4 Track Quad to 2 track Stereo

Hello All, surprisingly I can not find any info on how to do this on the internet

I wish to listen and have a Quad mix in normal stereo

I have taken the lossless audio from a DVD and opened it in Audacity and it loads as 4 Mono separate tracks how do I mix the 4 separate Mono channels using Audacity so I have a 2 track normal stereo mix to listen to with headphones, which tracks out of the 4 should be left/right should any of the channels stay mono etc, or should they all be stereo, should the 4 tracks be normalised or have different db's and if so what etc ?

 

Anyone ?

 

Convert the files to 24 bit if you havent already.

Take the front left and rear left channels and "average" them to a single mono track. Make sure there's no
clipping. Paste this track in a new stereo file as the left channel.

Do the exact same thing for the right channels. Then dither the new stereo file to 16-bit if you need to.

 

Isn't there a "combine" option in Audacity?

 

What happens when you listen to the original record in 2 channel? Doesn't it just (fade) between the 2 channels?

 

no it just sounds like a stereo mix but more 'phasey', but i want to make this quad mix as good as it should sound ?

 

If it's a phasey original four-channel mix, something like "electronically reprocessed four channels", that phaseyness will make a poor result when mixed down to a stereo two channels. But it is worth a try to hear what you will get.

Generally you would combine the left front and left rear to one track, and the right front and the right rear to one track, then output a stereo track. Audacity is not intended to do this any way from four channels, so there are no instructions anywhere. But it can be done. Here's how.

Don't change the samplings, work with the original rips. Do not normalize these original tracks. You can change the final result if you need to.
Make sure your rip really came in as four mono tracks. If the rip was two stereo tracks, select one stereo track, click the dropdown arrow of the topmost track, then choose Split Stereo To Mono, and do the same for the other stereo track. Now there are four mono tracks. You need to know what each track is, Left Front, Left Rear, Right Front, Right Rear.
Now all four tracks need to be reduced by 6 db. Select all four tracks, do Effects/Amplify and type in -6.00, and OK to apply that.
The four tracks must be shown in this order top to bottom:
Left Front
Left Rear
Right Front
Right Rear
If they are not in this order, click the dropdown arrow of a track and move that track up or down one position until you get all four tracks in that visual order.

The following must be done exactly in this order, because if you click around anywhere else, you will get confused and Audacity will get confused.

For the Left Front track, click the dropdown arrow and set it to Left Channel.
For the Left Rear track, click the dropdown and set it to Right Channel.
On the Left Front track, click the dropdown and choose Make Stereo Track.
On the top menu, choose Tracks/Stereo Track To Mono. Now you have a mono track which is the combined LF+LR.
For the Right Front track, click the dropdown arrow and set it to Left Channel.
For the Right Rear track, click the dropdown and set it to Right Channel.
On the Right Front track, click the dropdown and choose Make Stereo Track.
On the top menu, choose Tracks/Stereo Track To Mono. Now you have a mono track which is the combined RF+RR.
Click the dropdown on the LF+LR track and set it to Left Channel.
Click the dropdown on the RF+RR track and set it to Right Channel.
Click the dropdown on the LF+LR track and choose Make Stereo Track.
This is your basic "Stereo" track. Save that, as WAV to have an uncompressed version, from top menu File/Export Audio.

Now on your new "Stereo" track, you can save an MP3 or Normalize or any other effects or conversions available.

(Note to pros and advanced mixers: yes, this is a folddown on the left and on the right and has the problem inherent in that. But we're using free Audacity with no plugins, and the result could be pretty good, for free. The bigger problem with this is the phasey original mix.)

 

There is an "invert" feature in the effects section. Experiment with inverted phase of one or both rear channels.. this could improve or worsen the phasey sound in stereo.

Another way to do this is by using the time shift feature to achieve a better phase relationship. A clue to what to look for, sometimes two or more channels share a common instrument, such as a hi hat, a snare hit or any higher frequency waveform. Align the waveform peaks of both channels you are mixing! (you'll have to zoom in to see the individual samples to see this) The delays that sound nice in four channel may not blend well in stereo. It may not be an easy task getting the tracks to fold well in stereo.

A third way... You can also change the time and phase relationship by adding or deleting a few milliseconds of silence, maybe as much as 30 to 40 milliseconds at the beginning of a track. This is done at the section of silence just before the signal begins.

To move time ahead: delete silence, this track will lead the others
To move time back: copy any number of silent samples and simply paste it at the same location, voila! more silence added. The entire track is delayed.

 

Excellent Thank you very much !!