Free tools for your next audio edit
Extract the left or right channel from a stereo recording, or average both into a mono mix. Preview and download one mono WAV at a time. Open a stereo MP3 or WAV; your audio stays in this browser.
Your audio is read locally; this tool does not upload it. Export is 48 kHz, 16-bit mono PCM WAV without original tags. Channel extraction keeps existing audio; it does not separate voices or instruments mixed on the same channel.
Inspect the channels you already have
Keep your original stereo file. A channel name describes where samples are stored, not which person or instrument they contain.
Open a two-channel recording up to 50 MiB and 5 minutes. The tool decodes it locally and shows a separate waveform overview for each channel. A mono file has no second channel to extract.
Select Left channel or Right channel, then prepare a mono WAV. Play the preview and identify what that side contains. To make two files, download the first output before selecting and preparing the other.
Download the same WAV you previewed. For a single combined track, test Mono mix as well. Listen for voices or instruments becoming quieter or disappearing; an average is not always the right choice.
Existing channels, separate downloads
A stereo file stores two channels. They might hold different microphones, a backing track and a guide voice, or two sides of the same musical arrangement. Channel extraction keeps one of those stored channels; it does not estimate which sound belongs to a speaker or instrument.
For example, if an interview recorder placed microphone A on the left and microphone B on the right, separate mono files give you control over those recordings in an editor. Each microphone can still contain room noise and the other speaker. Selecting its channel does not remove that spill.
If a song’s voice and instruments are already mixed on both sides, neither side is automatically an acapella or instrumental. Use the vocal removal workflow for an estimated instrumental, or the stem separation workflow for a described source. Those are different operations from this free channel tool.
For desktop editing, Audacity also documents splitting stereo into separate mono tracks. In this tool, each exported file has one channel. When played through ordinary stereo equipment, its audio can be heard from both sides rather than retaining the original hard-left or hard-right position.
Choose by listening
Choose the channel containing the wanted recording. If the other side is empty or unwanted, averaging the two can make the wanted signal quieter without adding useful audio. Check the whole passage before discarding a channel.
Download both channels separately and place them at the same start time in your editor. Adjust each track as needed. This tool preserves the decoded duration and does not trim silence or choose a speaker for you.
Test Mono mix. It averages both channels with equal weights. If your project needs the stereo placement, retain the original instead. A one-channel WAV cannot preserve left-to-right positioning.
A predictable mix, with a listening check
For each sample frame, Mono mix uses the average below. It follows the stereo-to-mono rule in the Web Audio specification.
mono sample = (left sample + right sample) / 2Identical left and right signals retain their sample amplitude after averaging. If the right side is silent, the left signal is halved. Equal signals with opposite polarity cancel. Real recordings may change only some sounds or frequencies, so a louder individual channel is a useful reference when checking the mix.
The tool does not normalize levels, align microphones, reverse polarity, repair clipping, or judge mono compatibility. Listen to the preview before choosing the mix. If it loses a wanted sound, keep an individual channel or use an editor with the controls needed to investigate the recording.
Know what you are exporting
Each output is 48 kHz, 16-bit PCM WAV. There is no edge fade or automatic silence trimming. The browser may resample the input, and compressed MP3 decoding is not a bit-for-bit extraction of the original file. Sample values above full scale are clipped to the PCM range; adjust excessive gain in an editor before exporting.
All three options have the same number of mono samples, so their WAV byte sizes match. A mono WAV can still exceed the size of a compressed stereo MP3. Use the file size calculator to compare PCM and bitrate-based estimates.
Changing the selected output replaces its preview. Download the left and right files individually if you need both. Reloading the page clears this session; original tags are not copied and no recording is saved for later by the tool.
Compare original stereo, separate left and right channels, and averaged mono. Download a source WAV to try it in this free splitter.
A few useful answers
Yes. Extracting a channel, preparing a mono mix, previewing, and downloading the WAV are free and require no account. They happen in this browser. Saturalabs’ separate AI isolation service uses its own account and download credits.
Open a stereo MP3 or WAV, choose Left channel, prepare the WAV, and download it. Then choose Right channel and repeat. Each export is a separate mono file with the original decoded recording’s full duration. The tool does not create a ZIP or download both files automatically.
It can only select audio already stored on a left or right channel. If vocals and instruments occur together on that channel, they remain together. For an audible source mixed with other sounds, evaluate AI source isolation rather than treating channel extraction as a stem separator.
It averages corresponding left and right samples: (left + right) / 2. It does not choose the cleaner side, normalize loudness, or repair phase differences. Opposing signals can cancel, so compare the mono mix with both individual channels before using it.
Use a stereo MP3 or WAV up to 50 MiB and 5 minutes. Browser codec support varies; standard PCM WAV is a useful fallback. The output is one-channel, 48 kHz, 16-bit PCM WAV. The browser may resample the input; original tags and compressed MP3 bytes are not preserved.
A mono file has only one stored channel, so it has no separate left and right audio to extract. Playing mono through two speakers does not add a second recorded channel. Use the free trimmer if you simply need a shorter mono excerpt.
After preparing your audio