How to convert two mono audio tracks to a stereo track?

Hi,

This is not the RTFM syndrome,I could not find a direct answer in the manual...

I have two separate mono tracks in Fairlight that carry a stereo recording of an acoustical instrument. I received the stereo data as two separate *wav-files, one for the left and the other for the right channel.

I know how to convert a mono track to stereo (2.0), but how to combine the clips into this one stereo channel? This is nonintuitive and the manual only covers converting separate video tracks into stereo (3D). I need to have a genuine stereo audio track in the final Fairlight mix. Fairlight should provide means for doing it, but how??

Your prompt help is much appreciated

Cheers, Christian

Add the L & R stems to two separate mono tracks, then go to the Fairlight menu > Link Group... in the Link Group dialog window, select the two tracks and click the 'Link' button. The two mono tracks will be linked in the UI and appear in the mixer as a stereo track. I think that should get you where you're trying to go.

as andy says, BUT don't forget to pan your 2 mono tracks hard left/hard right to be able the hear the stereo field

Thanks, I have used linking before so I am familiar with it.

However, the linking is not the same thing as a genuine stereo track with a genuine stereo source file.
Linking works great as long as you do basic mixing in the mixer (level controls, effects, automation & etc).


When I need to cut and edit the audio on the track level, these clips still behave as separate ones.
This makes life so much harder when you edit and cut at the track level.

I guess the only way around this is to render out two mono tracks as a stereo wav, and reimport that to the audio timeline. Nevertheless, even this is a repeated extra effort...

Christian

If you're looking to combine at a clip level, rather than a track level, you can create a compound clip.

In the Fairlight page place them on adjacent mono tracks, make sure they are panned hard left and right, and click Bounce Mix to Track in the Timeline dropdown menu.
Select the Format as Stereo if it is not already selected and then select New Track under Destination Track.
Click OK and a stereo file will appear on the new track and as a new stereo file in the Media Pool. You can then remove the tracks if you wish and rename the Media Pool file.

Thanks so much Andy Mees; you are a life saver!

If the two mono tracks are embedded together you can do this.
Before bringing in to the timeline right click on the clip in the Media Pool and select Clip Attributes. In the Audio tab make the Format Stereo and Tracks 1. Click Add. This will add a Stereo embedded pair. You can delete the the two mono ones using the bin icon that appears when moving the curser over them. Click OK when done.

I have tried so many things, and nothing worked until this "Bounce Mix to Track"...
Thank you for this answer!

Hi,
First of all thank you very much because this is very useful. I'd like to add that after making "Mix to bounce" it's better to export it in wav and re-import it because the newly created clip appears in the timeline as one stereo clip but if you look at the name it says "your clip name_numbers_L" this means that it sounds as a stereo but it is showing only the L and the R channel is separated but not shown in the timeline. If by accident you delete or remove the clips in the Capture folder you lose it completely.
You can check my explanation right clicking on the newly created stereo clip and select open file location and you will see that it open only the L track while the R is not highlighted.
IMHO, I suggest either create a stereo clip using a third part software such as Audacity or export the newly created clip as wav and re-import as a new stereo clip with different name.