5.1 and Dolby

[massusen]

Hi,

does anyone know if there´s a way to make Scope 4 encode for Dolby Digital and send out on the SPDIF?

I have a system where I use a lot of group outputs in ASIO on my RME AD/DA, so I need to output through ASIO to Scope for further patching to SPDIF and on to my 5.1 receiver.

Maybe OT, but perhaps this is possible to do in reltime in Cubase SX 3.1 - which I´m using? How to patch this on to SPDIF?



M

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: massusen on 2005-10-09 02:16 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: massusen on 2005-10-09 02:17 ]</font>

[astroman]

<a href=http://www.laaudiofile.com/dtsencoder.html>about the encoder app</a>
price and availability at the bottom of thepage

cheers, Tom

[arela]

I use surcode dvd-dts encoder. (about $450)
I record the 6 outputs from one of the STM surround mixers, to mono wavefiles.
These files i encode.

Since all my stuff is in 44.1kHz i need to upsample my final 6 monofiles to 48kHz.

I do make a sideproject for every song.
When i done all tracks and made a stereo wave and mp3 file, i start over with a new project with the same files.

For some projects you just want to add "room" to your mix, while in others, you want a sound to run from speaker to speaker.

For almost lossless encoding, you need mlp.
This is 24 bit 96 kHz for DVD-A
(discwelder steel makes 24bit 48kHz DVD-A, and at 1/5 of the prisce of a mlp encoder -
but i don't know if they can be compared)

I wish i had more speakers!

I think you need to use analog out's for monitoring "live".
I have not tried to use spdif, maybe it works.
Some receivers have analog 5.1 innput, like my old NAD
Best would be something like a blue sky 5.1 set (on my wishing list, do YOU HEAR SANTA)
Realtime 5.1 mixing sounds great

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: arela on 2005-10-09 10:17 ]</font>

[massusen]

that´s so weird - I mean, on my motherboard I have an Nforce chipset which realtime encodes for Dolby Digital and sends it to the SPDIFs. If i want realtime DD encoding in a more professional sense it costs a fortune.

Doing the encoding offline can sometimes be hazardous - you don´t really know what you get, especially in the 0.1 channel.

So I would really like to have the encoding online - even if I do the final mix offline.
But how? Running several ASIOs would do the trick - having the nForce chipset doing the Control Room out, and my other hardware patching into Cubase through the Scope ASIO.

but you can´t run several ASIOs together...

man, surround gives me gray hair.

M

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: massusen on 2005-10-09 12:11 ]</font>

[astroman]

oops, I've not been very precise above...
Dolby Digital and DTS are of course 2 different things, but as far as DVD audio goes I never cared about the Dolby stuff.

maybe that's a false assumption but imho anyone after quality will want DTS.
For my personal taste I wouldn't even connect 5 speakers to my home system if it was Dolby only - I don't need whoooshing cars on the rear channel.
imho the DD mixtures are often bad quality and exaggerated - dunno if it's implicit because the system itself s*cks or if it's due to bad engineers
the DTS sound is much more detailed and balanced imho.

anyway, imho you do not need an encoder at all to mix.
An Adat converter with a bunch of active speakers is all that's required.

the encoder is for squeezing the bits into the stream only - if it's a decent piece of software it will retain as much from the quality as possible.
Depending on your monitor gear you possibly will experience a certain loss (due to data compression), but this is constant and should be predictable with very few experience.

there also is a hardware DTS encoder, but if they offer the software for budget purpose I don't even want to know it's price tag

I don't think that your idea of encoding and then decoding again on your hifi gear (for monitoring purpose) will work - or do you know the specs of the decoder ? not all are created equal...

cheers, Tom

[arela]

hi
Those Teufel looks great, stardust, but
I don't think they are verry usefull for mixing, because the 6 channels don't have seperate IN's.
Think you need a suuround soundcard for these.

Yes massusen, its a little bit try and hopefully not fail.

Here's a little tricks i use:
Using STM16S, I then through a Dynamic Mixer (6ch.) No i can mute what i want, so my montiors just play eg the rear channels.
And by mute and solo, i get a pretty good idea of what is going where, and how it's gonna sound
The STM16S or 48S take care of LFE channel.
I often use Celmo's 5.1 Ultimatizer between the mixers.

Offline encoding is no problem, if you can do the mixing in realtime.
If you want a sound to go "crazy", i record that part of the track to 5 mono tracks while i "work" with panning
Or Copy a part of your track to 5 new tracks an envelope them in cubase.

With a propper monitor settup, you will be in charge of this soundscape.

...and by the way ....i'm greyhaired already

And to you astroman, i went for dts because dolby makes me confused. A lot of bitrates and is it discret og not
Instead of ADAT converter, i will use the LUNA box for monitors.

There has been some debat over at Steinbergs forum abaout quality of encoders, licencing and so on.
Well, anyway i got my licence for producing dts and use the logo and trailer.

[massusen]

hmm, DD sucks you say... well, I´m not surprised. I´ve got Dynaudio monitors and I really hear the difference in DD encoding versus non encoded.

Does anyone know a good article or something explaining the differences between DD, DTS etc.

M

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: massusen on 2005-10-10 02:09 ]</font>

[arela]

Some help:

http://www.5dot1.com/articles/index.html

http://www.kellyindustries.com/diy_5_1.html

[massusen]

Ah, thanks!



M