Audacity sound recording: from real Mono to fake Stereo

12 Jamadil Akhir 1431H

I have a minor recording problem. And I think I've amateurly fixed it! :D

My laptop's internal microphone records in real stereo. But the plugged-in external mic records in fake stereo. I don't really know the politically-correct term, so i'm just making things up :D.

• Real stereo: Left & right channel records simultaneously.
• Fake stereo: Only one channel records.

To elaborate further on the fake stereo part; the recording using an external mic shows both the left and right channel. However, sound is only recorded on the left channel, see Pic 1. Thus during playback, you can hear sound coming only from the left headphone; nothing from the right.

Pic 1 - Fake stereo.


Lucky there's a function in Audacity that solves this problem. The function changes the track from Stereo (my fake stereo as shown in Pic 1) to Mono.


1. Make a fake stereo recording. It will sound something like Sound 1.

Sound 1 - Fake stereo recording.


2. On the toolbar, click Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono, as shown in Pic 2. Pic 3 shows the track changed by Audacity's said function.

The sound file shown in Pic 1 and Pic 3 are in Zip 1 file. Feel free to try it out.

Pic 2 - Refer Step 2. Audacity's function to change a track from stereo to mono.

Pic 3 - Refer Step 2. Real mono.


Can't seem to upload Sound 2 file. The Sound 2 (fake mono) track is available in Zip 1.
Sound 2 - Fake mono track -- converted from the fake stereo track.

Testing Mono Stere...

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Zip 1 -



This solution works for me! :D