Multichannel WMA Export

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

WMA supports multichannel and I have another program that encodes it (below), but in Audacity 2.1.2 I can Export most other formats to multichannel but not WMA. It’s set to Custom mix in prefs but in the Advanced Mixing Options it only gives 2 L\R

Any help would be appreciated.



Audio
ID : 1
Format : WMA
Format profile : Pro
Codec ID : 162
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 10 Professional - 160 kbps, 48 kHz, 7.1 channel 16 bit 1-pass CBR
Duration : 57s 705ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Channel(s) : 8 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.10 MiB (99%)
Language : English

2

You did install the appropriate FFMpeg add-on software, right? That’s the one that allows tricks like multi-channel.

http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl

Koz

3

M4A will give me all the channels but gets an FFmpeg:ERROR - Can’t open audio codec 0x15002. on save

4

yes ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe

5

We need to wait for a senior elf.
I wonder if you installed it in a folder that Audacity can’t access…

Edit > Preferences > Libraries

Koz

6

Yes did all that also, is your one working ?

7

I don’t know. I didn’t install that FFMpeg because it would conflict with an earlier Audacity I use for daily production. Plus I’m on a Mac.

So this is us waiting for a senior elf.

Koz

8

There’s a FAQ listing for this error:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_errors.html#aac_multi

Maybe this will help?

9

The “WMA (version 2) Files (FFmpeg)” export choice is maximum two channels only. See File size and channel comparisons by export format.

Audacity cannot not use the latest FFmpeg except by using the (external program) export choice, but even the latest FFmpeg is still limited to two channels maximum output despite having some WMA v9 support.

To encode other WMA formats, export using (external program) and point to a command-line WMA encoder. lvqcl’s command-line WMA encoder can export as WMA V9, WMA Lossless and WMA 10 Professional. However having tested it, it does not encode more than 6 channels.

The old Microsoft Windows Media Encoder (no longer available from Microsoft) does not support more than Windows XP. Microsoft’s Expression Encoder which replaces it does have some command-line support for video encoding but I have no idea about audio options.

It may be better to export as 8-channel WAV and convert to WMA user some other encoder. dBpoweramp should be able to encode 8-channel WMA if you add the Windows Media Audio encoder - but I have not tested that.


Gale