Change mono output to stereo?

#1

I posted this as a part of a larger issue a few weeks ago but didn’t get much response, sorry for reposting, sort of…I stupidly setup 2 mono outputs a couple years ago for a 2nd band I’m in, 1 for guitar and one for midi instruments/sample players. Can’t remember why i did mono to begin with but I think it was because some songs had stereo backing track elements and my interface doesn’t have the ability to sum stereo to mono, so I was getting one side only on certain elements. Anyway I now want to change all those 60+ songs to stereo for both outputs. Is there an easier way to do this, without reassigning every route? (I know I can change route behavior to make it go a little quicker but I still have to change each song.)

On a test computer (with a different interface from my main rig) I tried deleting the 2 mono outputs and adding 2 new stereo ones, with the exact same name. But when loading a song it still shows those routes as missing. Tried an alias too with same name, no luck. I thought for sure that would work since it works great going from my main rig to my backup. I’m guessing that Cantabile “knows” I’m replacing mono with stereo so therefore it’s doesn’t meet the parameters it wants. Any ideas appreciated!
Tom

#3

I had an idea but it didn’t check out and I deleted the post. So I think you are likely going to be doing a lot of editing. Sorry Tom …

Dave

#4

Hi Dave, yeah I tried your idea before, it was the first thing that occurred to me too, but I got 2 channels both in mono. Yep, sounds like it’s time for a big coffee and a day of editing!

I don’t know if other people are interested in it, but maybe that could be a good feature request for Brad… The ability to sum right and left stereo channels to mono, so we have flexibility to change globally. Maybe in the audio ports area.

But thanks, I really appreciate you taking a look at it!
Tom

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#5

That ability is already there - easy to do like this:

  • create your audio output ports as stereo, independent of your specific audio device
  • use the “Audio Ports” settings to assign left and right channels to the same physical output
  • Cantabile will mix the channels to mono

Look at this example:

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  • Guitar Out and Keys Out are stereo output ports, so all songs will use them as stereo
  • For smaller audio interfaces, I simply map both left and right channels to the same physical output
  • Keys Out will be output in mono to the right stereo channel; Guitar out to the left stereo channel
  • I can now send them to the mixing desk as two separate mono signals
  • For bigger audio interfaces with more outputs, I can give both guitar and keys “real” stereo outputs (if I really want - I generally just send mono to the desk to keep things simple)

So I can keep my options open and use stereo outputs in my songs, then decide later if I want to actually play stereo or mono.

You can even have different settings (mono vs. stereo) for the same audio interface by using Cantabile configurations.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Torsten

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#6

Another thing that may come in helpful: I have put all the routing to physical outputs into a separate rack (“Master Rack”), which I use in all my songs. It has separate inputs for keys and guitar, does a bit of master EQ and limiting and then outputs the result to the output ports.

So should I ever want to change anything with my output port configuration, I’d only have to make a change in this one rack, and things should be good for all songs.

So if you’re sitting down for a long editing session, it could be a good idea to create such a master rack and bring it into all your songs now - save a lot of work in the future!

Cheers,

Torsten

#7

Thanks Torsten, why didn’t I think of that? :grin: And yes I think I will add a Master rack… I can see how that can be really helpful. For easy global changes would it be best to have that in the background rack? Or I could just put it in each song as you mentioned, I’m assuming you’re using rack states for different configurations, or no state and when you change that rack state it will be changed across all songs as you mentioned…? Thanks!
Tom

#8

I am also using a master rack, and also use a rack for inputs. I wonder if it would be possible to have something like this as standard, similar to the background rack. It would provide a nice abstraction layer between the ports defined in the settings. I am aware that I can add filters etc. to the ports, and I already did this, but that is primarily to manage specific settings for specific hardware that I want to alter to my liking.