I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

I've gone into preferences and chosen stereo, and it still keeps doing
it. It's crazy. I even went and downloaded the newer, beta version of
Audacity for Mac -- which I think may have screwed things up even
further.

Anybody know what's wrong here? Is there other, easier sound-recording
software for Mac out there?

I also bought Hijack Audio Pro, which seems to be working well for
recording Skype calls but wasn't picking up the sound all that well
when i tried to record something voice thru the mike. Don't know why
these programs are conspiring against me!

Thanks,
Steve Friess
The Strip Podcast

Friesster wrote:
I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

I've gone into preferences and chosen stereo, and it still keeps doing
it. It's crazy. I even went and downloaded the newer, beta version of
Audacity for Mac -- which I think may have screwed things up even
further.

Anybody know what's wrong here? Is there other, easier sound-recording
software for Mac out there?

I also bought Hijack Audio Pro, which seems to be working well for
recording Skype calls but wasn't picking up the sound all that well
when i tried to record something voice thru the mike. Don't know why
these programs are conspiring against me!

Thanks,
Steve Friess
The Strip Podcast

This may be a sound card issue, I have the same problem.
When you go to Audacity help, the image they use to
describe the controls does not match the one for my computer.
I'm looking for an Audacity forum to see if someone has
found the fix for this.
Free isn't everything sometimes:-)

"Friesster" wrote ...
I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of
stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export
it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

I've gone into preferences and chosen stereo, and it still keeps doing
it. It's crazy. I even went and downloaded the newer, beta version of
Audacity for Mac -- which I think may have screwed things up even
further.

Anybody know what's wrong here?

Well, it is a monaural microphone for starters. Are you doing a
stereo podcast? If not, why are you even producing it in stereo?

Did you try Samson's "SoftPre Applet" software?
http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...1810&brandID=2
Mac version here...
http://www.samsontech.com/software/SamsonC01U_1_0_7.dmg

Is there other, easier sound-recording software for Mac out there?

You might have to ask in an Apple forum. (Most of the world
is PC) I thought Apples were supposed to be easy to use?

Friesster wrote:
I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

I've gone into preferences and chosen stereo, and it still keeps doing
it. It's crazy. I even went and downloaded the newer, beta version of
Audacity for Mac -- which I think may have screwed things up even
further.

Anybody know what's wrong here? Is there other, easier sound-recording
software for Mac out there?

I also bought Hijack Audio Pro, which seems to be working well for
recording Skype calls but wasn't picking up the sound all that well
when i tried to record something voice thru the mike. Don't know why
these programs are conspiring against me!

Thanks,
Steve Friess
The Strip Podcast

You may want to try a different program to record.
I've used one From Digital Planet called Quartz AudioMaster
Freeware, takes a bit of tweaking to do the settings, but
your recorded audio file is a wav. that Audacity can edit.
My problem with Audacity is not being able to select
Make Stereo Track on the Audio Track menu and
the mixer toolbar input select doesn't have any effect
on the Audio track preferences.
It's a nice editor, but recording seems to be limited feature set,
or I'm just not intuitive enough to figure it out.

On 6 Feb 2006 01:56:26 -0800, "Friesster" wrote:

I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

This is the Samson USB mic? It's a mono source. So why would it
record to both tracks?

Once it's on a track in Audacity, you can pan it centre. How do you
make a mix-down in Audacity? There should be a way to retain the
centre panning.

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
news
This is the Samson USB mic? It's a mono source. So why would it
record to both tracks?

Once it's on a track in Audacity, you can pan it centre. How do you
make a mix-down in Audacity? There should be a way to retain the
centre panning.

In the pull down menu that's on the track (not the menus that are at the top
of the application), you can do this (set the track to mono).

http://www.daniel.uklinux.net/tutorial/part_six.html

I'd think a better option would be to set Audacity's Audio I/O preferences
to record in Mono, not stereo. Why bother creating a WAV with a right
channel that's silent in the first place?

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manu...s.html#audioio

If you Google "Audacity tutorial", you'll find lots of web sites with useful
info on this program.

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

Friesster wrote:
I can't figure this out. I'm using my Mac laptop and a Samson mike
plugged into a USB port.

For some reason, Audacity only wants to record the left side of stereo.
Oddly, it'll play back IN Audacity in stereo, but then once i export it
as an mp3 file and play it anywhere, it comes in in left-only mono.

I've gone into preferences and chosen stereo, and it still keeps doing
it. It's crazy. I even went and downloaded the newer, beta version of
Audacity for Mac -- which I think may have screwed things up even
further.

Anybody know what's wrong here? Is there other, easier sound-recording
software for Mac out there?

I also bought Hijack Audio Pro, which seems to be working well for
recording Skype calls but wasn't picking up the sound all that well
when i tried to record something voice thru the mike. Don't know why
these programs are conspiring against me!

Thanks,
Steve Friess
The Strip Podcast

I sort of stumbled across this, I didn't have the Audio I/O tab on the
Preferences menu until I installed the Audacity 1.3 Beta version
along side of the Audacity 1.2.4 version. Low and behold I can now
set-up
a stereo track in the record mode from the preferences menu.
I could not do that before in 1.2.4 I'm still trying different sources,
but at least
I can now get stereo recording from the start. Anybody else have some
experience with this?

Strangely, the same mike on my desktop PC using Audacity DOES record in
stereo. And it also records in stereo on Audio Hijack Pro on my Mac. So
I can't figure out why it won't record in stereo on my Mac in Audacity.
Very strange.

To answer the other question, our podcast is normally recorded in a
full radio studio for an Internet radio station, LVROCKS.COM. I am
trying to record a little bit of something for part of a promo for the
show. Also, sometimes we have celebrity guests who can't be interviewed
when our show is created live on Thursday nights, so I am working on
using the mike and Hijack Pro to record phone calls at home via Skype.

trouble is, i have no real way to set sound levels for my and my
incoming caller so that it doesn't sound too fluctuant. I may need to
buy an external mixer after all.

-Steve Friess
www.thestrippodcast.com

Friesster wrote:
Strangely, the same mike on my desktop PC using Audacity DOES record in
stereo. And it also records in stereo on Audio Hijack Pro on my Mac. So
I can't figure out why it won't record in stereo on my Mac in Audacity.
Very strange.

To answer the other question, our podcast is normally recorded in a
full radio studio for an Internet radio station, LVROCKS.COM. I am
trying to record a little bit of something for part of a promo for the
show. Also, sometimes we have celebrity guests who can't be interviewed
when our show is created live on Thursday nights, so I am working on
using the mike and Hijack Pro to record phone calls at home via Skype.

trouble is, i have no real way to set sound levels for my and my
incoming caller so that it doesn't sound too fluctuant. I may need to
buy an external mixer after all.

-Steve Friess
www.thestrippodcast.com
Have you tried downloading the beta version of Audacity 1.3 and
installed it
without un-installing the 1.2.4 version. Once you've installed 1.3,
open the
1.2.4 version, and see if you have the Audio I/O tab on the Preferences
menu, set it to record stereo and that the devices are set correctly
for
your sound card.
Start to record, hit the pause button, on the Track menu select
split stereo track.
That seems to give me a true stereo track with independent L/R input
from my sound card.
I'm not familiar with Hijack Pro. Does it have the ability to insert a
compressor
on the Skype call?
Can you hard pan the tracks and remix to balance levels later?
I know that's more work, but may allow you to edit in Audacity
with greater precision using the effects menu options.
Just throwing a couple of thoughts out there.