The choir director drops a couple CD's and a track listing in your lap and says, "We’re using these split tracks for the Christmas service." Personally, I don't like skipping around from song to song on a CD during a performance. I also don't like using a split track for a big event. Following the simple steps I use, you can simplify your audio work.
A split track is simply a stereo audio track in which the left or right channel has something the other does not. Usually it's the vocals. Singers love these because they can hear how the song should sound and then sing to just the instruments.
Using a stereo channel on your mixer, you can use the panning knob to pan out the channel with the vocals. Or you can cut them out.
Here's how I do it using Audacity.
1. Burn the CD track to a stereo file in a lossless format.
2. Open up the file and you’ll see two rows; one row for each channel. If not, right-click over the channel and pick "split stereo track."
3. Mute the channel you think has the vocals.
4. Play the file and make sure you've muted the correct channel. Retry with the other channel if necessary.
5. Delete the vocal channel.
6. Highlight the remaining channel (Edit-> Select-> All) and then pick "Duplicate."
7. On the new track, select the small down arrow and set the new track to the correct left/right channel.
8. Play the file again and make sure it sounds clear and correct out of both speakers/headphones.
9. Export to lossless format under the File menu. Different types are listed.
In the case of more advanced split track recordings, the songs can be split up into separate tracks. In this case, I like to insert each track into audacity after the end of the previous file. This way, I've converting six tracks into one.
I use this same process for each song. Once I've got all my songs prepared, I can order them to match the order they will be played.
Once I've got the order set, I can burn them to CD or use a file instead (maybe you'd rather play it through the computer hooked into the sound system.)
Using this method, all my audio tracks are in order and I don't have to worry about remembering to pan out the vocals. Another benefit to this method is that split tracks can have a lot of tracks per song. For example, song #2 can list on the CD display at cut 19 and end at cut 29. So if you lose your place, you're in trouble.
Remember, you should do everything possible to simplify your work during a performance. Using this method, you can do just that.
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I'm Chris Huff and I've been working behind a mixer for over twenty years. Since 2008, I've been helping other sound techs learn all about the art of church audio through behindthemixer.com.
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So funny, this just came up last night after services, a smaller church called in a panic, as their “split track” was not working, of course I was volunteered to correct it…. funny the timing your articles always seem to be !
Joe, glad I could help!
I’ve had to re-do things multiple times. Case in point, my mother has recently recorded some background harmonies on her soundtracks. When singing them live, we discovered that they were too loud. I had saved the Audacity project file, so I went back in and brought the vocals down. It sure saved time, compared to re-recording the harmony parts.
Quaid, it’s really nice to go back and edit tracks instead of re-record ANYTHING!
Great tip. I do the same thing in SONAR. I’m like you. Make it as simple as possible for the performance. You’ll have enough to worry about without adding the split track to the equation.
There’s an even easier way to do this that I discovered today… since I had to do this exact thing in Audacity for one our Christmas programs.
Split the track into mono
Delete the unwanted track
Add a new stereo track (it will be blank which is perfect)
Export
No panning required.
Easy!
The point about saving to a lossless format is important:
Compressed formats take advantage of the fact that a lot of the information in the left and right channels are the same, and can save space in the resulting file.
I have been given a split track with a click on one side, but unfortunately it was encoded as a joint-stereo mp3 which meant the click, which was only ever present in the left of the original, had bled through to the audio track on the other side, and vice versa.
(I inverted the left and mixed a small amount into the right to cancel out the click bleed ;))
Great info on compressed files.
Not sure if it helps, but I think Audactiy has an option to remove clicks. The longer it's been around, the more often I'm finding practial functionality built in.
That’s a good point. I always stick with WAV of AIFF for live production of this kind.
You never know when you have to come back and edit something and it’s just best to stick with the best quality possible.