Ask HN: How to get a music player to always play in mono?

2 points·yesenadam··5 comments

I recently lost my hearing in one ear..and discovered VLC can play stereo tracks as mono. But you have to manually turn it on for every track, it seems, no preference setting for that. Does anyone know a player that can be set to always play mono, or some way of getting around that? (Besides getting special headphones) Thanks!

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There's a Windows setting (I know you're on a Mac but maybe other people got here after a search) in:

right click start - settings - Ease of Access - Audio - "turn on mono audio".

Or start typing in the search bar "ease of access" and select audio.

Just double-checking that you've seen a doctor, and had a referral to audiology for hearing tests, possibly an MRI, and a hearing aid?

Hehe yes, all that, thanks. Went to audiologist within a few days, specialist, scans, steroid injections into ear etc. Nothing helped at all. I had no idea you can just wake up one day deaf in one ear, permanently. Especially annoying since I'm a jazz musician! It's rare, but not that rare, apparently–caused by some virus. The hospital I went to sees someone with the same problem every week or 2, people of all ages. (This was a year ago)

You might be able to configure your OS to sum everything to one channel, instead of doing it program by program.

Oh thanks, will look into that. p.s. It's a Mac.

edit: Yes indeed! Thanks again for the idea, I didn't think that would be possible, I guess.

System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Audio -> "Play stereo audio as mono" checkbox.

That "sounds" good :) Glad to help.

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