Audio turns to mono when dragged into timeline

Hi folks,

Since permanently making the switch to Davinci, my audio turns to mono each time I drag the file into the timeline and I have to change the attributes back to stereo each time. I've not changed any settings to my Zoom H5 recorder, (recently, it also happened with some webcam audio) and I've never had this issue with Premier.

Can anyone please tell me what's going on?

Resolve 17.4.2

It is likely your destination track is a mono track. This is denoted by a "1.0" in the track header.
Right click on the track header and change the track to stereo (2.0) and then see if the problem persists.

Screen Shot 2022-01-07 at 18.12.54.png (71.85 KiB) Viewed 7744 times

In Preferences/User/Editing what is the Audio Track Type set to?

It is likely your destination track is a mono track. This is denoted by a "1.0" in the track header.
Right click on the track header and change the track to stereo (2.0) and then see if the problem persists.

Screen Shot 2022-01-07 at 18.12.54.png

It's funny, this has been going on for a couple of months, and as soon as I ask, it Resolved itself when opening Resolve today

But I learned a very quick way to make the switch in the future. Many thanks, Jack!

In Preferences/User/Editing what is the Audio Track Type set to?

Hi Charles, as mentioned above, this issue has Resolved itself

That said, I learned some more things around Resolve preferences, thanks to you!

It is likely your destination track is a mono track. This is denoted by a "1.0" in the track header.
Right click on the track header and change the track to stereo (2.0) and then see if the problem persists.

The attachment Screen Shot 2022-01-07 at 18.12.54.png is no longer available

UPDATE: It seems the issue is happening again with another shoot involving external recording. Every time I slide the external recording into the timeline (below the camera video/audio tracks) it sounds Mono but says it's stereo in the area you screengrabbed. I also have the preferences set correctly to stereo.

This does not happen with the audio that is linked to video captured in camera.

Weird thing is, when it's placed on A1 (which is stereo) it sounds mono (the camera audio to its left sounds stereo), but that same track placed below on A2 (which is set automatically to mono for some reason) sounds like stereo.

What am I doing wrong here?

What happens if you drag the audio to a new track in the Fairlight page? What does the Metadata say about the audio file?

What happens if you drag the audio to a new track in the Fairlight page? What does the Metadata say about the audio file?

Is this what you are asking for?

Thats a mono source file Jack

Screenshot 2022-01-18 at 22.26.31.png (270.93 KiB) Viewed 7543 times

OK, so your saying I have to find a stereo option on my external recorder (Zoom H5)? The audio file does turn to stereo when I change the attributes in Resolve. Is that a 'faked" stereo solution?

OK, so your saying I have to find a stereo option on my external recorder (Zoom H5)?

Hey Jack, nope, am not saying that. It depends on what you're recording. Does your recording need to be stereo? For example, if I record an interview then I only really need a mono channel recording from the subject's mic... sure, I may also want a second mono channel recording eg from the interviewer's mic, or maybe an ambience recoding from the camera's top mic... but theres no need for stereo in that situation, there's no natural audio separation that needs to be recorded / preserved.

If you have a mono recording or a mono audio source then feel free to drop it into a mono track ... it will then be output to both speakers (in a stereo set up) and thats just fine. It doesn't necessarily need to be a stereo recording in a stereo track to be 'right'.

OK, so your saying I have to find a stereo option on my external recorder (Zoom H5)?

Hey Jack, nope, am not saying that. It depends on what you're recording. Does your recording need to be stereo? For example, if I record an interview then I only really need a mono channel recording from the subject's mic... sure, I may also want a second mono channel recording eg from the interviewer's mic, or maybe an ambience recoding from the camera's top mic... but theres no need for stereo in that situation, there's no natural audio separation that needs to be recorded / preserved.

If you have a mono recording or a mono audio source then feel free to drop it into a mono track ... it will then be output to both speakers (in a stereo set up) and thats just fine. It doesn't necessarily need to be a stereo recording in a stereo track to be 'right'.

