Ideally I’d like to make an event only use one channel from it’s source file. i.e. a stereo file that is actually two mono radio mics, I may only want to use one mic for that event.
How do I do this?
If not, what is the quickest workaround to creating dual mono events from stereo events?
“convert tracks”
Or simply split your stereo file upon import …
Fredo
Weirdly, convert tracks to mono is greyed out for me. It says I can convert it to multichannel, but they already are, and if I try using that it refuses because they are.
What is going on? See screenshots.
Is the stereo file on a stereo track?
Oswald
It turns out they all were mono tracks but with non mono material on them. Unfortunately if I drag to empty space it creates another mono track, rather than a track based on the event channels. When I then created an empty stereo track first and dragged to that, then convert to mono tracks is available.
I was hoping I could just select “only use channel 3 of 8” rather than have to split onto tracks so I can use one channel as if mono. Seems like a lot of steps to do something simple - create new track with right number of channels, drag items, convert tracks, mute original items.
It would be really nice if there were a mix as mono option on the track output. Seems you can select only right or left but then they come out of right or left channel only, rather than mixed centre. I want to select channel of item used but still treat as mono.
Or even better would be just set event properties for channel mix preferences which doesn’t seem to exist.
I just bought a license for Basehead 4. It being a sound database like Mediabay. When importing from Basehead into Nuendo one can select what channel of a multichannel file to import.
When your file is already tracklayed in Nuendo you would have to select it in Basehead and reimport it with the “replace event” option. That would be quite fast. But… this piece of software is not for free.
Oswald
Nuendo doesn’t offer me the option for extracting channels during importing an AES31 ADL. It seems to not support multichannel definitions which are actually legal in the AES31 specification. This line below basically says source channel 3 (from a 6 channel file) should go to destination channel 11 but see the attached screenshot. It complains. If I export AES31 in mono mode, it imports fine but creates mono tracks with multichannel events (which is why I need to separate them afterwards).
(Entry) 0011 (Cut) I 0003 3 11 00:00:00,00/0000 00:00:00,00/0000 00:00:37,19/1014 R
(Gain) _ 0.000000
(Rem) NAME “Beautiful Tension Short.caf.wav”
Sorry for quickly throwing in a question here, but since it’s about mono and stereo, is there a way of changing a track from stereo to mono and back? Or do you specifically have to create a stereo or mono track and if you suddenly think you need stereo, you have to create a new track and transfer over everything? Tried to find something in the manual but there doesn’t seem to be a function? Is Nuendo so rigid?
Yes. I couldn’t find a way either. Not even dragging to empty space to create new track creates the right kind of track for the event.
I am trying to get to grips with the Nuendo trial to see if we should include it in a proposed workflow but some simple things seem pretty complicated so far. Files with arbitrary numbers of channels are common for radio mics etc. Often you only want a single mic active for a specific event. For the next event on same track, it may be a different mic you want.
A simple event properties viewer with the ability to select required channels to mix down to mono for that event would be really useful. I don’t really want to have to copy and split across tracks just for dealing with a single event’s output.
This is especially true now when dealing with non track based paradigm NLEs like FCPX. Tracks are not the organisational paradigm in FCPX (there are no tracks - it is parent/child object based). Instead it is all about individual configurable events and metadata such as ‘roles’ for organisation, not tracks. All automation is on events, not tracks. In FCPX you just tag events and which channels you want to use from them, the media can be any number of channels, but you may just activate source 3 of 8. I want that to come across and be useable in Nuendo really. FCPX’s object based paradigm doesn’t really suit OMF or AAF (neither of which FCPX exports anyway) because they are track based paradigms.
As the AES31 spec allows for better channel mapping I was hoping Nuendo would respect it, but it doesn’t seem to like the full spec much. Even fader lists and mute regions are ignored by Nuendo. This is bad with FCPX post as event sources may have mute regions on them applying only to one part of one channel of an event. I can translate item automation to track automation but apart from this being lossy (I really want per item automation), if even track automation is also ignored then so much useful metadata is getting lost, so work will always have to be repeated. None of the FADER_LIST or MUTE_LIST sections of the ADL are considered by Nuendo at the moment. Even with chapter markers it seems to only like it’s importing it’s own custom NUENDO_CUELIST section, not the MARKER_LIST as the spec says.
If I export AES31 in mono mode, it imports fine but creates mono tracks with multichannel events (which is why I need to separate them afterwards).
Can you not copy all multichannel events now on this mono tracks to x channel tracks (x beeing whatever is the highest nummer you need)? Then convert this x channel tracks to mono. You will get x mono channels with all events (mics) separate and you can easily mute the not wanted ones.
Oswald
Yes I’ll have to do that. I had just hoped there were a less awkward way because I don’t want to split everything - only some events need splitting i.e. the ones that were tagged in FCPX as dialogue. Also that muting of unnecessary channels will have already been done in FCPX, so doing it again is repeating work. Also would be nice if Nuendo supported the full AES31 spec rather than half of it and lose the automation. I suppose I could write a script to presplit any reconfigured channels before import. Nuendo does seem to take note of the mute flag on events at least, just not mute regions.
Hi there,
this is an old request that covers as well multichannel audiofiles like 5.1 and higher. As the files one recieves do not always have the same standerized layout it would be perfect if one could swap channels of the file as the multichannel tracks have a defined channel layout. So it is sometimes necessary to create a very uncomfortable workaround. It would be a very usefull feature to have a tool that extracts single channels of a given file or change the layout of the channels to fit the track layout of Nuendo.
Carsten
I think add an event channel mode for event properties would be the fastest way in practice and completely non destructive (I would rather keep files as they were if possible).
However as a work around the ffmpeg command line tool can strip out channels into separate WAV files, or even reorder channels. It is not very user friendly but I could write a UI to make it easier to use.
How do you open an event in an external editor?
If these files are properly created (Wave Extensible Format), they will import with the proper channel order/config.
it would be perfect if one could swap channels of the file as the multichannel tracks have a defined channel layout.
Use “Mixer Delay” for that. Takes two seconds.
Fredo
Thanks. Mixer delay routing seems really useful.
Unfortunately my multichannels events are on mono tracks due to the way Nuendo imports AES31. So I’d still have to create multichannel tracks and copy the events across, before it will let me route them with Mixer Delay.
See screenshot. Only gives me one channel to play with, unless I am doing something wrong.
Hi Fredo,
there are a lot of multichannel audiofiles around that do not fit the specs. So,again, a file based rearranger of the channel layout of an multichannel audiofile would be helpfull.
Carsten
Event channel mode would be great. Something like this event properties screenshot would be good for me with audio from FCPX. Also being able to set number keys to trigger one mono channel from 1-8 on selected events.
Hi Carsten,
Why isn’t Mixer delay working for you?
Is the visual represenation that important to you?
Fredo
Hi, I didn’t see my standard workflow converting tracks in this thread, so I share it with you (it’s very obvious so I was suprised that it wasn’t mentioned).
1 - import the track (stereo in this case)
2 - export the track while the source is being soloed and tick the right channel configuration options.
While there may be better options I tend to keep using this method as it’s the most flexible in my opinion.