How do I render out a single mono audio track? I have a single audio strip (its occupying a single channel of the 32 in the VSE)  that is mono (a voice recording done in audacity as a mono track). I imported it into blender. I want to render it out with a single video strip.....every-time I do it goes stereo.

All I see is the ability to "split channels" tracks into mono under mixdown options (just audio render).

Why do I have to split channels and lose data if its a mono track? Is blender just automatically duplicating the mono track 2x and making it a stereo? So I'm fine if I choose split channels as it'll just render the one mono track as I wanted? I don't wanna lose data is all I'm saying. If it was a stereo and I did this, I'd lose half the data technically unless I recombined the 2 mono tracks later right?
If you go to Scene Properies you can change the audio format https://developer.blender.org/F351924.


  Is blender just automatically duplicating the mono track 2x and making it a stereo?


Joerg Mueller answers this: https://developer.blender.org/T54418#492826