to make sure we are in sync: In multitrack view I have track 1 and track 2 with my tones (I also have master and bus track but am ignoring those). To the the left of each track is a contol section which I have in inputs/outputs view. So basically I turn the stereo pan button to -100 on track 1 and + 100 on track 2. Great. To mixdown I have been going to  File> Export > Audio Mixdown dialog. The choice I have is "all Tracks and Master" (seperate files) or Track 1 or Tack 2. Neither gives me what I need. So then I tried right clicking on the multitracks > Bounce to New Track > All Audio Clips in Session. But this gives problem I started with - a mix of both tones on each channel. Hair is starting to come out!

I'm obviously missing something - sorry for that. And thanks for your patience.

Laura.

...To mixdown I have been going to  File> Export > Audio Mixdown dialog. The choice I have is "all Tracks and Master" (seperate files) or Track 1 or Tack 2. Neither gives me what I need.

When the Export/Audio Mix Down dialog box pops up, specify where and what format to save the mixed file, (PCM .wav) then click the "Master" radio button. Select the "Entire Session" in the range box, and  I'm assuming the bit depth is 32...? Leave it there; you can convert later. At the bottom, make sure that the "Insert Mixdown Into" box is checked and choose "Edit View". Then click "Save" and AA will mix down the file, save a copy whereever you have specified, and it will pop up in Edit View. If you had tracks that were really different from each other, the visual differences between right and left channels would be immediately obvious! I'm assuming there won't be that much visual difference between your channels at this point.

If you want to save it as a standard CD quality file, playable on stereo-type players, convert to 16 bit depth. ( F11 and choose 16 bit. )  After conversion, save another copy of the file. It will overwrite the old one unless you change the name in some way. After the file is saved, you can play it in any player on your computer that you want to use. In fact, you should try this immediately and pan the balance back and forth, right to left, to verify the difference in the channels, hence the accuracy of the file. Or you can burn it onto a disc and take it out into the field where the bats are.

...Hair is starting to come out!

I hope you haven't gone completely batty with this...    

-Phil

I hope you haven't gone completely batty with this...   

-Phil

Hahaha...good one!

Hi Phil...me again-

Did exactly as you said. After it's processed, the master appears in edit view but both tracks are empty! Maybe I should expect this as in multitrack view the master track itself IS empty (only tracks one and two have the sound pulses).

But get this. I tried the same thing you suggested yesterday in a copy of Cool Edit 2.0 (which doesn't have a master track) and it worked! (I know, it's the ancestor of Audition!?!). This solution is okay for now, but it bugs me why I can't do the same in Audition, which I would obviously prefer to use (and it has the built-in tone generator as our other friend mentioned).

Thanks,
Laura

PS: Only slightly batty (haha) and hair in tact today...

I dunno... I've done this dozens of times without problems.

Maybe a wiser man than I, can suggest something that you should look for. In the interim, let me think about it... If something that I can reproduce pops up, I'll post again.

I'm assuming that you don't have something blatantly obvious like having the tracks muted before mixdown, or some such?

-Phil

I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anything completely brainless - I've played with those buttons so know they are set correctly. But you have been a real help in guiding me though to some kind of solution. Thanks for your rock-like fortitude I'll let you call me first if you come up with anything else!

Enjoy the weekend!

Laura

But get this. I tried the same thing you suggested yesterday in a copy of Cool Edit 2.0 (which doesn't have a master track) and it worked! (I know, it's the ancestor of Audition!?!). This solution is okay for now, but it bugs me why I can't do the same in Audition, which I would obviously prefer to use... 

Maybe a wiser man than I, can suggest something that you should look for...

Well, I don't know about the 'wiser' bit (especially after the day I've had), but there are a couple of things you could try doing just to make sure that this is working correctly in AA2.0. This is a step-by-step set of instructions based on actually trying it with some tone just now.

Having got the tones into two separate tracks in MV, just leave them - don't do a thing. Now click on the 'Mixer' tab, and adjust things from here - because now you can see exactly where each track is routed to, and what is present on the master track before you do any exporting.

What you should have is tracks one and  two with the output from each track (at the bottom of the mixer channels) being routed to Master, and the channel faders set to 0dB. If there are other channels showing, the faders can be reduced to -infinity, or the output set to 'None'. The pan controls (above the M S R buttons) should be panned left on one channel and right on the other. The M S R buttons should be greyed out - none pressed.

The Master channel on the right should have the fader set to 0dB, and the pan control set to 0 as well. Now, when you press 'Play' you should have a signal in one meter of the pair in each channel, and in the Master section, you should have both meters showing the signal.

If this is happening correctly, then go to File>Export>Audio Mixdown and select Master as the source, Channels = Stereo and Insert Mixdown into: = Edit View. Also you have to select a suitable file name and destination. If you selected Output: = {whatever the Master Channel is set to}, this would work as well, but Master is really the one to go for. Now, if you get the tones playing correctly in Master, the mixdown is going to be exactly that. If it doesn't work now, something very weird is happening...

(and it has the built-in tone generator as our other friend mentioned).

All versions of the software have this - it's not exactly a recent thing!

Thanks Steve, you gave me some important clues on how to approach this - and I seem to have it figured, if not exactly as you described.

I did exactly as you instructed in mixer view - but no matter what, the output from the master track was always a 2 channels mix. So I played around a bit with the routing and discovered that if I routed track 1 and 2 into Bus A instead (having panned them Left and Right) and exported that I got my unmixed stereo wave file! I could see even before the export it was going to work by the way the meter levels on bus A moved independently when I played the tones. In edit view it's very easy to see when my tones are mixed or not. I have 3 different frequencies of pure sine at 3 amplitudes, but not simultaneously on both tracks.

As a test I forward routed the successfully configured Bus A onto the master track, and again it merged the two channels. Seems to be what it does.

I'm not sure why it works this way on my system. I have changed around the various input options on the master track to no avail. Just glad I can get the output I require!

Best regards,
Laura