Topic: Left & Right channels balance. What should I do?

[Dede2002]

Lately, my R-09's Left channel is running hotter than the Right one. I don't know why. Anyway, that's what I usually do on post:
Using Audacity, I use the Pan control set at 10% to the Right channel to make both channels sound the same. After that, I export the file to my desktop. After that, both soundwaves ( L & R) look the same. Is this OK? Is there any other way to correct it?

Thanks in advance

[drapes]

Lately, my R-09's Left channel is running hotter than the Right one. I don't know why. Anyway, that's what I usually do on post:
Using Audacity, I use the Pan control set at 10% to the Right channel to make both channels sound the same. After that, I export the file to my desktop. After that, both soundwaves ( L & R) look the same. Is this OK? Is there any other way to correct it?

Thanks in advance

Hi there,

I'm really new at this stuff myself, so you might want to take my advice with a grain of salt. As many people would advise, make a copy of your file before you mangle it with any software!

I had a problem with a recording where the left and right were not the same and here's what I did with Audacity: I did a "Split stereo tracks" from the menu on the track header on the left. This splits the left and right channels into tracks you can manipulate individually. I normalized to 0dB both seperated tracks by using the Amplify effect on each track. Then I recombined into one stereo track by using "Make stereo track" or whatever it's called on the top track of the two individual tracks.

I avoided the Pan slider because I found it difficult to figure out how much to move it. I think you can hold <shift> and get finer adjustment than the 10% factors by default. My method seemed easier since I knew I would be normalizing up to 0dB anyway, but if you don't plan to do that you'd have to figure out how much to boost the quieter track.

There might be other ideas out there as well.

Good luck,

[Dede2002]

Drapes, thanks for the tips. But based on my almost zero knowledge, I believe mostly in my ears. Sometimes what measures great doesn't sound the same way. I put my earphones and move the Pan cursor to the point that both channels seems to be well balanced.But I'll try your method as well.