Export problem?

[Alfred Okocha]

Hi all.

I'm finishing a project in FCP 3 and planned to have a sound engineer try to improve the audio that I messed up.

When recorded I used channel 1 with a sm 58 and channel 2 on camera mic to get ambient sound.

I exported it in wave as he had requested. When he opened it on his computer he had two identical tracks.. Two mono maybe one can say..

Where did I go wrong?

Thanks.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

You didn't go "wrong" other than you likely specified a stereo export, in which case the mono information was duplicated on right and left tracks. He can process this just fine, and you'll be able to reimport it as a wav or aif file just fine. What application is your engineer friend working in? Most PC tools will export an aif with no issue.

[Alfred Okocha]

Hi Douglas.

My friend uses many different programs. I can'r remember all of them now but soundforge (?) and vegas something was two of them.. he asked to get the file in wave..

So you are saying that if I export as mono the two tracks will be fine?

Thanks.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Now i'm confused. You have 2 mono tracks, or one mono track? If you have one mono track, it will be created as a 'stereo' track when you export. If you have 2 mono tracks, they are likely being mixed together, but you can pan each one to one side, therefore creating a dual mono, or you can export each one separately, creating two separate exports. Either way, your friend can use:
Stereo track containing one signal repeated on both channels,
Mono track containing one signal on track
Two stereo tracks, each with dual mono
Two mono tracks, each with single mono
If your friend uses Sound Forge or Vegas, he can import/export an aif directly for ease of use for you and him.

[Alfred Okocha]

If you are confused it's nothing compared to what I am!! ;-)

Well. I guess I have two monotracks that I'd like to be exported to be read the same way.. and later on imported in.. well since it's dialouge it doesn't really matter if it's stereo or mono, does it?

I'm new to all this. Is aiff better/easier to deal with than wave? (I have a mac and he a PC.)

Thanks for your patience.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

FCP can deal with wav, no problem, but aif is the native format for the Mac. Since it's dialog, it doesn't matter if it's stereo or mono, unless you are worried about field placement to the left or right. And even then, you'll control this in the final render from FCP. When you do create the final render, it will be stereo, or rather 2 channel audio anyway, assuming you're working with DV.

[Alfred Okocha]

Thanks for your help Douglas. That's it, for now.. ;-)