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Re: [ARSCLIST] stereo or double mono



Dave Rice wrote:
Hi Arsc-L,
Does anyone know any software or process where I could quickly analyze a stereo audio file and find out if it has two different tracks (stereo) or if it is just double mono. I have a number of audio files that were recorded digitally which I suspect are double mono but is there a way to make sure. It seems like a piece of software could just subtract left from right and if the difference is 0, then double mono.
Thanks,

There are easy cases, there are difficult ones and there are impossible ones.


If one channel is duplicated, then take any substantial segment and difference the two channels. The result is null.

If the duplication is imperfect - different levels, analogue noise, high-frequency loss on the left (outer) channel of tape, etc. - then determining dual-mono is tougher. If only amplitude change then the difference will be the mono signal at low level; or you can normalize both channels to the same value and difference them to get a null.

Near-impossible cases are those which are neither conventional stereo nor dual-mono. Narrow-separation stereo like binaural often is more effective as monaural; otherwise, judicious additional separation in processing can help to decipher/understand the result.

It would be straightforward to write a program to check truly identical channels since the bytes would be repeated. Add even a bit of analogue noise and I'd not even try to automate the process.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/


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