Subject:encoding dolby digital .wav with sound forge 9?

Posted by: peahicks

Date:1/9/2008 11:13:46 PM

hi, is there a way, using sf9, to take a 5.1 channel file and encode it to a dolby digital .wav file (comes out as a stereo file that sounds like horrible bursts of noise when played back as regular audio), which can then be burned onto a regular cd-r, and decoded / played back by a home theater system as 5.1 surround?

thanks!
pea

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound forge 9?

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/10/2008 4:24:22 AM

Dolby Digital tends to be a AC3 - which is a compressed multichannel format - which is not suitable for CDR standards.


You could save as ac3, and then put onto DVD as dvd-audio, and this would give you the multichannel as you desire, but via dvd instead of CD. There is a superset of the cd standard that does allow multichannel format, but is not like the common cd standard.

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound forge 9?

Reply by: MarkWWWW

Date:1/10/2008 5:22:05 AM

I don't think so.

Many years ago Sonic Foundry used to offer a standalone AC3 encoder called Soft Encode which would allow you to create a Dolby Digital encoded bitstream in a .WAV file (which did indeed sound like pulses of full volume noise if listened to undecoded).

But that product disappeared a long time ago (well before the sale of the Sonic Foundry audio product range to Sony, I think) and I don't believe any of the later AC3 encoding facilities built into Acid, Vegas, etc have been able to create files of this AC3 bitstream in a .wav file format.

Mark

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound forge 9?

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/10/2008 8:17:41 AM

Ok...try this then.

Create your multichannel project in SF.
File Save As: Save as type Wave (microsoft).
Click on custom ,and change your format to AC-3 ACM Codec. remember to change attribute to 5.1 channels.
You can use this method to create all sorts of wav formats - it's just not common. Yes I know there are DTS.wav and so forth - it just seems that common surround projects are done on DVD via AC3 streams.
Hope that helps you do what you want to do.

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound fo

Reply by: peahicks

Date:1/10/2008 10:04:13 AM

hi, thanks for your input. i tried doing as you suggested, ie changing the custom format setting to ac-3 acm codec, but i didn't see that option on the drop-down menu...?

the reason i don't want to burn to dvd audio is because at the moment i'm just doing some experiments with surround, and i would rather burn thru a bunch of cheap cdr-s instead of dvdr-s until i start getting some results that are worth keeping.

thanks again!

pea

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound fo

Reply by: MarkWWWW

Date:1/11/2008 5:30:01 AM

If you have the ability to create a 5.1 .ac3 file then you should be able to listen to it using your DVD-playing software - no need to put it on a disc at all.

I don't know if all DVD-playing software will do this, but certainly the Cyberlink PowerDVD that I use will happily play an AC3 file if you ask it.

Mark

Subject:RE: encoding dolby digital .wav with sound fo

Reply by: peahicks

Date:1/11/2008 1:55:11 PM

hi, the problem is that my surround setup is in my living room, and my computer is in my studio... i don't at present have any need for a pro surround mixing setup- i'm looking for an easy and cheap way to experiment.