User guide

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37 Working With Split Channel Audio
File Formats
You can store multi-channel audio as interleaved or split
channel audio files.
An interleaved audio file contains all channel information, stored in an alternating
single “stream.” For stereo files, this would be left channel, right channel, left, right, and
so on.
Split channel audio files couple separate audio files, allowing you to deal with each
channel (file) independently. For stereo files, two separate files are created, where one
file contains the left channel samples, and the other file contains the right channel
samples. The files are generally identified by a .L and .R suffix. The two files are linked,
and are edited as a pair.
Logic Express, and most other audio applications, support the import and recording of
interleaved files when using Core Audio hardware.
A handful of audio applications (including Pro Tools) only support split file formats, and
will automatically separate interleaved files when you import them.
∏ Tip: You should use interleaved audio files if your audio hardware supports them. Split
channel audio files require significantly more hard disk I/O performance.
Importing Split Channel Files
Nothing special needs to be done to import either split or interleaved files into
Logic Express. What happens when you do import such files is slightly different,
however.
When split stereo files are imported, they are automatically converted to interleaved
files. If you want to add several split stereo files simultaneously, Logic Express asks
whether all files should be converted at once. (When you load a Logic Pro project that
contains split stereo files, the split stereo files are not converted.)