Importing poly wave files with mono tracks

[cp23718427]

Hello all, just a quick silly question here... probably to confirm what I already know.

I'm a sound recordist/mixer in Florida. Usually when I record in any of my mixers, I record poly wave files with just the ISO (discreet) tracks for each mic or source in play.

One client has complained that when I hand over poly wave files with two mono tracks (such as a boom track and lav track on one talent), his Adobe Premiere system opens the files as L/R Stereo files, and he has to then use the "Extract to Mono" command to separate the tracks. I've noticed the same when I use Audition. My guess is that editors routinely do this based on my sound reports. This client is a great guy, but he is a DP who sometimes edits, so he may be missing something.

SO: is there a setting somewhere in either Premeire (or Audition) that prevents the software from automatically seeing two mono tracks as a stereo track?

Thanks!

CL

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

There isn't a setting as such, but there's certainly an easy way to deal with this if you import a file into Multitrack view.

Instead of just placing it in the track, use the twirl-down beside it in the files box to reveal what it's made of (you may have to drag the column out a bit to see this):

Now, if you click and drag on just the left (or right), then that's what will be put into the track. So no need for 'extract to mono' or anything like that. And it's extendable; if you have an eight-channel wav file and import that, you can select each channel separately and place them where you want. 

So it's not 'automatic' as such, but if you get used to working using the importer rather than just dumping the file on the track, then you get to choose what happens to the channels. Unless I've missed something, there's no way to do this in Premiere, but that hardly surprises me - it's pretty crap for audio.

[Richard M Knight]

In Premiere if you right click the polywav file in the project panel and select 'Modify Audio Channels' (you can select more than one clip if you want) you have the option to select what track format you want. My screenshot shows a 6 channel polywav broken out to six mono.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

That's what usually happens when I say something like that 😉 but...

If I put a polywave file with 12 tracks into it, what happens then? Premiere only appears to be allocating the six channels of a surround wave into output tracks. What Audition does looks to be way more flexible than that, as you can put any number of tracks wherever you like in your layout, without any limitations.

[Richard M Knight]

Here'a a 20 channel polywav split to 20 mono tracks.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Okay, I had a look for myself and yes, it certainly works. What took me slightly longer to figure out (only because I'd not tried it before) was that in order to truly separate the tracks, you have to place them on the sequence timeline and then unlink them - that option is not available in the bin. So then you have to go through the extra steps of getting rid of everything you don't want - once again unless I'm mistaken... 😉 

In Audition though, you can make the selection directly from the file box and only place what you want on the track; you don't have to go through the removal process. So really I suppose it's a matter of what you want to do with the audio.

But regardless of that, thank you Richard for pointing this method out - I certainly hadn't realised that you could do that in Premiere.

[Richard M Knight]

It's good we learn from each other, let's hope it helps the OP

[cp23718427]

Steve and Richard,

Thanks to you both for the tips! Good things for me to learn!

I think I'll just have to talk with this particular client, walk him through the options. There's always the "wave mono" choice, and labelling the separate files. Wave Agent allows quick global re-naming.

I appreciate it.

CL