Problems with surround channels

[HammondH]

Hello everyone! I have a surround-related problem that I hope you could help me with.

The 2 front speaker is set to play song number A and the back speakers are set to play song B. But how much I even try the sound dosent come out right, everything comes trough the front speakers. And when i try to only play song B trough the back speakers and nothing trough the front ones theres no sound at all. Its hard to explane as the result varies everytime i try to make changes, like send everything trough the centerspeaker or trough only one front speaker.

But the bottom problem is that I cant seem to make the sound come out where I want it to be. I know the order of the speakers to their corresponding channel in Audacity and I have tried both with acc and ogg file format.

Is there anyone that have a solution for this problem?

Greetings from Henrik in Sweden.

[steve]

Audacity does not support multi-channel playback.
You can Export multi-channel audio files from Audacity, but to get the surround sound effect you need to play the file in an application that supports surround sound.

[HammondH]

Audacity does not support multi-channel playback.

Yes I know that and this is what happens after I exported the sound and plays it in quicktime witch I belive can handle surround sound. The ogg files can I only use VLC to open but I belive it to works with surround. Ive configured so the sound goes trough the optical port on my iMac and then it gets decoded by my z-5500.

I have played several trailers form apple in quicktime and have surround there and thats why I dont quicktime is the problem.

[steve]

How are you exporting the file from Audacity? (please list all the steps and every button click)

[HammondH]

Ok heres what I do:

Step one:
I have 2 sound files in Audacity, one 14 second 16 bit 48000Hz file and one 14 seconds 32 bit 44100Hz file.

Step two:
I go in to the file tab and click on export...

Step three:
I name it "test one" and choose AIFF (Apple) signed 16 bit PCM as the format. I save it one my desktop.

Step four:
I leave everything clear in the edit metadata step and click on OK.

Step five:
I choose 6 channels in the advanced mixing options window.

Step six:
I put the first song to play in only channel 1 and song two to play in channel 5. Then I click on OK.

(Note this time I choosed to theese two channels but I have tried many other configurations.)

Step seven:
I open the file with quicktime and i only hear the first song in the left front speaker. I hear nothing from my second song.

I also open it with VLC and there i got the second sound in the center speaker and the first sound in the right back speaker. thats strange I think.

I also find out that VLC plays both channel one and three trough the left front speaker.

[steve]

For 5.1 WAV files I thing the correct channel mapping would be to put:
song 1 to channels 1 and 2
song 2 to channels 5 and 6

For AIFF files I think it needs to be
song 1 to channels 1 and 2
song 2 to channels 4 and 5

[HammondH]

When I do an AIFF file with the order you described the first song is heard trough front left front right and both backspeakers when i open it in vlc. the second song comes from front right and center. When I open it in quicktime the first song is heard trough all speakers and nothing from the second.

Later i will try to install Audacity on windows in bootcamp and see if thats work better. And if thats dosent work I will try it on my friends Imac to see if its my computer thats not working correctly.

Henrik

[steve]

Do you have a surround sound file that works on your system (and has clear distinction between each speaker)?
If you do, what format is it in?

[HammondH]

Yes the first test file on this site works on bootcamp (xp).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... annel.aspx

It does not work correctly on the mac side on either of my computers.

When i play it, or the test file i made in audacity wheres i say front left and so on to each channel the three front ones works great but the back speakers dosent sound at all in quicktime and in VLC they are heared trough the front ones.

[steve]

When i play it, or the test file i made in audacity wheres i say front left and so on to each channel the three front ones works great but the back speakers dosent sound at all in quicktime and in VLC they are heared trough the front ones.

It sounds like there is a set-up problem for your surround sound (playback). I don't use Macs so I've no idea how you would go about fixing the problem. I'll ask one of the Mac guys if he has any ideas.