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Topic: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)? (Read 2166 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Hi there,

I recently decided to rip one of my piano practice CDs.

This CD's tracks have one backing track on the left channel and the solo part on the right. So you can listen to both, or just to the left or right channel.

How can I rip such a CD for using it on my phone/PC? I guess there is even no app which allows to play back only the left or the right channel (stereo balance it's called?)

Is it possible to rip both left and right to different tracks so that I can chose whether to play back left or right? FLAC or even Mp3?

Cheers
.:.

Re: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Reply #1 –
I'd rip the CD to wav, separate the two channels in Audacity and then encode the two set of files to whatever codec (lossless - FLAC, lossy - Vorbis).

Re: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Reply #2 –
A digital file would be no different from the CD.   You'd normally need a player (hardware or software) with a balance control.  

Yeah, rip normally (to WAV or FLAC*) then use an audio editor such as Audacity** (free, open source) to split-out the left & right channels.

 - In Audacity, there is a little drop-down arrow to the left of the waveform display where you can select Split Stereo To Mono.  That allows you to edit the left & right channels independently. 

 - In those same little windows (now two of them) to the left of the waveform there is an "X" to delete one of the channels.

 - Delete one of the channels and Export ("save") the remaining mono track with a different file name (and/or to a different folder).  You can export as MP3 or the format of your choice.

 - Re-open the file and repeat to keep the opposite channel.




* As you probably know, MP3 (and AAC) is lossy compression.   If you open an MP3 in a "normal" editor it gets decompressed.  If you re-save (export) as MP3 it goes through another generation of lossy compression, and the "damage" does  accumulate.    (AAC is actually MUCH better than MP3 with multiple generations of lossy compression.)

Metadata is better-supported with FLAC than with WAV so that may be a good reason for ripping to FLAC instead of WAV.

** Audacity is for the 2nd step.  It doesn't rip (or burn) CDs.




  

Re: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Reply #3 –
Thanks for your input, I guess I'll go Audacity then...it's just one CD so it is not that much effort.

Re: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Reply #5 –
Hi! There is also a plugin named Matrix Mixer for foobar2000, which should make it possible to separate the tracks.
 

Re: How to rip a CD which has a solo track & a backing track (left/right channel)?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Sunhillow on
Hi! There is also a plugin named Matrix Mixer for foobar2000, which should make it possible to separate the tracks.

Thanks for the info, I'll check that out, though mainly I need the functionality for Android.