Best way of making single-channel voiceover playback through left and right channels?

Hi there people,
I trust that you are all experiencing an excellent weekend.

I have a whole bunch of voiceover files (.wav files) that were recorded with a Rode NT2A microphone connected to the left channel of a Zoom H4N recorder.

Given this, what is the best way within FCPX to change the clips so that they playback through both left and right channels?

I have tried changing a clip from 'stereo' to 'dual mono'. This seems to have the effect of making the sound come from the centre of the laptop. Is this in fact the case? And is this the best way to proceed? For ease of reference, I enclose a screenshot to illustrate what I am talking about.

Any help is sincerely appreciated!

Changing to dual mono is the way to do it. And un-check (mute) the channel you don't need. "...from the center of the laptop" is "mono", that's what you want. You're on the right track!

EditorGuy wrote: Changing to dual mono is the way to do it. And un-check (mute) the channel you don't need. "...from the center of the laptop" is "mono", that's what you want. You're on the right track!

Thanks for your kind confirmation that I'm on the right track!

Which channel should be muted? I say this because only have the one (L).

Uncheck the channel without any sound in it. The right channel.

Redifer wrote: Uncheck the channel without any sound in it. The right channel.

Many thanks! Do you mean 'mono 2', as per the attached screenshot?




And is it strictly necessary to uncheck it? The only reason I ask is because I have hundreds of these clips.

I think you don't have to uncheck them, it's ok keeping them.

Makes things simpler to deal with.

Screen shot shows you have audio on both channels. And by the looks of the wave forms, the same audio on both. So I'd turn off Ch 2 and move forward.

manoucho wrote: I think you don't have to uncheck them, it's ok keeping them.

Great stuff! That will save me a lot of work. Many thanks!

EditorGuy wrote: Makes things simpler to deal with.

Screen shot shows you have audio on both channels. And by the looks of the wave forms, the same audio on both. So I'd turn off Ch 2 and move forward.

Indeed! The audio is the same. If turning off Ch 2 doesn't make any material difference to the actual sound, then I don't mind the status quo because I have so many clips in this project: turning off Ch 2 on every one of them will be half a day's work.

Many thanks for your kind overview!

Select them all at one time, do it once. As long as all of the clips are Stereo Pairs, you can do multiple clips at once.

Either select the first one, then shift-click the last one in a row.
If not in a continuous row, command-click each to select.

EditorGuy wrote: Select them all at one time, do it once. As long as all of the clips are Stereo Pairs, you can do multiple clips at once.

Either select the first one, then shift-click the last one in a row.
If not in a continuous row, command-click each to select.

This is a great tip. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge! It will save me a lot of work.

I recently found that in FCP X, a single-channel mono file mixes in at 6dB lower level than a stereo (dual mono) file. This wold be a bug. You'll fix it anyway when you mix, but it makes no practical sense for FCP to do this.

Also be aware that the "loudness" tool raises the clip audio level much to high relative to the industry standard reference level. I haven't spent any time working around that, I've been applying dynamics processing outside FCP where I have familiar tools I can actually control properly.

I agree with just about everything said here, but those waveforms look like different audio on each channel to me.

Yes, that confused me as well. It doesn't look like a stereo pair or even a reference track from an onboard camera mic.