Looks like I have some audio learning to do! But I hear you on your explanation in the first paragraph, makes sense. I have yet to record ambiance as well as the interviews, (my lavs seem to be capturing that ambiance on their own so far so I guess I'm only needing mono tracks for my external records. And if I'm understanding correctly, you're saying I need to put my mono tracks on the A2 mono tracks moving forward and leave it there? I like having audio on the top layer only because I'm still getting used to navigating up and down many audio/video lines within the timeline, but can get used to having it lower down to save me the step of changing the channels to stereo.

Also, what causes the track to load up as Stereo b(or mono) to begin with? I don't recall setting either mono or stereo at the start of the project, but there's both in my initial screengrab so I'm assuming Davinci choose based on the clip's needs? Or, maybe I did change it to stereo at some point and don't recall.

Also, what causes the track to load up as Stereo b(or mono) to begin with? I don't recall setting either mono or stereo at the start of the project, but there's both in my initial screengrab so I'm assuming Davinci choose based on the clip's needs?

Scroll back up to Charles' User Preferences screenshot (third post in this thread) to see how your preferences determine initial track type.

As for the additional track, yes, when you drag a clip down into an empty timeline area, below your existing track(s), then Resolve will create new timeline tracks as necessary that are based automatically on the source's Clip Attributes... so a 1 channel source clip will cause 1 new 'mono' timeline track to be created, a 2 channel clip will cause either 1 'stereo' track or 2 mono tracks to be created, depending on whether the Clip Attributes for the source clip define it as being stereo or dual mono.

If you're unsure about all this, take some time to open the Clip Attributes tab for your source material and switch to the Audio tab. You have a lot of flexibility in there to define/redefine how you want Resolve to handle that clip's audio eg if you have a single channel source such as your H5 recording, and you want to be able to use it in a stereo track and have it automatically play in both channels, then you can simply add an additional channel and map 'Embedded Channel 1' audio to both.

Cheers
Andy

Thanks for taking the time to explain all that Andy. I think I got it and just need to have a play to make it all sink in. Up until recently, whenever I heard my tracks coming out of one speaker, I would change attributes as you mentioned at the end of your 2nd paragraph to be able to hear the voice on both speakers. It seemed to work, but guessing that might be poor form for whatever reason and need to up my game!

OK, I'm pleased to say I finally got it on the project I worked on today. Preference from now on is set to mono (and mono doesn't mean one speaker as I had previously thought), and I hear the track out of two speakers straight away when laid on the 1.0 timeline. Solved!

Now I should have a play with stereo setting next time I record on two channels to understand that workflow, but from what I'm understanding today, I would be able to put one track on one speaker and the other track on the opposite speaker, is that right?

I know this an old post, I have this same issue to this very day despite having the newest version of resolve. I record in mono with both level and right channels having audio using an external recorder like the Zoom F3 or the even the Saramonic BlinkMe and when played in windows or ANY program it is both speakers but once imported into Resolve it magically becomes left speaker only. Just like the person before video footage with audio works 100% correctly and when when played through resolve and recording with OSB it plays both speakers BUT resolve keeps playing that external recorded audio as mono in the timeline and it is totally annoying and should not be an issue.

I record in mono with both level and right channels having audio using

That's not mono. The content of the channels isn't relevant to the NLE. If there are two of them, it's "stereo".

Treat it as such.

Change your Clip Attributes accordingly.

This is the ONLY NLE that does this. Magix Vegas 18 Pro does not make my mono to only left speaker. Only resolve is the only program I've ever used and only APP I've ever used and not my Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio none of these do what Resolve does. I personally think Resolve should be made to the "normal" standard not having to change it to work as expected.

If I change my stereo to mono it clearly won't act like stereo therefore I have to pick and choose an audio timeline based on every piece of audio.

... Technical support let me know the only solution at this time is that work around of changing to mono and stereo time lines. BUT this is the only program and the only NLE I've used that does this. Most other NLEs are part garbage and crash all the time Premier Pro, Magix Vegas (other cheap ones I shall not name) which is why I use Davinci Resolve Studio.