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Stereo to mono with Peak. (Thanks)

Subject: Stereo to mono with Peak. (Thanks)
From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 22:23:39 +1000
Many thanks Walter for your, as always, so helpful advice.

You wrote:
> 
> Correct, you only need to save a mono file if that's how it was
> recorded. It takes half the space.
> 
> Do note that writing that file to a audio CD it will be converted back
> to two channels. The audio CD format only allows stereo. Normally the
> writing software takes care of that just fine.
> 
I'm very glad you pointed that out.  It also made me think of something else
I've tended to overlook.  I usually make a data CD, for it is then so
delightfully easy just to shove it in the Mac, click on the AIFF file I
want, and there it is: wave form on the screen and ready to play the sound,
extract something of interest, copy for a friend, or whatever.  So why
bother with making an Audio CD?  Obvious, except that I overlooked it: the
Data CD is going to remain useful only for so long as I have a Mac Computer
that will play it!

So henceforth I must be sure always to make an audio CD as well.  Or more
wisely, following your excellent example Walter, three of them to be stored
in different places.  Just as well blank CDs are now so affordable!
> 
> It is satisfactory, but you don't have to go to that kind of trouble. I
> use the full peak program, but I'm pretty sure Peak LE can do this too.
> In the peak recording settings dialog choose "device and sample format"
> and then "sample" and you can set peak to record in mono. It will then
> mix both channels to mono automatically and give you a mono file to
> start with. 
> 
> If you already have one of your mono files in stereo form, if you choose
> export dual mono in the file menu it will split off and save each
> channel as a mono file automatically. No new files or copy/paste needed.
> 
I look forward to trying that with my next DAT recording - Monday or
Tuesday, if the weather remains calm and dry, and "George", O'reilly's No.1
lyrebird in Lamington NP, cooperates.

> 
> Unfortunately, thunderstorms are so common here that stopping for every
> one is a very big hassle and unplugging everything is a major job with
> several computers linked by a lan. The flip side of this is that the
> insurance expects to have claims and there is no hassle from them.

Reminds me of a story here in Queensland, which probably did happen.  In the
outback we have lots of kangaroos, usually asleep under a shady bush in the
daytime and not obvious from a passing motor vehicle.  At night they are
active.  And in dry times (which means most times) if there is any rain at
all, the run-off from a sealed road produces a green pick at the roadside,
that isn't available elsewhere.  Collisions with 'roos become common.  (On
one trip, I counted the road-kills, and including everything from fresh
carcases to dried-out remains, it averaged one every hundred yards over many
miles.)

So it happened that someone in a major insurance company, based in our
capital city of course, became suspicious of the large number of broken
windscreen claims, and sent an investigator out west to see if they were
genuine.  After he'd replaced his second roo-broken windscreen on the way
out, the investigator reckoned there was no need to check further and turned
for home!

Perhaps not in Georgia's class, but we get a lot of electrical storms here
in sub-tropical Queensland.  Tasmania does not.  And when visiting, I have
noted a forecast of a storm to be accompanied by a reminder to take care of
your pets.  A dog that has never experienced a thunderstorm can be just
about driven mad, it seems.

Despite the rarity of storms in Tasmania, twice I've experienced them when
staying at the Narcissus Bay hut on the Overland Track (a magnificent long
distance hike: 5 days if the weather remains reasonable for that long which
it usually doesn't!)  The hut is at the northern end of Lake St Clair, in a
glacial-formed valley with vertical cliffs on both sides.  The effect of an
electrical storm is magnificent.  The thunder echoes back and forth between
the cliffs and takes about 40 seconds to die away.  Now there would be a
recording challenge!

Thanks again Walter.

Syd




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