I recently purchased a software product which enables me to extract multi channel audio from DVDs including DVD-Audio. Unfortunately, this software does not permit creating a single WAV or FLAC file combining all (or some) the chapters on the disc. So I am stuck with individual files for each chapter. If I load these files onto a USB flash drive, my Blu-Ray player can output them in multi-channel to my receiver via HDMI. But there are audible burps between tracks. The only way for gapless playback is to have these files combined.
What I would like to know is if is possible to import a set of 6 channel 24 bit, 88.2Khz WAV (or FLAC) files into audacity, combine them, and then export the combined file as 6 channel, 24 bit and 88.2Khz?
This morning I tried importing the first 6 channel 24 bit 88.2Khz FLAC file into Audacity. It showed 6 channels and all of them said “mono”. Then I imported the 2nd file right underneath. But when I selected all files and tried to join them, each channel was separated out. I would like to keep the 6 channels intake and simply join the two files together into one, maintaining the 6 channel 24 bit 88.2Khz properties upon export.
Audacity cannot play multi-channel sounds, but it can import and export multi-channel files.
By default, when you export from Audacity, the tracks will be mixed down to mono or stereo (depending on whether it is a mono or stereo show), but you can override that behaviour by changing one of the Preference settings to allow a “custom mix”. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/import_export_preferences.html#export
When you import a 6 channel file, you will get six channels appear in Audacity. These may appear either as 6 mono tracks, or as one stereo track + 4 mono tracks.
Let’s refer to those 6 channels as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
When you import a second 6 channel file you will get another 6 channels appear in Audacity below the first 6 channels. (let’s call them 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12).
To be able to see what you are doing you will need to zoom out (see http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/zooming.html) and unless you have a huge monitor you will need to “collapse” the tracks to minimum height (“View menu > Collapse all tracks”).
. Unfortunately, this software does not permit creating a single WAV or FLAC file combining all (or some) the chapters on the disc.
Just FYI - The problem is your DVD ripping software. The chapters on a DVD are not in separate files, there is simply a “marker” for the chapters.
With DVD2MPG (free) or Corel Video Studio I can extract a continuous audio/video file from an unencrypted DVD. From there I can use Audacity (or a number of other tools) to open/extract the audio, or I can export the audio to a WAV file with Video Studio. ( We don’t discuss how to crack encryption or copy protection here.)
I don’t have any tools for DVD-Audio, but the VOA files are not broken into chapters either. The~1GB VOA files in the AUDIO_TS folder are structured like ~1GB VOB files in the VIDEO_TS folder on a regular audio/video DVD.
I opened up a support ticket with the vendor concerning the inability to combine DVD-Audio chapters into a single multi-channel WAV or FLAC file. It can be done with multi-channel from standard DVD, so why not DVD-Audio.
