Audio file creation

[davisgraveyard]

Does anyone know of a good utility that will allow you to create a multi-channel .WAV file?     I have several mono sound tracks and I would like to place them all in one .WAV file each one playing on a separate channel so I can then take the audio out of a PC with 7.1 audio and send sounds to specific speakers.    I want to be able to play specific tracks out the left front, right front, center, left side, left rear, right rear, right side channels.   With a single PC with 7.1 audio support I can play 7 sound tracks using a single .WAV file and 1 PC.    I have tested this with some sample .WAV files I found that are used to test 7.1 sound.    But I am not sure what tool will allow me to create the files?   Is this something that Audacity Beta might support?

Jeff

[JonnyMac]

You might want to do a Google search combining phrases like "7.1", "audio", and "create" -- I did and got this promising hit:

-- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/Multichannel.aspx

[davisgraveyard]

Yea, I did the obvious Google search.  Microsoft has a command line utility that will combine separate mono .WAV files into a single multi channel file.  Which works but I was looking for something a little more elegant.  The other options they (Microsoft) suggest are Steinberg Nuendo (very pricey German software), CoolEdit Pro (which is now Adobe Audition),  Pro Tools which I can't tell if it does Multi-Channel WAV files?   Another good tool is Sony Creative's Sound Forge 9  ($299).   

I was looking for a cheaper software solution that would allow me to edit multiple tracks and then save them into a multi-channel .WAV file where I could specifiy which channel and at what volume each track track was assigned to.   For example I might have a long 3min soundtrack I want to play on channel 1 but the sound effect I want to play on Channel 2 is only 30 sec so I have to edit that track to repeat the sound effect until I fill the 3 min or provide adequate delays between?  Audacity would do everything I want except it won't export all the tracks to a single .WAV.  I would have to save them all as mono files and then use the command line utility to combine them?

[livinlowe]

Won't audacity do this? I'm not sure, I personally am still at the editing sound files stage!   ;D

[davisgraveyard]

It will do everything except allow you to assign the track to a specific channel and export to a multi-channel file.    It works great for editing and like I said you could save each track out as a mono .WAV file and then use Microsofts command line utility that combines them into a multi-channel file.

The reason I am asking about this is so I can get rid of my stack of DVD players and amplifiers that plays sounds to difffernt parts of the display.  I wanted to play all the audio with one .WAV file and a single PC this year.   

[JonnyMac]

Here's an interesting note: I downloaded the demo files from Microsoft.  One of them is called 6_Channel_ID.WAV; when I opened this in with Audacity it in fact exploded out to six individual channels (left, right, plus four mono).  So, even if it's not part of Audacity now, maybe multi-channel encoding is something down the road.  Perhaps a request to the Audacity team is in order.

[JonnyMac]

Jeff,

Have a look at this program: http://besweet.notrace.dk/ -- according to a discussion thread I happened upon, it will do what you want and it appears to be freeware.

Update: You still have to do a bit of manual work, but it's simple (creating a text file that describes your six tracks) -- the instructions for that are in this thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15738#post77320

[Tim-M]

I have used Mixcraft by Acoustica and simply love the software.  Check it out at www.acoustica.com .  Mixcraft costs about $65 and has a capacity of up to 999 separate tracks, full control of pan, balance, volume, pitch and speed... and the effects available are almost to numerous to mention.  VERY powerful stuff for the cost.  You can merge tracks prior to saving, either in groups of your choice or all tracks, and files can be saved in many different formats.  I believe that it's capable of all you want to do (and more) and the audio quality is at the professional level.  I'm not affiliated with the company or product at all, I'm just a very happy customer.

Tim

Edit: I should have mentioned that Mixcraft is very easy to use too.

[JonnyMac]

Mixcraft looks and works a lot like Sony Acid -- and (the downloadable demo, anyway) only exports stereo WAVs.  It does look like a nice program though, and I may buy it instead of upgrading to a "pro" version of Acid.

[davisgraveyard]

Here's an interesting note: I downloaded the demo files from Microsoft.  One of them is called 6_Channel_ID.WAV; when I opened this in with Audacity it in fact exploded out to six individual channels (left, right, plus four mono).  So, even if it's not part of Audacity now, maybe multi-channel encoding is something down the road.  Perhaps a request to the Audacity team is in order.

When I first looked into this I did the exact same thing.  The problem is since they are just doing their best to read the file they don't assign the mono tracks to specific channels so an export wouldn't work even if they had one.  Having the option to export to multichannel is only half the problem.  They also have to be able to assign channels to tracks which is a bit more complex than just stereo vs mono like they do now.

Still probably worth a request to the Audacity team?

[JonnyMac]

I think it probably is.  Perhaps there isn't a suitable cross-platform plug-in for creating multi-channel WAVs, hence the lack of this feature in Audacity.  They've been really good (so far as I can tell) in keeping features consistent between platforms.

[JonnyMac]

Jeff,

Did you see this: http://www.hauntedbay.com/thelab/multichannelsound.shtml

The page is created by a home haunter, so it should be user friendly.

[davisgraveyard]

Yes.  I think that is the link that gave me the idea to use 7.1 for audio in the first place a few years ago.    Interesting that he has a link at the bottom that points to someone who wrote a simple UI for the command line process.   He is using the Microsoft tool to combine mono WAV files.  Which looks like what I will  have to do.

[Tim-M]

Now I understand what you guys have been talking about... I wasn't thinking surround sound at the time.  I should have picked up on the reference to version 7.1.  I don't know if Mixcraft will handle the multi surround sound channel separation for you or not, that will have to be looked into.  Sorry if my post was misleading.

Tim

[davisgraveyard]

No problem.  This is often the confusion that comes with the topic of Multi-Channel WAV files.    A LOT of editors can handle multiple tracks and can mix them with great flexablity  into a stereo output file.

The concept of multiple channels in this case is often refered to as Surround Sound and probably the most commonly used reason is with movies.  So your actor voice track comes out the center channel, special effects can come out the side and rear channels. 

But if you think of the separate channels as a  8  channel mixing board you can see how you could use them to direct audio tracks to specific speakers.  With a single PC and no extra hardware you can have 8 unique audio sources in your haunt each with their own volume level and audio effects.   I don't think I have ever seen a laptop with 7.1 sound but this is a pretty common feature on most desktop boards.  I was thinking about getting a small form factor PC with 7.1 support to use as my Haunt Audio Box.

I could probably just use an editor as my UI for playing the audio but I thought if I exported it to a WAV I could just play it in Media Player with the repeat turned on.  Could even have the WAV be part of the startup?