I know I can route from Stereo track > mono Group track > Mono track and real-time record the mono track, but this seems cumbersome.
is there a tidier way? I was expecting Render in Place to offer a mono option…
Why can I not route directly from the Stereo track > Mono track? Why do I need this otherwise superfluous Group Track?
Cheers,
the fastest way I know to go from stereo to mono is to convert a wav file in the audio pool
Route the channel to a mono bus and Render in place.
Does not have to be a group track, I have multiple output buses for my various needs not connected to any physical device.
Excellent suggestions.
Thanks a lot.
Use the included Steinberg Stereo Enhancer plugin and just click the ‘Mono’ button in the center.
Nice.
You can easily do this right in the MixConsole. On the Track you want to make mono change the Panner type from the default Stereo Balanced Panner to the Stereo Combined Panner. Now you can set both the left & right edges of the panorama to the center making your signal mono.
To get what I think of as a true mono file, I would add to the above multiple procedures…
Use Export to Audio Mixdown, and check the file format box “mono down mix.”
This makes it a bit more clear to your clients, and maybe even yourself.
Going the other way, I do wish Steinberg would enable changing a mono track to a stereo track part way through the insert chain when required. Seems like a common requirement. It would avoid a lot of group/fx channels.
Or have I overlooked something which would make this a bad idea?
I’m mostly over Sonar at this point, but it did have a nice feature of being able to convert Clips (Events in Cubase) between mono and stereo with just a right mouse click. Very handy.
While looking for something else, I just found these Key Commands under Audio key commands:
Convert Tracks: Mono to Multi-channel
Convert Tracks: Multi-channel to Mono
So the can be run as one-offs or assigned to a Key for repeated use. This splits a stereo into two tracks or combines two mono tracks into a stereo track, or since it’s multi, I assume it can combine and split multi channel (5.1 or 7.1) but I didn’t test that.
Can you expand on this please.
I routed my stereo channel to a mono group channel and then tried to render in place the original channel, but it just made a new stereo channel.
And I don’t see how I can render in place a mono group track as there is no source events to render…
It would take about 30 seconds to give it a try and know for sure 
Go to the audio connections and insert an unused mono output channel of your soundcard.
Now, go to your mixer and route the output of the desired stereo track to that mono output.
Render in place with the 2nd option and a new mono track will be created. After that, you have to change its output again to your stereo master out or group etc
Which I had already done…
Thanks for that. As I suggested in the OP, this just ought to be much easier. 
Agreed it ought to be easier. You could try making a macro to make it easier.
Hi! I just found this:
Click on Media → Open Pool Window. Select the track that you want to convert and right click → Convert Files → Channel → here you will see the options Stereo or Mono
This cannot be undone once changing! So make a back-up first if you’re unsure.
Actually, Yes, this as well as some other things in Cakewalk Sonar (now Bandlab Cakewalk) have better usability (ease of use) and the UI was/is more intuitive than most DAW’s but I switched to Cubase as well, which overall is superior technically with has more features, I also needed a Mac solution and better engine/load times. However, I have Cubase 12 and there is a lot of room for improvement in usability and access to features in Cubase (with common sense actually) - and I’m a professional app designer as well as a music producer.
Anton