Voiceover in Vegas
 

I have been trying to do a voiceover segment but for some reason it's only recording on one side in Vegas or Sound Forge. It plays back out of one side of my headsets. I have opened other programs and sound comes out of both sides so I know the headphones work. When I record the left side moves up normally but the right side is hardly moving.

I have just moved out to CA. and it seems like I have been having a problem everyday. When I lived in NY, never a problem.

I have checked all the computer settings, I don't know where to turn.


Matthew

You are probably recording from a mono microphone... and it is going into either the left or right side of your sound card... this is normal and correct... you just need to record a mono track or convert the channel to balance out your signal on both sides... I suggest a mono track since it's mono and no since in taking up twice the space for the same sound.

I'm using a Shure SM58 mic. I used this with vegas 5 and never had an issue. I can't find a setting in vegas 6 for mono, just stereo or 5.1. Would I just duplicate the track or change the setting to left only.

My bad in Vegas you can't set a mono track (not that I could see just now) but you can set your "record inputs" and select mono by right clicking on the track head

Thanks for your help.

You can't set a mono track, but you can right-click audio events and combine the channels, among other options. Darryl

I have a mono track and need to convert to stero so I duplicated the track and paned to left which works but I also need to cut up clip into small bites.
So is there an eaisery way to convert mono to stero?
Would this convert automataclly when I render since my settings are set to stero?
Or could I take the duplicate track and drag it onto the mono track and render it or drag to trimmer?

Thanks.

Joe, assuming that your mono track seems permanently on the left or the right, as the original poster was experiencing...

(If Right) Right click on the clip in the timeline and pull down to "channels" and select "Right Only" (or, left only if the sound was originally on the left).

Here's what happens:
If you're using Vegas for narration recording, it records stereo tracks by default. Maybe your microphone is plugged into the left channel of your sound card, maybe the right. You end up with a stereo clip, but there is sound only on one of the channels.

By selecting "Right Only", you're telling Vegas to use the right channel only as a mono track, and it will by default be panned center. This is almost always what you want for dialog or narration.

Likewise, you might get dialog on a camera tape that is recorded left channel - wireless lav, and right channel - on-camera mic. Usually, you'll want the lav in this situation, so, select left-only. Another trick; duplicate the track (right click in the track header and pull down to "duplicate track"), and select right-only to mix in a little of the on-camera mic. This is pretty essential when you get a camera tape recorded with two mics on two subjects, so that you can mix them.

Some other ideas:
When recording sound with recent versions of Vegas, once you arm a track for recording a little icon with two speakers appears in the track header. Clicking on it will allow you to record stereo (the default), record only from the left channel of your sound card to a mono track, etc.

If you have Sound Forge, it includes a handy channel converter that will do every trick you need.

I hope I've answered this question above - you'd actually be converting a stereo track to mono, panned center.
When it is mono and panned center, it will appear equally in the right and left channels of your renders.