Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 838)

Examples of dual mono recordings include:
• Two independent microphones used to record two independent sounds, such as two
different actors speaking. These microphones independently follow each actor’s voice
and are never positioned in a stereo left-right configuration. In this case, the intent is
not a stereo recording but two discrete mono channels of synchronized sound.
• Two channels with exactly the same signal. This is no different than a mono recording,
because both channels contain exactly the same information. Production audio is
sometimes recorded this way, with slightly different gain settings on each channel.
This way, if one channel distorts, you have a safety channel recorded at a lower level.
• Two completely unrelated sounds, such as dialogue on track 1 and a timecode audio
signal on track 2, or music on channel 1 and sound effects on channel 2. Conceptually,
this is not much different than recording two discrete dialogue tracks in the example
above.
The important point to remember is that if you have a two-track recording system, each
track can be used to record anything you want. If you use the two tracks to record properly
positioned left and right microphones, you can make a stereo recording. Otherwise, you
are simply making a two-channel mono recording.
Identifying Stereo Recordings
When you are trying to decide how to work with an audio clip, you need to know whether
a two-channel recording was intended to be stereo or not. Usually, the person recording
production sound will have labeled the tapes or audio files to indicate whether they were
recorded as stereo recordings or dual-channel mono recordings. However, things don’t
always go as planned, and tapes aren’t always labeled as thoroughly as they should be.
As an editor, it’s important to learn how to differentiate between the two.
Here are some tips for distinguishing stereo from dual mono recordings:
• Stereo recordings must have two independent tracks. If you have a tape with only one
track of audio, or a one-channel audio file, your audio is mono, not stereo.
Note: It is possible that a one-channel audio file is one half of a stereo pair. These are
known as split stereo files, because the left and right channels are contained in
independent files. Usually, these files are labeled accordingly: AudioFile.L and AudioFile.R
are two audio files that make up the left and right channels of a stereo sound.
• Almost all music, especially commercially available music, is mixed in stereo.
• Listen to a clip using two (stereo) speakers. If each side sounds subtly different, it is
probably stereo. If each side sounds absolutely the same, it may be a mono recording.
If each side is completely unrelated, it is a dual mono recording.
838 Chapter 52 Audio Fundamentals