Dynamic Channel Mixing?

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Moonmist
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 3:24 pm
Location: The Milky Way Galaxy

Dynamic Channel Mixing?

Post by Moonmist »

This would be a nice feature to add to the channel mixing effect, but in the meantime how would I go about doing this in the expression evaluator? I just went ahead and did it manually by creating markers 100 ms apart and doing the "select between cue points" and manually changed the mix from 100/0 - 0/100 to 0/100 - 100/0 in 1% steps every 100 ms (so from 0 to 100 ms it's 100/0 - 0/100, from 100 to 200 ms it's 99/1 - 1/99, from 200 ms to 300 ms it's 98/2 - 2/98, etc.) making it a 10 second dynamic exchange of channels! I like how it sounds (I'm using it on a stereo piano piece I made to simulate moving from behind the piano to in front where the player is!) Only problem is it took about 20-30 minutes when meanwhile I'm sure there's an expression that would make it almost instantaneous, lol.

So I was wondering if anyone knew how to achieve this in the expression evaluator, and also I was wondering if you could add this feature to the channel mixer effect Chris, kind of like the lowpass and bandpass filter effects where there's a radio box for static or dynamic.

I want to play around more with dynamic channel mixing but 20-30 minutes is too long to "play around" I mean I'd be here for like 20 hours lol.

Thanks,
Moonmist
DougDbug
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Post by DougDbug »

I think you are looking for Effect->Stereo->Pan.

I've never actually used GoldWave's Pan control, but I can give you some background.

Most stereo mixers have a "pan pot" on each channel. It's something like a "balance" control, except it's on a mono input. So for example, the engineer can use the pan pot to "position" the singer in the center (both channels), the bass on the left, and the rythm guitar on the right, etc. Or, he can create a special effect (like you are doing) by rotating the pot(s) during recording or mixing.

With computer control you can automate the panning, and I believe GoldWave can do that.
Moonmist
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 3:24 pm
Location: The Milky Way Galaxy

Post by Moonmist »

I don't think the pan effect in goldwave achieves what I'm trying to achieve... see I'm wanting it to actually go gradually from full stereo to being mono mixed and then gradually back to stereo but with the channels exchanged... the panner effect in goldwave doesn't seem to allow me to dynamically downmix to mono and then back to stereo.

If I put the line in the center in the panner then it's just normal stereo, left and it's all mixed left (or just the left only left if the check box thingy is checked) and same thing with the right. With what I'm trying to achieve there is actually never any pan to either the left or right, I'm wanting to do stereo to mono to exchanged channels stereo. So the panner is not the right tool for that. So I need to know how to do this in the expression evaluator since I think that's the only way goldwave can do it at this moment. Hopefully Chris can help me whenever he checks back in.
mathyou9
Posts: 70
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:36 pm

Post by mathyou9 »

Listen to what I've done to The Sounds of Silence. It should be clear to hear what I've done in the clip. It starts out with Paul Simon (and guitar) in the right channel and Art Garfunkel in the left channel. It gradually fades to mono and then back to stereo, but with Paul Simon (and guitar), instead, in the left channel and Art Garfunkel in the right channel.

Is this what you're looking to do? I did it manually with mixing and fading in less than two minutes. It may not be as fancy an an expression evaluater, but it sure is a lot quicker than what you were doing. :)
Here's a step-by-step process of how I did it:

1. Select the portion (in the stereo sound) where you want it to fade to mono.
2. Copy and paste said selection to a mono file.
3. With the entire mono sound clip selected, fade it IN from zero. Then copy it to the clipboard.
4. In the stereo file, fade OUT the selection to zero.
5. Mix the mono sound in the clipboard to the stereo selection. You now have the fade to mono complete. Now-
6. Select the portion (in the stereo sound) where you want it to fade from mono to [reversed] stereo.
7. Exchange the channels.
8. Copy and paste said selection to a mono file.
9. With the entire mono sound clip selected, fade it OUT to zero. Then copy it to the clipboard.
10. In the [reversed] stereo file, fade IN the selection from zero.
11. Mix the mono sound in the clipboard to the stereo selection. You now have the fade from mono to [reversed] stereo complete.

Voila!

Be sure to exchange the channels for the rest of the recording (or for whatever duration beyond the fade.) :)

[edited for clarity]
Moonmist
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 3:24 pm
Location: The Milky Way Galaxy

Post by Moonmist »

mathyou9 wrote:Is this what you're looking to do? I did it manually with mixing and fading in less than two minutes. It may not be as fancy an an expression evaluater, but it sure is a lot quicker than what you were doing. :)
Yes!! That's exactly what I'm looking to do! You're right... and lying in bed the other day I actually thought of doing it the way you just mentioned and I was thinking "omg I could do it that way, how dumb I was!".

So thanks a bunch for that!! Actually I could even simplify the process more by just mixing the selection to mono with the channel mixer and then copying it to the clipboard after the fade and then doing undo to go back and then fading the stereo selection and then just hitting paste (and same for the exchanged part).

However all this could theoretically be done with a couple mouse clicks if I had the math expression for doing it, or if Chris would add dynamic channel mixing to the channel mixer effect! Hence this is a feature request I'm requesting! So please consider it if it's not too difficult to implement Chris!

I'm surprised you didn't know the math expression to punch into the evaluator given your user name "mathyou9" but maybe that was just a funny way of saying "Matthew"? lol I'm sure there is a way to do it in the expression evaluator I just don't know what it is, or how to even find it (I had trouble searching for one on google, it seems as if 'dynamic channel mixing' just brings up DAW based channel mixing where each channel is actually a track in multitrack program.)

Anyway thanks for your step by step, that's exactly what I was thinking (nice to have confirmation), I'm going to use that method next time :)

Moonmist
DewDude420
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Post by DewDude420 »

Oh..is THAT what was meant by dynamic channel panning? I thought you were trying to pan based on frequencies or some strange thing like that.

I did a similar effect in the end of my TecmoBowl theme mix (http://pickmy.org/tecmobowl.ogg). However, with that, I was dealing with indvidual sound channels in thier own track and the panning was controlled by the pan feature in multitrack.

the way the mathyou said to do it is the only way I can think of for a pre-rendered stereo track.
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