I've done a search on this but still cant figure the easy wasy to do it.
 
You have a typical acoustic rhythm guitar track in mono. You know it would sound cool to pan it hard left and right.
 
How do I do this without creating a new track and panning it to a different side?
 
I know you can right click the clip and "convert to stereo", however I cannot for the name of me get channel tools, to split and pull it either side it seems to be all greyed out? Anyone know a quick solution?
 
Cian
 
 

At the risk of stating the obvious...  if you simply panned two copies of your mono track to left/right you end up with your mono track in the centre, just as you started with.
Converting the track to stereo (with channel tools or anything else) will give you exactly the same effect.
 
To achieve the effect you want you need to add a short (5 - 10 ms) delay and pan the dry  and wet outputs to opposite sides.  (auto double tracking)
 
Better still, use a stereo chorus and pan the dry/wet to opposite sides.  (same as above, but the variable delay time sounds more natural)
 
 
To be honest, unless the whole song is acoustic, it wouldn't sound as good as you're expecting.  You'd do better recording a second acoustic guitar and pan them opposite. The variation in playing will sound much better than a "mechanical copy".
Alternatively, put it through a stereo reverb but only pan the dry signal to one side leaving the reverb to go left/right.  You'll fill the sound field but keep the guitar isolated to one channel.

There is a turn a stereo track to mono in SONAR - I'm not sure about the other way.
 
But Karyn has it right - a mono recording simply cloned isn't different than a simple mono track going out stereo.  You need to slide one side forward or backwards to create a difference, or better yet, play it twice.  That should thicken up the sound.
 
@

Well Karyn, Im glad you did state the obvious! and a bit surprised that I hadnt copped that but even so I was slightly aware of this and tried to get channel tools to work i.e. I put a delay or a stereo reverb on the channel and then put channel tools on it, however there still doesn't seem to be an option to play with either stereo field, still greyed out.
 
I think what your saying about doing a second take and panning the other side should give it some nice texture and that is what Ill do thanks.
 
Your trick re panning the dry to one side and letting the reverb alternate in the panning field, the only thing is how do I pan only the dry signal??
 
Thanks AT also

Hi, Cian, great to see you around, my friend!
 
Just something simple to check out.  I'm not in the studio at this moment, but I believe If you're using Channel Tools directly on a track, the interleave on the track has to be set to stereo in order for Channel Tools to allow "stereo processing", even if the track is mono.  I always use a MONO TRACK routed to Channel Tools on a STEREO BUS and it always works well for me.
 
Hope this helps, best wishes!
Bob

much more interesting,
to simply track ANOTHER acoustic guitar track, played as closely to the original as possible, and hard pan those two.
 
and even better still, use two different guitars, and two different mics.
 
added bonus...
hold your lip different win you play the second track.
 

 
point is, you want ear candy, not homogenous swiss cheese.
 
 
if you want to experiment, try copying the mono guitar track to another track, and then time-line SHIFT the copied track back about 10 milliseconds.
then, add a mono reverb to an FX buss, and send the original acoustic track to the reverb, and pan THAT reverb send hard opposite of the original dry guitar track.
put the pre-delay on the reverb at the same 10ms, and put about 1.5 seconds on the reverb. a nice hall will do.
roll off a lot of the high end on the reverb.
 
 
don't mix the reverb send in, until AFTER you have mixed the two acoustic tracks in together, and have the EQ balance correct between them.
 
 

Bob, That does help, but dont know what you mean by track interleave. I know your not in studio, so no biggie.
 
Batz, Yea Ill do the double tracking method, just wanted a quick * neat mixing trick where I could with as little clicks as possible turn a mono track into a split panned stereo to get it wide out of the way of everything.
 
I think you have let loose one of your guitar mixing secrets there also, score! Probably the most uneducated area I am within DAWs are reverb and sends. Ill really have to get a better handle on that. I still dont even know which type of reverb to put on stuff, usually just lash a plate onto a vox and then whatever sounds good on anything else.
 
Thank you very much guys

A much more elegant way of creating nice stereo ambience from a mono source is with this plug in. It is a free plugin called SHEPPi created by Bob Katz.
 
http://dallashodgson.info/articles/OpenAmbienceProject/
 
It beats all the usual copy and pan a delay one side sort of thing. You need to check serious mono compatibility when you do that sort of thing too. (small mono auratone type speaker) Listen for severe comb filtering and sound change when you do this.
 
This plug is very cool at giving mono tracks some spread. It is 32 bit unfortunately for those of you that are hung up on 64 bit systems. But I am sure it can be bridged in some sort of way hopefully.
 
But yes double tracking a new part is even better. Try using the Nashville tuning as well when you double track. It is worth having a separate acoustic guitar permanently setup for Nashville if you can afford to do it.
 
 

Hi, Cian,
 
Not sure which version of Sonar you're using, but in Producer 8.53 in Console View, the track interleave button is the small mono/stereo button directly above the "M" mute button on every track and bus.
 
Although, as I mentioned above I usually use Channel Tools for BGVs using a Mono track routed to a Stereo Vocal Bus, not on individual tracks.
 
Have a good one, buddy!
Bob

Had to google nashville tuning jeff.
 
Thanks men.