Thread: 5.1 or 7.1

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I would like to know if anyone has produced a 5.1 or 7.1 sound track? If so did you run it thru you VSA program and did you get full surround play back? I posted the same request in the music section with no feed back.

Prop

Yes I have. How it was generally done can be found here: Integrated Haunt Control using DMX/VSA

So from what I can see VSA can not handle 5.1 or 7.1 on its own, you must us DMX to support the surround sound. Is that correct?

Jim

I'm not an authority, but I recently read the tutorial thread Integrated Haunt Control using DMX/VSA

It mentions 5.1 and 7.1 sound (I specifically remember reading problems with 7.1)

Kurt

People start to get confused when talking about multi channel sound tracks..

Normally when talking about 5.1 sound people are referring to the soundtracks they are used to in movies which create the audible illusion of sounds coming from different directions and moving around the auditorium, but that is all it is, an illusion.

As a point of fact there is nothing in nature that produces anything other than mono sound, and the only devices outside of nature that produce anything other than mono sound are .....multi channel sound systems.

So, saying this, unless you have an auditorium then cinema style surround sound is pointless....

.....however......

Multi channel sound players can be used as a means to play multiple sounds from multiple sources, what I mean is that you can have a single player (computer) and 7 speakers, each playing a different feature sound you can for example have 7 props with an embedded speaker, and the by mixing the sound to the appropriate channel have it come out of a single speaker.

There are now several methods by which such sound tracks can be mixed, I wrote an application some years ago that could do this, and I believe that its now doable using Audacity.

No, you do not need to use DMX for multi channel sound, DMX has nothing to do with sound (unless you are using DMX sound players)

We used 7.1 sound in a haunt 4 years ago. I started out thinking I could get 7 distinct sounds out of the 7 speakers but I could never get a clean sound out of the side speakers. They seemed muffled always. Back then the process of producing a 7.1 file was not particularly easy and involved many steps. Now, Audacity will lay down multi channel sound files. I have not tried 7 channels with Audacity but have done 4 separate channels getting ready for this year's haunt. It looks like it will make a 7.1 sound file, I just haven't tried it yet. Oh, and Audacity is much easier to work with than the multi program multi step process I used 4 years ago.

Oh, I should mention we will use the multi channel effect to have separate voices coming from speakers mounted 4 different skeletons. The music and singing portion of our haunt will be played through all of the speakers. And VSA will play 5.1 sound files I've made with Audacity. You just have to export them as a "wavex" file.

Yeah, bucaneerdude, I think I recall your issues, it was down to a feature on your sound card.

It appears that some sound cards have features that cross mix the channels in certain cases, I think its a feature designed to turn 5.1 sound into faux 7.1..... and if you cant turn it off then it becomes a real PITA

Phoenix I was waiting for you to enter this subject, You are saying that if a sound track is mixed in 5.1 or 7.1 that VSA will support it? What I am asking is, If a track is imported into VSA as a 5.1 or 7.1 track VSA will play it a such? Prop

much of my work on multichannel sound predates Vsas inclusion of the feature, and I dont use vsa for playback, only editing, and initial testing.

however, if you include a multichannel sound file in vsa, and you have a suitable soundcard, then it should play fine. vsa also allows you to select which track it displays on the wave view screen.

I was able to. When I made the 5.1 sound file it became a .avi file. VSA didn't recognize it thus wouldn't play it. But with Phoenix's and hubby's help went through a backend computer way to rename the file extension to a .wav file (but the actual file remained the same) and fooled VSA into playing it. The next year, got lazy and didn't change the .avi file name extension (left it as an .avi file) and it played fine. No idea if there was an software update somewhere in there (but was a new computer). Ah, the fickle ways of a computer...