It is possible export audio with more then 32 channels?

[Vlnka]

It is possible export wave file with more then 32 channels? I need export audio with 128 channels, it is possible in audacity? If no, is there something what extend audacity functionality and allow to export 128 channels?

[steve]

32 channels is the maximum in Audacity.
I don't know of any applications that can make 128 channel files.

[DVDdoug]

What are you going to do with 128 (or 32) channels?

I mean... If you have the software and hardware to play 32 or 128 channels, I assume you'd already have the software to create/encode that many channels, or you'd get the encoding software from the same place you got the playback software.

It will also depend on the format. Dolby Atmos support 128 channels, but you'd need their encoder and I doubt it's available to consumers. MP3 & Mp4 only support 2-channels.

There is DAW software that can handle that many tracks, but usually the rendered file is 2-channel stereo, or 5.1 or 7.1 surround. As far as i know, Dolby AC3 only handles 6 channels (with two embedded "matrix encoded' channels for 7.1).

[cyrano]

Any serious DAW can handle that many outputs, as long as you keep them as separate wav files in the DAW. Reaper can do that, fi. The Cymatic hardware players can fi, if you'd couple 8 of these together.

Once you start multiplexing them into formats as AC3, you'll need a compatible player. You DAW usually doesn't play Dolby encoded formats, because of licensing reasons. The developers don't want to pay Dolby Labs a hefty bundle for something only 0.2% of their users will use.

Some of the exotic* music players have no problem with Dolby encoded files, but they will have a problem with 128 outputs.

Multi channel wav doesn't seem to be a problem for most DAW's, but I've never tried it with more than 32 channels. BoomRecorder**, fi, can produce multi channel wav files with up to 128 channels.

* High End audio
**http://www.vosgames.nl/products/BoomRecorder/

[Gale Andrews]

MP3 & Mp4 only support 2-channels.

Sorry, but neither of those is correct.

MPEG-2 Part 3 allows up to 5.1 channels which is implemented in MP3 Surround (though Audacity does not support it when exporting with the "MP3 Files" choice).

MP4, as part of Advanced Audio Coding allows

48 full-bandwidth (up to 96 kHz) audio channels in one stream plus 16 low frequency effects (LFE, limited to 120 Hz) channels, up to 16 "coupling" or dialog channels, and up to 16 data streams.

The maximum number of AAC channels Audacity can encode is six with the "M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)" choice. That is a limitation in FFmpeg 2.2.x (which is the latest FFmpeg version that can be used with that export choice).

If you export with (external program) and point Audacity to latest FFmpeg you can export (at least) 8 channels of AAC.


Gale

[DVDdoug]

Thanks Gale. I knew AAC supports multichannel, but I temporarily forgot that AAC is MP4.

I didn't know about MP3 surround, or maybe I PERMANENTLY forgot. But, you link does say it's an extension of MP3 so I should have said "normal MP3" is limited to 1 or 2 channels.

I've never actually seen a multi-channel AAC or MP3.

[Gale Andrews]

I should have said "normal MP3" is limited to 1 or 2 channels.

Definitely that is a "normal" MP3. As far as I know there was only ever one freely available demo MP3 surround encoder, long since expired.

But AAC multi-channel files are quite common. The free Nero AAC encoder can encode multi-channel.


Gale

[steve]

Wikipedia lists technical details (including number of channels) for many audio formats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... al_details

SoX can produce multi-channel files from multiple input files using the "merge" (-M) option: http://sox.sourceforge.net/sox.html
I don't know what the maximum number of channels is, but as a test I created an 8 channel WAV file from 8 mono WAV files using the command:

Code: Select all

 sox -M 1.wav 2.wav 3.wav 4.wav 5.wav 6.wav 7.wav 8.wav out.wav

where "1.wav", "2.wav" etc were the names of the input files.

out.wav

(1.01 MiB) Downloaded 20 times

[Vlnka]

Thanks for all. I need it for creating wavetable *.wave file for wavetable synth. In another forum I descover SoX as Steve mentioned it can do 128 and more channels. I am able to create 255 channel audio with SoX.