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Premiere Mono/Stereo Audio Issue
Hey there,
I film with a Sony HDR-FX1000 and record all my audio through an Azden shotgun mic in stereo and use Premiere CS5 to edit my videos.
If I add sound clips or music that happen to be mono to my timeline and export the timeline (in any kind of format), the stereo audio has trouble playing on mono devices (like cell phones). I upload a lot of footage to Youtube and get complaints about some of the sounds coming through (the mono sounds) but the main dialogue does not come through on cell phones and certain laptops (because it is in stereo). The weird thing is, on some of my videos all the audio works and on some I have the problem with the dialogue or any other stereo audio not working. The only work around that I found for this is to drop everything to the left speaker (for instance) and make everything mono. This works for cell phones and laptops, but it sucks to have everything come out of only one speaker on a desktop computer with stereo sound.
I was thinking that maybe I should be recording everything on my camera as mono in the first place? or maybe there’s a setting in Premiere to allow stereo and mono audio to work ubiquitously.
Is there a way to have cell phones and other devices that have mono output play all of the audio correctly and have devices with stereo output get audio out of both speakers?
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if you need any clarification or any more details. It is a frustrating problem, and I feel like I’m missing something rather simple because a lot of people have videos that sound proper out of cell phones and desktop computers with stereo output.
Thanks in advance! -
4 Replies
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You could keep your narration and other critical sound panned center instead of letting it exist only in left or right channel…this is what most recorded music is structured for…vocals center vs having them pushed left or right.
There really isn’t a magical way to maintain really obvious stereo imaging (separation) while also maintaining a proper sound mix on a device that plays mono by picking one stereo channel (instead of combining them).
I think you would find that most of us in the industry usually output different files for cel phone/mobile use and general internet computer playback. There are too many variables to optimize for both, so if the file has to be used on a wide variety of devices, you need to optimize for the lowest common denominator.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,Adobe Certified Instructor
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Thank you for the response.
I do have different versions for what is put on blu-ray and DVD, but am just not pleased to have all the audio on one channel for Youtube or any other website.
So, is there something special that I need to do to enable the audio to be “panned center” and would that enable the main dialogue (that is recorded in stereo) to play correctly on mono devices as well as stereo devices?
Ultimatetly, I am trying to see if there is an audio option that will enable the output to work on mono and stereo devices without having to push all the audio to one channel.
I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to some of this stuff, so any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks again. -
[Travis Brown] “is there something special that I need to do to enable the audio to be “panned center” and would that enable the main dialogue (that is recorded in stereo) to play correctly on mono devices as well as stereo devices?”
Well…if the main dialogue isn’t coming through on systems that are playing left-only mono, you’re not recording it in stereo…your recording it on channel 2-right.
You would need to bring in the stereo audio as dual mono (set it in your preferences) and then you pan mono channels in a sequence that is master-stereo.
These are the realities of having such a wide variety of target devices for video playback. Commercial recordings have to cater to this same landscape.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,Adobe Certified Instructor
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I’ll double-check how my camera is capturing audio, but I’m quite certain it is in stereo.
[Tim Kolb] “You would need to bring in the stereo audio as dual mono (set it in your preferences) and then you pan mono channels in a sequence that is master-stereo.”
I will give this a try, but am not quite sure what you mean by “pan mono channels in a sequence that is master-stereo.”
Thanks for your help so far.
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