composing in 5.1 for dvd audio

i'm starting a new ambient/glitch/noise project and am thinking of making it a 5.1 dvd much like nin's downward spiral re-release.. only problem is i have no idea how to make it into a dvd once it's done (or even what format supports 5.1 sound) .. anyone know what i could use? i think if i can't directly compose in 5.1 i'll just make two separate stereo tracks and a mono track and then combine them all together at the end somehow.

i might be mistaken but i do remember ACID 6 having options for surround sound composing.

sound interesting

The top version of SONAR has 5.1 mixing. That's probably true of the other DAWs as well.

Ok, excellent. So how do I save into a format that will be playable on a DVD player?

i know dp 5 and pthd can do surround, for it to be playable in a dvd you have to save it as part of movie file, i think...ill get back to you on that one

i'm ok with saving it as part of a movie file, i think i'll just make it black or some stills or something.

sx3

hi modey, you need to get a program called Surrcode, mixdown your 4 wave files (which is what sonar or cubase would mix down) and load them in surrcode. DVD's use 3 main audio formats

DTS, DVD-audio and dolby digital . DTS and dolby digital are much more common. Then when you burn the dvd you just need to make something on the menu to either choose between the two formats or to stick with one and play it.

if you're just asking how to make 5.1 music to begin with, it's pretty simple when you load the 5.1 templates on cubase/nuendo. The circular panners on the channels are fun to play with.

http://www.surcode.com/

use emule or a similar program type surcode and youll find most if not all what they offer on this page. You're going to want to use Dolby Digital most likely. Check your testing dvd player first to check out if it supports dolby digital / dts or both. I dont recommend using DVD-audio like i said before because its probably the least common one even though it is technically the highest quality. Dolby digital is basically a surround sound acoustic trick done with a 2channel audio track.

more detailed breakdown of what these different formats mean -

Dolby Pro Logic is based on basic Matrix technology. When a Dolby Surround soundtrack is created, four channels of sound are matrix-encoded into an ordinary stereo (two channel) sound track by using phase shift techniques. A Pro Logic decoder/processor "unfolds" the sound into the original 4.0 surround—left and right, center, and a single limited frequency-range mono rear channel—while systems lacking the decoder play back the audio as standard Stereo.

Dolby Digital, or AC-3, is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound, with five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) (Right front, Center, Left Front, Right Rear and Left Rear) and one channel (20 Hz – 120 Hz) for the subwoofer driven low frequency effects. The Dolby Digital format supports mono and stereo usages as well

Dolby DTS (digital theatre system) Both music and movie DVDs allow delivery of DTS audio tracks. But DTS was not part of the original DVD specification (1997), so early DVD players did not recognize DTS audio tracks at all. The DVD specification was revised to allow optional inclusion of DTS audio tracks. The DVD title must carry one or more primary audio tracks in AC-3 or LPCM format (in Europe, MPEG-1 is also an allowed primary track format). The DTS audio track, if present, can be selected by the user. Modern DVD players generally rely on an external home theater receiver to decode DTS audio. DVD players with integrated DTS 5.1 decoders exist, but are not particularly common. Nearly all standalone receivers and many integrated ("home theater in a box") DVD player/receivers manufactured today can decode DTS.

DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering very high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. The first discs entered the marketplace in 2000. Future occasional DVD-Audio releases are expected and/or have been announced. DVD-Audio is in a format war with Super Audio CD, another format for delivering high-fidelity audio content. Neither has gained much traction in the marketplace. Since media players that can play many formats (including DVD-Audio and SACD) are available for under $100[1], both formats are likely to co-exist (as do DVD-R and DVD+R).

The introduction of the DVD-Audio format required some kind of backward compatibility with existing DVD-Video players. To address this, most DVD-Audio discs contain, at a minimum, a Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio track on the disc[3] (which can be downmixed to two channels for listeners with no surround sound setup). Some discs also include a native Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, and even a DTS 96/24 5.1-channel, audio track[4]. A criticism of DVD-Audio and SACD is that both require the listener to be near a home stereo system as one cannot rip either format to digital audio players. As of 2006, very few car stereos are capable of playing DVD-Audio discs.[2]

  loganfive said:

sx3

  Ghostbusters III said:

http://www.surcode.com/

 

use emule or a similar program type surcode and youll find most if not all what they offer on this page. You're going to want to use Dolby Digital most likely. Check your testing dvd player first to check out if it supports dolby digital / dts or both. I dont recommend using DVD-audio like i said before because its probably the least common one even though it is technically the highest quality. Dolby digital is basically a surround sound acoustic trick done with a 2channel audio track.

excellent! so i'll need dvd authoring software too won't i?

  modey said:

  Ghostbusters III said:

http://www.surcode.com/

 

use emule or a similar program type surcode and youll find most if not all what they offer on this page. You're going to want to use Dolby Digital most likely. Check your testing dvd player first to check out if it supports dolby digital / dts or both. I dont recommend using DVD-audio like i said before because its probably the least common one even though it is technically the highest quality. Dolby digital is basically a surround sound acoustic trick done with a 2channel audio track.

 

 

excellent! so i'll need dvd authoring software too won't i?

yes you will, that part is the easies to accomplish. You can get somethingm like Vegas video, Idvd, DVD pro (apple) and there are many free dvd authoriing programs out now.

cubase sx3

nuendo 2.0 on

pro-tools HD

Digital Performer all do 5.1

good luck and happy panning

i got it working! now all i have to do is properly mix stuff in 5.1 hehe.

I just want something that would allow me to put five wav files into their appropriate channels and export an ac3 file. Something like A.Pack, but without an entire audio suite tacked onto it.

  mushroom said:

I just want something that would allow me to put five wav files into their appropriate channels and export an ac3 file. Something like A.Pack, but without an entire audio suite tacked onto it.

did you check out Surcode? ive used both and Its essentially the same as Apack.

edit: i think i see what you mean, you want to just drag and drop like a VOB file along with an ac3 onto a data DVD disc and have it play in a commercial DVD player?

I want to be able to take two different wav files and merge them together as an ac3, each wav corresponding to either the rear or the front stereo tracks. Surcode looked something like what I wanted, but I need a Mac program that's preferably free.

  mushroom said:

I want to be able to take two different wav files and merge them together as an ac3, each wav corresponding to either the rear or the front stereo tracks. Surcode looked something like what I wanted, but I need a Mac program that's preferably free.

if you want i can merge the files for you and send back an ac3

Thanks. I could probably do that for one track, but I'd really like a long-term solution. Or if you could point out the totally legal means by which you obtained this software that I'm assuming was for free, please do so (wink wink).

you can use reason. you need a 5.1 soundcard tho (i think)

  GORDO said:

you can use reason. you need a 5.1 soundcard tho (i think)

the only thing that would categorize a sound card as 5.1 is if it had a digital spidif output or a 4 individual analog channels. Virtually any sound card with these qualities can be configured through software interfaces to make them work for 5.1 playback.

ok then you can do it in reason even without a soundcard. the thing is, to hear it while you're composing you'd definately need something to play it in 5.1

u know, i can't plug my hometheater to my soundcard and get 5.1 channels.