Audacity Question

Didn’t know where else to put this, so here goes.

I found that someone had posted a link to the music that plays at the End Credits for the film Man of Steel a while back. Can’t remember the poster’s name, but anyway. Unfortunately, FLAC doesn’t work as a format for me. I’m a busy person, so I need to take all of my music with me on my crappy MP4 Walkman that regrettably doesn’t accept lossless file formats.

So whenever I get a FLAC file from here, I have to convert it to MP3. As far as I know that’s the only file that works, other than WMA. But when I went to convert it with a program called FlacSquisher, it was incompatible because apparently 8-channel FLACs are unsupported. So now I have a high-quality file that I can’t even play, other than at home with VLC.

I tried putting the thing into Audacity and custom-mixing it myself with no prior experience. I sent three channels to the left, three to the right, and two to both. Earlier tests had the left side louder than the right, so I kinda screwed with the gain to try to get it right. I didn’t. I listened to part of my custom mix today and it just sounded awful in comparison to the crystal-clear Complete Score that DAKoftheOTA shared last year. *sigh*.

If anyone knows what the hell they’re doing, I’d be happy to hear it.

Ch1 – Left
Ch2 – Right
Ch3 – Mono
Ch4 – Delete
Ch5 – Left
Ch6 – Right
Ch7 – Left
Ch8 – Right

Downmix to stereo.

i just put export as mp3, 320 kbps, done.

Ch1 – Left
Ch2 – Right
Ch3 – Mono
Ch4 – Delete
Ch5 – Left
Ch6 – Right
Ch7 – Left
Ch8 – Right

Downmix to stereo.

I delete Ch4 in the "Advanced Mixing Options" window? How do I make Ch3 mono within that window?

Isn’t it mono by default?

———- Post added at 09:44 PM ———- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ———-

i just put export as mp3, 320 kbps, done.

By doing that you’d be getting a very loud mono track… he wants a stereo one.

I wasn’t aware MoS came in 7.1…..

The Blu-ray had a 7.1 mix. DTS-HD MA.

Isn’t it mono by default?

———- Post added at 09:44 PM ———- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ———-

By doing that you’d be getting a very loud mono track… he wants a stereo one.

Well, without doing the Advanced mixing things it turned it into mono the first time -.-

You’re making it too hard on yourself.

Click on the little drop-down arrow next to each channel.
Choose Left, Right, or Mono accordingly.

Delete the LFE channel (channel 4) because that’s what Dolby software does whenever it downmixes. If Dolby does it then it’s probably a good idea.

OK, what about a 5.1 file though? Any export I do with those don’t come out great.

Also, if I listen to an 8 channel audio file but with a 5.1 system, do I lose anything? Or do the extra channels just come out together?

Most 8-channel sound mixes on a BD have a 5.1 core which the player can grab instead.
If you’re listening to a custom-made 8-channel file, with no core embedded, I don’t know. I guess it depends on the intelligence, so to speak, of the equipment.

———- Post added at 09:09 AM ———- Previous post was at 09:08 AM ———-

OK, what about a 5.1 file though? Any export I do with those don’t come out great.

What do you mean?

Most 8-channel sound mixes on a BD have a 5.1 core which the player can grab instead.

That answered it, thanks! (I’m ignoring the fact that one of my speakers is broken :laugh:)

What do you mean?

In terms of downmixing the 6 channels to 2, which I can’t help but feel like the results tend to sound unbalanced everytime I export.

It is unbalanced, yes. Studios don’t make stereo mixes from downmixing; they alter the levels of the sound elements so that it sounds less crowded.
When you’re preparing to fold down to stereo, play around with the volume of the center channel to see what sounds most acceptable for you.

Audacity should have a preset to downmix 5.1 to 2.0 with proper levels for each channel.

The "coefficients" for downmixing are what keeps audio more balanced when you downmix.

If you give each channel full power when downmixing, it’ll sound odd.
Manual mixing requires adjusting levels.

I don’t know if Auacity updated presets for 7.1 to stereo.
They don’t care much for movie audio editing. They don’t specialize in that department.

I use eac3to externally to downmix to stereo as it includes proper coefficients for downmixing, especially where 7.1 is concerned.

*AFTER* downmixing, it’s a good idea to normalize audio.
Peak normalization only. Not to 0dDFS.
Keep it safe and probably go as high as -1dBFS only.
You have to consider post-processing equalization or other effects when played back.
Going to 0dBFS will probably cause artifacts and adverse effects.

It is quite common that most music for film is designed on a mono or stereo level only.
But sometimes music will be mixed for 5.1 from the get go.
Especially with movies inteded for Dolby Atmos, you might get a more dynamically mixed score for the end credits.

John Wick was created for 7.1 music.
3 sets of stereo and the LFE.
Discreet differences between the 3 sets of stereo.

Man of Steel end credits is probably most effective at stereo.
7.1 is overkill but more or less just a byproduct of the actual movie itself; being that it’s a movie with a selling point.
Although Zimmer did work largely with this score closely to his Z+ app to use DTS Headphone:X technology, the only track he really prides for surround sound creation was the action-packed cue you can buy off the Z+ app that’s already matrixed with DTS technology.

Thanks man! Always glad to hear there’s a better way to do it. I’ll try it out now. 🙂

———- Post added at 06:55 PM ———- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ———-

Audacity should have a preset to downmix 5.1 to 2.0 with proper levels for each channel.

The "coefficients" for downmixing are what keeps audio more balanced when you downmix.

If you give each channel full power when downmixing, it’ll sound odd.
Manual mixing requires adjusting levels.

I don’t know if Auacity updated presets for 7.1 to stereo.
They don’t care much for movie audio editing. They don’t specialize in that department.

I use eac3to externally to downmix to stereo as it includes proper coefficients for downmixing, especially where 7.1 is concerned.

*AFTER* downmixing, it’s a good idea to normalize audio.
Peak normalization only. Not to 0dDFS.
Keep it safe and probably go as high as -1dBFS only.
You have to consider post-processing equalization or other effects when played back.
Going to 0dBFS will probably cause artifacts and adverse effects.

It is quite common that most music for film is designed on a mono or stereo level only.
But sometimes music will be mixed for 5.1 from the get go.
Especially with movies inteded for Dolby Atmos, you might get a more dynamically mixed score for the end credits.

John Wick was created for 7.1 music.
3 sets of stereo and the LFE.
Discreet differences between the 3 sets of stereo.

Man of Steel end credits is probably most effective at stereo.
7.1 is overkill but more or less just a byproduct of the actual movie itself; being that it’s a movie with a selling point.
Although Zimmer did work largely with this score closely to his Z+ app to use DTS Headphone:X technology, the only track he really prides for surround sound creation was the action-packed cue you can buy off the Z+ app that’s already matrixed with DTS technology.

Whoa. I appreciate the help but you clearly know way more than I do about audio. Kudos to you but I had no idea what you just said lol