Is there a way to make iTunes play the songs with mono instead of stereo? One of my speakers isn't working properly. I don't want the song to be in mono because I'd like to listen to it stereo on my iPod. Is there anyway to just make iTunes play with the mono settings without actually changing the format on the song?
Assuming you're running Windows XP, You may want to try going to the XP
Control Panel >
Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices >
Change the speaker settings >
Speaker Settings: Advanced button and - since it seems to be the only mono setting available - select
Laptop mono speakers from the
Speaker setup dropdown menu.
I tried changing the settings on XP Speaker Settings but the Laptop Mono and the current setting does not change anything and I still only hear one side of the speakers.
I have a similar issue-- I have a bad ear, and so I can only hear one side of a pair of headphones. Listening to things like Beatles albums (with hard-panned stereo parts) was driving me nuts! I could only hear, for example, the water sounds, piano, and backing vocals (or something like that) on "Yellow Submarine."
I started thinking that the only solution was to start converting all my MP3s (and burning new ones) in mono, for which iTunes does have an option. But that could literally take weeks...
But this solution was easy and cheap. I went to Radio Shack and got a little stereo-to-mono converter, about $6 I think. You can find them online as well. You plug that into your headphone output jack, and then plug your speakers or headphones into the other end. It takes both the left and right channel from your output and sends them both to a single wire of your speaker plug. Then you just have to figure out which side it's sending to.
Hope this helps for now. In the future, yes please, Apple, add this feature to iTunes!
It didn't occur to me that the plug for a computer's speakers is the same as the plug for an iPod's headphones.
D'oh!
As Dan says, you can change iTunes's settings to import new files as mono in the iTunes
Edit menu >
Preferences >
Advanced tab >
Importing sub-tab and then convert old files as well. I agree with him that it's not the most efficient solution.
