Mono Track Converted to Stereo by Cakewalk [Solved]

[Bill Phillips]

How do I convert my identical Vox 1 & 2 tracks back to mono? Clicking the interleave/mono button doesn't work. They were converted from mono to stereo but I don't know how/when. Is there a way to prevent Cakewalk from converting tracks from mono to stereo, assuming it does? The PDF manual seems to indicate that the user can change it at will but it's not working for me.

Like all the other audio for this project those tracks were mono when I started the mix. All others (Bass, AG, EG, BV still are. All clips are 32 bit mono at 44.1 ksps (1411 kbps) I didn't intentionally convert them to stereo and I tried to verify that all plugins were either mono or capable of working in mono. I can't show all plugins on my 1600 pixel screen. The missing ones are the top of the CA-2A and an FX Chain containing Melda Productions MEqualizer.

Looking at the plugins the SPACE knob looks like a good candidate for not working in mono. So I deleted it but still could not convert the track back to mono. I don't see any other plugins that shouldn't be mono compatible. Once I know what to do, hopefully I can move stereo plugins to the stereo VCL Sub track.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Bill Phillips

[Glenn Stanton]

maybe create a new track and make it mono, then drag, or otherwise load up, the same effects and see if they cause this behavior. for more tests - make it stereo and load up the effects and try to make it mono.   or perhaps it's not only the first, but any stereo on a mono track causing this?

[Glenn Stanton]

all the tracks you show in the graphic appear to be mono tracks.  as a general rule, if you select only a single input when recording a given track (e.g. IN (left) or IN (right)) you end up with a mono track clip. regardless of the interleave setting. if you select a stereo input (e.g. IN (stereo)) with a mono source, you'll have effectively a "dual mono" track clip. you could then bounce that track to mono (keeping in mind it doubles the level) in place, or use only left or right as a source to another track (which will then preserve the level but you now have a redundant track - after which you would copy that clip into your original track). or you can use an audio editor to perform that operation (close the project, open the audio file in your audio editor and correct it - i use this approach when people send me files as part of the preparation stage to clean up, de-noise, etc - but that's a different use case)

[Will.]

1 hour ago, Bill Phillips said:

How do I convert my identical Vox 1 & 2 tracks back to mono? Clicking the interleave/mono button doesn't work. 

It seems like you have Ozone Imager 2 in your MASTER chain. 

[Bill Phillips]

2 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

all the tracks you show in the graphic appear to be mono tracks.  as a general rule, if you select only a single input when recording a given track (e.g. IN (left) or IN (right)) you end up with a mono track clip. regardless of the interleave setting. if you select a stereo input (e.g. IN (stereo)) with a mono source, you'll have effectively a "dual mono" track clip. you could then bounce that track to mono (keeping in mind it doubles the level) in place, or use only left or right as a source to another track (which will then preserve the level but you now have a redundant track - after which you would copy that clip into your original track). or you can use an audio editor to perform that operation (close the project, open the audio file in your audio editor and correct it - i use this approach when people send me files as part of the preparation stage to clean up, de-noise, etc - but that's a different use case)

Right, they are all mono tracks. This is a mix project so the 4 audio tracks (Bass, AG, EG, Vox and BV were imported into mono tracks. The AG, Vox and BV tracks were duplicated. The problem I have is that Tracks 18 & 19 (Vox 1 & 2) have switched from mono to stereo (the clip is mono but the track processing is stereo). So I have mono clips being processed in stereo. I want to switch the mono/stereo toggle back to mono but it won't switch. See the GIF below. When I click the mono/stereo switch for either the Vox 1 or Vox 2 tracks, the mono symbol momentarily appears but the stereo symbol returns when I release the button. However on the BV track I can toggle the mono/stereo switch. My question is what do I need to do to switch the tracks back to mono? What I hope I don't need to do is delete and re-insert plugins because of the need to create presets to restore settings and redraw automation.

[reginaldStjohn]

What is the first effect in effect bin? Is it a stereo effect or a mono effect.

[Bill Phillips]

3 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

What is the first effect in effect bin? Is it a stereo effect or a mono effect.

Yeah, I saw that. It says that if the first effect is mono, the track can't be placed in stereo mode; not vice versa. The first plugin is Melda Productions MEqulizer with mono processing enabled. 

[Will.]

18 hours ago, Bill Phillips said:

Right, they are all mono tracks. This is a mix project so the 4 audio tracks (Bass, AG, EG, Vox and BV were imported into mono tracks. The AG, Vox and BV tracks were duplicated. The problem I have is that Tracks 18 & 19 (Vox 1 & 2) have switched from mono to stereo (the clip is mono but the track processing is stereo). So I have mono clips being processed in stereo. I want to switch the mono/stereo toggle back to mono but it won't switch. See the GIF below. When I click the mono/stereo switch for either the Vox 1 or Vox 2 tracks, the mono symbol momentarily appears but the stereo symbol returns when I release the button. However on the BV track I can toggle the mono/stereo switch. My question is what do I need to do to switch the tracks back to mono? What I hope I don't need to do is delete and re-insert plugins because of the need to create presets to restore settings and redraw automation.

Is the interleave going back to stereo by itself? 

[Bill Phillips]

On 7/6/2021 at 9:45 AM, Glenn Stanton said:

maybe create a new track and make it mono, then drag, or otherwise load up, the same effects and see if they cause this behavior. for more tests - make it stereo and load up the effects and try to make it mono.   or perhaps it's not only the first, but any stereo on a mono track causing this?

I tried that and it worked.

I created a new empty track and added a FX Chain at the top of it's PC and began dragging FX from the FX Chain at the top of Vox 1 into the FX Chain in the empty track.  After dragging each FX to the empty track, I tried to switch Vox 1 to mono. Once all three bypassed FX were gone leaving the active MEqualizer, I was able to toggle between mono/stereo.

I tried to isolate the offending FX with no luck. As I dragged each back to Vox 1 the track mono/solo toggle continued to work until I dragged the third (last) one back. At that point the track stayed in mono state until I toggled it to stereo. Once in stereo state it wouldn't toggle back to mono.

I then tried moving the MEqualizer to the top position above FreeG (Mono) in the FX Chain and the mono/stereo toggle began working again. There seems to be some unintended inter FX reaction that I can't explain but that I'm pretty sure is a bug. I think I will report it on the Feedback Loop.

[Glenn Stanton]

perhaps the mono plugins are also confusing things. maybe try a different set of similar plugins to see if the problem is there so as to eliminate the plugin(s) which may be causing this behavior. once sorted, also reach out to the maker(s) of the plugins to have them look into it. the plugin may be sending incorrect information or mis-using an API call.

[Smokey Toobs Sr]

Tracks can be converted from mono to stereo, or vice-versa by selecting the recording, out in the track lane, and right clicking, you’ll find what your looking for down near “bounce to tracks”...