Is there a simple way to create a stereo region from 2 monos

Nuendo
#1

Sometimes, I receive an OMF with stereo music tracks split into 2 mono tracks.
I prefer to handle music tracks as stereo tracks, so I have to “merge” those mono tracks into stereo. There is this function in Nuendo which lets me deal with that that easily; PROJECT/CONVERT TRACKS/MONO TO MULTI-CHANNEL.

But what if I only want a single region-pair on those two tracks to be merged-to-stereo, instead of the entire tracks?
Now, I find myself copying those region-pairs to 2 mono “work tracks”, creating a “new version” of the audio-references, by means of EDIT/FUNCTIONS/CONVERT TO REAL COPY, and then converting those “NEW VERSIONS” to stereo by means of right-clicking the 2 “NEW VERSIONS” in the Pool, and then selecting “CONVERT FILES”…

“BOUNCE” doesn’t merge two mono regions into 1 stereo region, so “BOUNCE” is worthless for me in this matter. It also doesn’t provide a tail before or after the regions’ borders either, which makes it worthless for a second reason.
“RENDER” creates a mix of the selected regions, so when I’d choose “NONE” in the RENDER-dialog, it creates a dry, stereo-interleaved- version of the selected regions, with a tail though, but…since my project is a 5.1-project, the resulting file is a 5.1-file, which -again- needs a conversion…

It find it quite a hassle to do some things in Nuendo which are much easier in other programs…I must be overlooking something in this matter? Any tips welcome!

Niek/Amsterdam.

#2

Select the 2 mono files and drag them below the bottom of your playlist. Nuendo will duplicate 2 mono tracks with routing and plugins etc. Then merge them into stereo.

#3

That’s -indeed- a little less complicated than my workflow, but still -in my opinion- not “simple”.
Take Pro Tools; select 2 mono regions (or parts of these regions), drag them to a stereo track, and voila, there is your stereo region.

Thanks anyway.
Niek/ Amsterdam.

#4

That’s because PT is natively dual mono instead of stereo, which has caused more interoperability hassle than should ever have been necessary with virtually every other DAW in the world. The benefit here is accidental and I would trade it for a true stereo format any day.

You might also want to look at Convert Files in the Audio Menu.

#5

That’s because PT is natively dual mono instead of stereo, which has caused more interoperability hassle than should ever have been necessary with virtually every other DAW in the world

Famous Dutch soccer player Johan Cruijff once said: “Every disadvantage has its advantages”

Select the 2 mono files and drag them below the bottom of your playlist. Nuendo will duplicate 2 mono tracks with routing and plugins etc. Then merge them into stereo.

I tried that, but when I drag those 2 mono regions below the end of my tracklist, Nuendo only allows 1 of those regions to create a new track…

I don’t know which is the simplest way now…I am afraid I’ll stick with my macro; CONVERT TO REAL COPY/FIND SELECTED IN POOL/CONVERT FILES …

Thanks again!
Niek/ Amsterdam

#6

AFAIK Render in Place should do what you need, if you temporarily set the output of the tracks to ‘Left - Stereo Out’ and ‘Right - Stereo Out’ before the render (it decides the number of channels based on the output channel routing of the track). If you don’t need a tail just switch it to ‘off’ in the Render dialogue. Also select ‘Mix Down to One Track’.

Where is the ‘NONE’ you refer to? :confused:

#7

Thanks for posting this workaround.
I think I accidentally used the word “None” where I should use “Dry”, which is an option in the Render Settings-dialog…

Niek/ Amsterdam

#8

What am I doing wrong?
My client sent me an OMF with a split-stereo music track (so I received 2 mono tracks).
When I put them on 2 mono work tracks, find & select them in my Pool, and convert them to stereo, the result is:

a (2 track) mono file!

What am I doing wrong?

Niek/ Amsterdam

#9

You can not merge two mono files into a stereo file in the pool.
What you are doing is simply converting a mono file (or two in your case) to stereo.

Follow the procedures, by using Convert Tracks (Project/Convert Tracks/Mono-to Multichannel)
This will merge everything on this track into stereo files, so if you only need one specific file, drag them to new tracks.

HTH
Fredo

#10

This workaround (Mono > Multichannel) does the job indeed, I’ll use it as a workaround, so thanks for reminding me.

But…since the 2 mono files (from the OMF) were split from a stereo file by my client, why can’t Nuendo simply merge them back together? What’s the option “Stereo” in the Pool’s “Convert fIles”-window for then?

Niek/ Amsterdam

#11

Because there is no “link” between these audio files. Nothing indicates that they belong together.
Dual mono is an “invention” (read:workaround) from early PT systems because their audio engine could not handle stereo files. There is no other reason for that.


What’s the option “Stereo” in the Pool’s “Convert fIles”-window for then?

It does exactly what it says it does: converting the file from mono into stereo. Which will result in the information being copied into two channels.

The make “stereo from multi-mono” is a mixdown, merging, bringing together of two files.

HTH
Fredo