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I have always used "Copy Channel" to put my mono narration onto both audio channels. It is not stereo, but the narration does come through both speakers. For some reaason, Copy Channel is not working for me this time.

I click on the Fx icon on the left side of the narration track (first one below the original sound track), click Copy Channel and render the story board. I have copied both Left to Right and from Right to Left. (Does anyone know which channel is usually used when recording a mono narration?)

The sound always remains on the same channel.

I have thought about trying Swapping Channels and then copying channel, but have not.

When a channel is copied, does the software adjust the volume? If it did not, it would seem that the volume would be doubled and be too "hot". Could the software be refusing to copy because the volume is too high? I have never had to adjust the volume before to copy channel. I have considered lowering the volume on the entire narration track and then copying.

I have had a few small glitches with OS 8.1. I am hoping this is not one.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Keith Wiggers

Keith, you should be able to tell which channel was recorded by listening to it and observing the visual display showing how loud your piece is. If the left channel is showing activity, you then copy left to right. You may have to adjust volume but I don't believe copying will make it hotter than it was - just utilizes both channels so it may appear to be louder. Do you create a scene sample and create the new audio in the Audio Screen? If so, did you check to see if it plays the opposite channel as you intended? If so, and you place it with the current audio track in a free track, you should observe the graph that shows both channels playing concurrently in mono.

In addition to swap channel, you may want to try copying to the clipboard and pasting to a new project to see if that helps. Like you say, perhaps there's a glitch in the OS. Good luck!

Hello Keith,

I just tried successfully using the same method you described on my Renommee Plus running Smart Edit 8.1. Then I re-read your post and it donned on me...
my guess (hypothesis) is that you may have clicked on the Effects button and scrolled to select the Copy Channel effect, but did you click to place a checkmark on the effect? If not, it will not apply the desired effect/s. You will also know it has been applied if a tiny 'fx' appears on the audio sample you are attempting to affect.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Chet

“I have had a few small glitches with OS 8.1.” Well, I have also had a few small (and not so small!) operator glitches. This is one of them.

Thank you Paul and Chet for your prompt replies.

I have always watched the meter bars Paul, but for some (really no) reason, I hadn’t paid much attention the letters L and R to the left of them. A “duh” moment!

You nailed it Chet. I clicked Copy Channel and the check mark appeared and the channel copied like it is suppose to. I have noticed that the check mark is required in some other effects, but missed this one.

However, all of the audio was red-lined. I decreased the volume on the narration track by two dB and all is well. I have not had to do that before, but in this project, I have had to adjust the volume fairly often to keep it out of the red. I probably recorded the narration a little too high.

Thanks again to both of you.

Keith