Your First Conversion
You've come to this forum with one goal in mind: converting some of your favorite albums from stereo to surround. This guide will help you do just that.
The focus here is to keep things simple by minimizing the need for commercial software. You first need to get familiar with the process and then move on to more advanced techniques.
In this guide, you will learn how to:
- Prepare the source with Exact Audio Copy and-or Foobar
- Convert from stereo to 5.x with no commercial plugins
- Encode a 5.x ac3 at a bitrate of 448 kbps with wavtoac3encoder
- Convert the ac3 to wav with spdifer
- Burn the wav on a CD with ImgBurn
- Play the CD on a regular DVD with Dolby Digital Output
- Preparing the source
Preparing the source involves ripping the .wav files from a CD or converting .flac files to .wav. In this guide, you will be working with individual tracks, so it would be best to choose an album with clear separations (gaps) between tracks. If you choose an album with "gapless transitions" between tracks (like Dark Side of the Moon, for example), you will end up with small gaps. Later, when you start using automation tools like ARTGC, you will be able to completely eliminate the gaps.
The steps to rip a CD are explained in the Preparing the stereo source files for a conversion guide. Basically, you want to use Exact Audio Copy, select "Test & Copy Selected Tracks - Uncompressed..." and create the CUE sheet.
The same guide explains how to uncompress flac files with foobar. The small difference is that you want individual tracks, so the settings are slightly different in the Convert window. In "Output files", you select "Convert each track to an individual file" and enter "%filename%" in "Name format". You also specify the output folder above. Press OK and foobar quickly does the job. Note that with these settings, foobar does not create a cue file but don't worry about it, you will not need one for this first conversion.
- Converting from stereo to 5.x with Plogue Bidule
The only commercial software required in this guide is Plogue Bidule. Bidule is developed by Plogue Technologies. The current price is $75 US. Free fully functional pre-release versions are sometimes available for download. These pre-release versions always have a fixed expiry date after which a license must be purchased for the program to remain functional.
The standalone Windows version of Bidule can be downloaded here.
After you install it, the first thing to do is to spend some time getting familiar with Bidule as explained in this guide.
The layout you will use for your first conversion is SPEC. There are easier layouts, but SPEC really does an outstanding job and you will be rewarded with a great conversion if you take the time to learn it.
You will need to follow two more guides to perform the extraction and recording process going from stereo to surround:- The SPEC guide explains in detail how SPEC works. Typically, you will choose the Slice option, but feel free to experiment with the other options as they may actually better suit your source.
- The Gain Calculation Spreadsheet guide describes how to use some level meters to record the maximum peak and average RMS levels of each channel and use a spreadsheet to calculate the gains to perfectly balance the soundfield.
Note that you should record a multichannel wav for each track, not mono waves. This will make it easier in the next step. Also, make sure the bit depth is set to 24 bits in the Audio File Recorder. At the end of this step, you will have one multichannel wav per track. - The SPEC guide explains in detail how SPEC works. Typically, you will choose the Slice option, but feel free to experiment with the other options as they may actually better suit your source.
- Encoding the 5.x ac3 files with wavtoac3encoder
To keep things simple and avoid commercial software (like a DTS encoder, for example), you will now use a good quality AC3 encoder to create files that will "almost" be playable on any HT system.
First, download and install wavtoac3encoder.
- Start the program and click on "Add files...".
- Select the mch waves you recorded in the last step.
- Set Bitrate to 640 kbps (leave VBR unchecked and see the note below).
- Set the output path where the encoded ac3 files will be written.
- Press Encode to process.
Note about the bitrate: Most DVD players will actually have no problem playing a CD with an AC3 wav encoded at a bitrate of 640 kbps. If your DVD player has a problem, try a bitrate of 448 kbps instead.
At the end of this step, you will have one ac3 file per track. - Putting the ac3 files into wav containers with spdifer
In this step, you will put the AC3 files into WAV containers to prepare them for burning on a standard CD. You will be doing this with spdifer.exe, a utility which is part of the AC3 Filter Tools package.
Download the AC3 Filter Tools package from here. You can extract all the programs or just spdifer.exe into a folder of your choice, typically "C:\Program Files\AC3 Filter Tools".
Next, download the attached file named AC3toAC3Wav.rar and extract its content (AC3toAC3Wav.bat) to a folder of your choice, typically "C:\Program Files\AC3 Filter Tools". If you do not store it in this folder, use Notepad to edit line 6 which contains the path to the spdifer.exe file.Attachment:AC3toAC3Wav.rar
Copy AC3toAC3Wav.bat to the folder containing the AC3 files.
Double-click on "AC3toAC3Wav.bat" to run it. It will write one line for each file processed. After the last file is processed, the DOS window will stay open to allow you to review the information. Press any key to close it.
At the end of this step, you will have one "... AC3.wav" file per track. - Burning the ac3.wav files on a CD with ImgBurn
The last step is simply to burn the ac3.wav files on a CD with ImgBurn using this guide. Note that the guide is about burning DTS wav files, but the process is identical for AC3 wav files. - Playing the AC3 CD
You can play this CD on a standard DVD player connected digitally to a receiver. You would typically set the receiver to Dolby Digital output.
On a PC, you need to install ac3filter to play the CD with just about any media player (Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, Creative MediaSource Player...), but not with foobar2000. In the AC3 Filter Config utility, under the Main tab, you should set "Output format" to "3/2+SW 5.1 channels" to properly hear the result of your conversion.
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Change history
2009-09-13: Article originally posted (Fan51)
2009-11-17: Changed link to wavtoac3encoder (Fan51)
This guide is copyrighted by SurroundByUs.com.