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So, now you want to make a stereo wav file. At this point you've either inserted wav
files into your session or you've recorded some tracks or both. You've
added some effects, you've played with the levels and you have them just
about where you want them. One thing that might have been driving
you up the wall is how to take a mono track and pan it somewhere between
left and right Panning all the way left or right is easy.
Just select OUTPUT->Edit in the mixer window and choose alsa_pcm_playback_1
or alsa_pcm_playback_2 for out 1. You could also choose OUT 1 or
OUT 2 from the OUTPUT menu but I wanted to illustrate the use of the Edit
function shown below.
PanningIf you want to pan a mono track partially left or right you need to select OUTPUT->Edit and then provide two outputs; alsa_pcm_playback_1 for out 1 and alsa_pcm_playback_2 for out 2 (you need to use the add port button to get out 2). After you click OK you'll notice a blue dot and two red dots in the box above the OUTPUT button. You can pan the signal left or right by clicking and dragging the blue dot. So, next you need to dump all of this to a stereo wav file that you can burn to a CD. Mixing downThe normal way to do this is to select Session->Export->Export session to audiofile.If you just export the tracks you cannot modify anything while it is exporting. The best way to deal with both of these issues is to first mix down all of the tracks to a pair of tracks and then export those two tracks. If you don't have a pair of extra audio tracks you can use the Session->Add Audio Track(s) menu item in the mixer window to add a couple.
Once you have done this you need to redirect the output of all of your recorded tracks (that you want to keep) to the input
of these tracks. This is done in a similar way to that illustrated
above except you will use the INPUT->Edit button for the tracks you want
to record to. Select all of the inputs that you want for each track
from the ardour tab and then remove the hardware input for that track by
clicking on it in the Input Connections list.
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So now we're ready to mix down to these two tracks. First select
the record button for these tracks in the editor window, the mixer window,
or the recorder window (your choice). Then select the record enable
button in the mixer window (the big red dot). At this point you can
put your headphones on and go to town. Press play and it will record
what you are hearing to the selected tracks. The advantage here is
that you can mix while it records. You can mute tracks, pan tracks,
turn effects on or off, change the output level. Whatever you do
to adjust the sound will show up in the two mixed down tracks. To
listen to what you've recorded prior to exporting just solo these tracks
(from the track button group in the mixer), disable recording, rewind,
and press play again.
Exporting to .wav...If you're happy with the results then it's time to export it. Choose Session->Export->Export session to audiofile as shown below.This will pop up the export window.
Notice that all that is being exported is the left channel from one track and the right channel from the other. ResamplingIf you recorded at anything other than 44.1KHz you will not be able to record the wav file to a CD. I'm sure there are numerous ways of dealing with this but one simple way is to use sox. Most Linux distributions include it so it's usually available. The command that I use is: sox test.wav -r 44100 test2.wav resample -ql This is a bit slow but it does the best job as far as I can tell.
Stay tuned for more exciting installments - same bat time, same bat channel. Jan Depner 12/12/2002 |