The Freeware Method to Encoding DD5.1

[The Producer]

I've seen thatn lots of people have been asking how to turn stereo into 5.1. This is how I do it, but be warned, it doesn't give you "surround sound", it just plays you stereo file on all 5 speakers.

The Freeware Method to Encoding DD5.1 or 2.0
(Workable on WinXP or Win98SE)

Tools Required:
BeSweet 1.5
Goldwave
WAVAVIMUX (optional)
Windows Media Encoder 7 or 9 (optional)

--To convert stereo to DD5.1--

1. Open your stereo file in Goldwave
2. Go to EDIT, CHANNELS, RIGHT
Now your ready to make changes to the right channel.

3. Go to EFFECTS, SILENCE to silence the right channel.
4. Then, save the file as a MONO file. This will be your Front Left Channel.
5. Reopen the orginial stereo file and edit the left channel. Silence it and save it as
the Front Right channel. Make sure it's mono.

6. Next, reopen the stereo file. For the rear channels, you can do the same as above, along with going to EFFECTS, VOLUME, and CHANGE to 70%, or by lowering the volume to 70 and just saving the stereo file out as a mono file, one for SL and SR.

7. If you want a Center channel, just save the stereo file out as a mono. I usually lower the volume to 50.

8. For the LFE, open the stereo file, go to EFFECTS, FILTER, LOW/HIGHPASS. Set the intial cutoff freq. to 120 Hz (for Dolby Digital, 140 for DTS, I think). Once it's finished, save it out as a mono file.

9. Now you should have 6 mono wav files. Next, open Notepad, and enter in the path to your wav files, using this model:

C:\BeSweet\Temp\aFL.wav
C:\BeSweet\Temp\aC.wav
C:\BeSweet\Temp\aFR.wav
C:\BeSweet\Temp\aFL.wav
C:\BeSweet\Temp\aFR.wav
C:\BeSweet\Temp\aLFE.wav

Save it as list.mux.

10. With BeSweet v1.5b 18, you can just set the list.mux file as input, and a AC3 file as output, then click on "AC3 & OGG". Under AC3 Encoding Options, set your wanted bitrate, and select "Create 5.1 AC3". Then, click MUX to AC3, and wait!

11. Now, you have a 5.1 AC3 file! Using Valex's AC3 decoder for Winamp, I found that it didn't encode the LFE.

--Stereo to 5.1 WM9--
12. If, let's say, you had a uncompressed AVI video to go with the 6 mono wavs, you can use WAVAVIMUX to mux the AVI with the 6 mono wavs, creating a AVI file with 5.1 or 7.1 WAV audio. You can either give this to BeSweet, or feed it to Windows Media Encoder 9 or 7 to make a 5.1/7.1 WMV file.
(BeSweet can't encode 7.1 AC3 files)
(5.1 WMA encoding in Win98 works as long as you have the WM9 codecs installed, and feed it a 5.1/7.1 file as input)

[txpharoah]

BeSweet is one of the worst AC3 encoders around. The final quality on the sound screams FREEWARE all over it. If you're happy with it, then great, but in general, you'd be better off with PCM sound or a higher-quality AC3 encoder that comes with DVDit! PE , DVD Workshop AC3 or by using SF SoftEncode. All BeSweet conversions have this metallic sound to them, kind of fake-quality audio. Ah well, just my pro side getting annoyed, most consumers may not notice it.

[khilkemen]

So where can I get this WAVAVIMUX? I can't find from the tools section.