Exporting 5.1 multiple lossless hi-res audio

Audacity 3 Help Forum
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Hi all.

So, long story short, I’m trying to extract the audio from a live blu-ray, to listen to in Roon.

My usual workflow would be to use DVD Audio Extractor, which gives me access to the different audio streams & preserves the track breaks (although unless the metadata exists, I don’t get the track names. But I can add that later, no bother.)

Unfortunately, for some reason, in this instance, the 5.1 is extracting as a stereo. (More precisely, probably just two of the 6 tracks.)

So, plan B…

Use MakeMKV to export all the titles on the blu-ray, then identify them in VLC player (figure out which ones are the menus, bonus features, etc.) & use Amvidia’s “To FLAC Converter” to get my audio files.

A single MKV file will export to several FLACs, usually two different audio versions in 5.1 & a stereo one.

Unfortunately MakeMKV does not preserve the track breaks.

So it’s off to Audacity with a stereo version from DVDAE. Line the tracks up end to end, make the labels, export the label track. Done.

Import the single full concert 5.1 audio track, import the labels track, split the tracks at the label points & export multiple.

Easy, right?

Well, yes, except that Audacity does not support 5.1 export using labels in Export Multiple &, when I selected the advanced option & tried to export the first track on its own, the file was too big & therefore unsupported.

So, am I doing something wrong or is it simply that Audacity has a bizarre file size limit & doesn’t handle 5.1 for multiple export.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

To stop it from mixing-down to stereo go to Preferences and select Use Advanced Mixing Options

WAV files are limited to 4GB but that shouldn’t be a problem with Export Multiple.

Most other formats (including FLAC) don’t have any “artificial limits”, and of course, FLACs are smaller.

I think MKV and MKA files support “chapters”. Otherwise, it’s mostly a “shiny disc” feature and most “computer” audio-video formats don’t support it.

If you rip a DVD or Blu-Ray and keep the original format then DVD/Blu-Ray player software will recognize the chapters and the menus will work, etc…

3

Thanks for your reply…

“WAV files are limited to 4GB but that shouldn’t be a problem with Export Multiple.”

Export multiple doesn’t seem to support 5.1 at all, which is why I tried one track on its own. Also, I never use WAV, so I’ve been using AIFF.

I did the “advanced” thing, but that doesn’t do anything at all when exporting multiple.

Yes, the only way I’ve seen chapters is when using DVDAE.

I will go & try a single track using FLAC, although why software developers would physically write a limit into the app is completely beyond me.

Sorry, I can’t seem to make “quotes” work.

4

If you’re talking about the WAV limit, it’s not the app it’s the format. There is a 32-bit “data size” field in the WAV header and with 32-bits you can only count to 4G. When the WAV format was created, I don’t think anybody had a 1GB drive!

…Personally, I never use Export Multiple. I just select one song (etc.) and then Export Selected Audio, then the next song…

5

Well, it’s always good to be able to ask questions & find out little nuggets (like the WAV header thing) from people who are far more knowledgeable than me on these technical issues. Also, there may well be many things in Audacity that I don’t know about that would make my workflow easier. I expect that Audacity is more designed for creating one’s own music than doing what I’m trying to do & that has to be borne in mind.

That said, as far as I’m concerned, not being able to “export multiple” via the advanced channel mapping pane is clearly a very obvious missing piece of functionality that should be there.

It’s lucky (for you) that you prefer to export tracks individually, but the bottom line is that I’ve had to sit here & use the export function 34 times (each time involving multiple steps) to get the whole concert as separate 5.1 tracks when I should have been able to do all in one hit. That to me is just a monumental waste of time & I can’t see how any app developer could justify it beyond saying “the app is not intended to be used that way” which is kinda lame, I think.

But look, I don’t wanna be “that guy”. I’m not some arse who’s just here to be argumentative & I say all these things as matter of factly as possible. I feel there is a legitimate case to say “these things are inconsistent & if you want your app to rule the roost, they should be addressed” but, thanks to your responses & suggestions, I do have a set of 5.1 files that I can add to my music library & for that I can only say a genuine “thank you”.

I’ve removed a lot of other commentary from this post because I think it would be better taken up in the “feedback & discussion” forum.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.

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