2 Channel 48Khz WAV > to 5.1 Channel AC3

[misterchuckles]

Hello -

I have a dual channel wav file that I'd like to turn into 5.1 AC3 format. Are there any programs that can do the straight conversion? If not, what would I have to do to get there?

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks!

Chaz

[BJ_M]

split it to 2 seperate mono channels and use vegas 4 or acid with ac3 plug in and create a 5:1 new mix or use goldwave or sound forge to create the new tracks and encode in your fav ac3 encoder ..

rough guide to create 5:1 from 2ch :

old left = left
old right = right
old left - old right(3dB down) + 15ms delay - 10dB = new left surround
old right - old left(3dB down) + 15ms delay - 10dB = new right surround
old left + old right - 6dB (or -10dB if no speech) = new center (there are some inverting options you can also do here to pick out more the speech center)
old left + old right + 18dB per octive filter centered at 180Hz (crossover, your wave form will look like this "~~~~~\ ___________________" )
+ 2dB @ 80Hz .7 octive wide + 3db @ 180Hz .8 octive wide = new subwoofer channel

"-" means to take away ..
"+" means to add ..

[ASB]

WOW, is there any program that will do this automatically?

[ChrissyBoy]

BeSweet will. Either commandline or GUI.

[Dragonsf]

With CoolEdit:
Front (L/R)= Old(L/R) with VocalCut applied
Center =Old(L+R)+3dB amp
LFE=Center Low-Pass with 250Hz cutoff
Rear(L/R)=(Old(L-R)+echochamber)-6dB

[ASB]

I use BeSweet. I can only find guides to downcovert. Do you know of a guide to up convert? I can not see which part of BeSwwet would do this.

[hypercube]

note that this convertion have no sense if the 2ch input file is
NOT encoded in dolby Stereo.

[ASB]

I do convert my wav to ac3.
I am trying soft encode that seems to do the upconvert with one button press. Very slowwwww.

[The Producer]

Or, you can go to the Doom9 forums, and under "Audio Encoding", you'll see a topic with a name similar to this one.
Follow the guide, and after you have your 5.1 WAV, use BeSweet to convert it to 5.1 AC3 (make sure you select the "Make 5.1 AC3" option.

The Producer

[ASB]

WOW, far to complex and time consuming for me. I was hoping for a one button solution that would ( from the stero source) and create the extra tracks, and then encode.

Oh well, I think I will have to stick with 2 channel ac3.

[The Producer]

Actually, once you get tha hang of doing it, it doesn't take that long!
But, like the others above have said, there's a way to do 2ch to 5.1ch AC3 in BeSweet in the GUI or commandline. I've never found out how to exactly do this, though . . .

The Producer

[hypercube]

just a question, misterchuckles, what is your final goal ?
why convert 2ch in 5.1 ??
your 2ch file is pure stereo or Dolby Stereo encoded ?

[Dragonsf]

Even a pseudo surround sounds much better than straight stereo only!
That was my reason to do it!

[hypercube]

sure !

but what I wanted to say is the equations exposed in this thread are
usefull only with dolby stereo encoded files. To spacialize a stereo
file, not dolby stereo encoded, you can play with Cool Edit, using
delaying, reverb, ...

more complex spacialization can be performed by DSP FX.

I thought to make an audio spacialization program based on motion frame
analysis: dividing frame in 5 zones, and binding motion to channel volume.

motion in center of frame => louder in center channel
motion in top => louder in rear channels
motion in bottom => louder in front channels.

it could be funny to test this idea...

[darkwunder]

BJ_M (or anyone else that knows):

Your formulas above indicate that for the rear channel, you should subtract the right channel from the left (or vice vers). I have been playing around with Vegas video at work, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to do this.

Any guidance would appreciated.
DW

[Dragonsf]

You can do this with CoolEdit for ex.:Use channel mixer and invert one of the channels before mix.

[darkwunder]

Thanks Dragonsf,

I hadn't equated inverse with subtracting...makes perfect sense.

Regards,
DW

[misterchuckles]

hey hypercube -

I'm looking to change the dual channel wav to 5.1 for shitz and giggles pretty much. The uncompressed sound is really well done, but I'm curious how its done.

So basically, I have to have 5 separate mono wavs for each channel to combine them in something like Beesweet....what about the bass? The x.1 channel....how would I get that sucker? Use something like Soundforge to pull the bass line and make that a sixth channel?

[hypercube]

pull the bass line and make that a sixth channel?

in fact, this is not very usefull because most of 5.1 receiver can
do this job for you in realtime. But this is an idea, you can try it
with cooledit:

apply low pass filter, then amplify (not too much, protect your
subwoofer !), that's all.

[misterchuckles]

Great! Hey thanks for the advice. I'll let you all know how it comes out!

[hypercube]

Have you try this peace of software : MatrixMixer
http://matrix-mixer.sourceforge.net/

they say:
Allows to upmix any audio source (not only ac3s) up to 5.1 format (based on AC3Filter mixing matrix).

[misterchuckles]

Ah yes, I read up on that. I'm definitely going to download it, but its only for playback. I was hoping for a program that would do a straight conversion from stereo to 5.1. oh well If anyone knows of one, keep me posted! Thanks!

[Ste]

Isn't this form of 2ch > 5.1ch conversion exactly what Dobly Pro-Logic II decoding does? So, I guess the only reason for using this type of conversion is if your srround sound reciever doesn't have Pro-Logic II decoding.

[txpharoah]

Most good receivers can provide psuedo-surround anyway, so why make the disc do it? It just takes away more space, and can be accomplished by hardware means (receiver) anyway.

To each their own I guess. Dolby 2/0 should be fine for 99% of people.

Without the original separated tracks, you cannot make true 5/1.

[Dragonsf]

The reasons, why I'm doing this is:
1. I'm recording from SAT and most of the movies are Dolby Pro Logic encoded.After compressing such audio, the Surround info is lost (due to mp2 compression).
2. My DVD player just has an AC3 decoder, nothing else.
3. An AC3 5.1 sounds richer (much better than only the TV set's speakers)
4. It's fun to make your own AC3 5.1 sound track!

[hypercube]

yes, it's very fun and an real interesting problem...
I my case, I don't have any dolby surround reveiver.
my dvd player host an AC3 decoder only. I use some
cheap 5.1 speakers (tokai) with a minimal amplifier
(no decoder inside).

Dragonsf, you should use the MatrixMixer with my hypercube transcoder v3. Use "PCM engine" to produce 6 RAW PCM files then encode
them in 5.1 AC3.
tell me if you have good results...

you can also try the Intervideo EXP DMO filter, witch can decode
dolby prologic II, but I am not sure that it work with Hypercube Transcoder v3.
For instance I didn't found the right directshow graph configuration...

[Dragonsf]

I'll give it a try.One question regarding the download: it's not a plain .exe but .exe.php.Is it suffice to rename it to .exe and then execute?

[hypercube]

nothing to do, simply you MUST use a download manager, like flashget.
Don't try to download with your web browser, the download will be
broken.

(the .exe is delivered by a PHP script with HTTP restart support).

[Dragonsf]

I used the modzilla download manager and it dl'ed a HypercubeInstaller30.exe.php with size of 2382 KB.Is this wrong?

[mp3superfreak]

ASB - If you have SoftEncode, it is very easy to make 5.1 out of 2 ch WAV.

Open your stereo file in SoftEncode 3 times. You will see the 3 stereo (or 6 mono files). Go into settings and make sure 5.1 is selected (the defaults should be fine). Press encode and it should only take a few minutes and you have a new 5.1 AC3 track!