Actual Music Content - 5.1 or 5.0

R

rolf.taylor

Enthusiast
I have no doubt there have been Terabytes written on how multichannel content "should" be produced with regards to whether or not a Subwoofer .1 channel or LFE should be included. Dolby seems to be pretty dead set that any "important" content should not be included in the LFE channel since it woul dbe discarded during down mixing (where as content in the other 5 channels isn't).

And there's a pretty good argument for that that there's no need to since bass management is now ubiquitous. Better to have the bass in whichever channels it belongs and let the bass management deal with it as preferred by the user (assuming the use configures properly).

But that's not my question here. I am curious to what extent actual music content, be it SACD, DVD-A, DVD, or CD-surround (e.g. DTS CD) uses the .1 channel.

Unless you defeat your bass management it's not an easy question to answer. But I am asking it anyway. Does anyone have a guess to what extent the .1 is not used (e.g. silent) versus actually used?

SIDE NOTE- the following is not the thread topic.

The reason I am asking is that I am taking surround music content and encoding as Dolby Digital. I can do it as 5.0 (aka 3/2) or 5.1 (aka 3/2L). AC3 is probably smart enough to reallocate bits if there nothing but silence, but there be an advantage to using 5.0 if there's truly nothing on the last channel.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I have multich discs where sometimes the LFE channel was utilized, others it wasn't (particularly the old quad based ones), as to what extent in general I don't know. I'm thinking in general the LFE channel isn't utilized in the majority of the multich discs I have. I don't downmix my multich content so that doesn't matter to me in any case, I say put some LFE in the LFE! :)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
How to Transfer Your Spotify Playlists to Apple Music
If you switch from Spotify to Apple Music, you can transfer your playlists from one streaming service to the other using one of several third-party apps available on the App Store.
In this article, we're going to use one such app called SongShift to do exactly that, as it's easy to set up and you can test it for free before paying the $3.99 in-app purchase that lets you batch process more than five playlists.

1.Launch the SongShift app on your iPhone.
2.Tap Get Started.
3.Tap the Spotify icon (you can Force touch icons to identify them)
4.Enter your Spotify username and password and then tap Log in.
5.Tap Agree at the bottom of the next screen to grant the app access to your Spotify library.
6.Next, tap the ‌Apple Music‌ icon and then tap Authorize to grant the app access to your ‌Apple Music‌ library and set a token.
7.Tap OK to confirm.
8.Tap Continue.
9.Next, tap the Spotify icon and select a playlist to transfer, then tap Continue.
10.Tap Destination and then select the ‌Apple Music‌ icon.
11.Tap Create New Playlist.
12.In the Configuration screen, tap Destination and enter a custom name for the 13.playlist as you'd like it to appear in your ‌Apple Music‌ library, then tap OK.
Tap Process and wait while the transfer or "shift" completes.

The "shift" process may take some time and depends on how many songs are in your playlist, but you can start queuing multiple transfers and even close app and they will continue in the background. You can also allow SongShift to notify you when a transfer is complete.

More help visit now : MusConv.com
Nice non sequitur....
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Off topic but upon experimenting with sacd I’d like to know how I get better instrument localision when I use 9.2 channel stereo I still get multi channel threw the setup but with better spl too . Is a decoder still in play .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Off topic but upon experimenting with sacd I’d like to know how I get better instrument localision when I use 9.2 channel stereo I still get multi channel threw the setup but with better spl too . Is a decoder still in play .
Multich SACD? I wouldn't use the multich stereo settings at all except for a party maybe as that would be the worst for imaging/soundstage.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Multich SACD? I wouldn't use the multich stereo settings at all except for a party maybe as that would be the worst for imaging/soundstage.
Yea SACD multi channel I was just playing around one day with a Pink Floyd disc and noticed I still had multi channel comeing out and wondering why when I went to 9.2 stereo I mean there were different sounds comeing out of each speaker. Usually I use the standard setting on the decoder which sounds really good by itself .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yea SACD multi channel I was just playing around one day with a Pink Floyd disc and noticed I still had multi channel comeing out and wondering why when I went to 9.2 stereo I mean there were different sounds comeing out of each speaker. Usually I use the standard setting on the decoder which sounds really good by itself .
When you use 9ch stereo (or multich stereo settings in general) you're just putting the L/R signal into each of the speaker pairs and a summed signal for the center. It's not surround any more.....some avrs will bump up to all available speakers for some sound modes, tho (like mine do with DTS-HD MA content, automatically expands to 7ch even if soundtrack is only 5.1....my avrs leave it as is for Dolby and multich inputs, tho).
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
If you start with 5, or 5.1 discreet channels, why would you down mix it to stereo and expect it to sound great played from 4-Left and 4-Right channel speakers? Doesn't make sense.

I could see taking those discreet channels and upmixing them with various degrees of success... but actively sending Surrounds in a 5.1 to both Surrounds and Rears in a 7.1... or Mains to Wides... You are going to lose the placement of the audio cues (assuming, that is, that the production was halfway competent).

On the other hand, perhaps there are times where it isn't a specific location... it seems my experience with Brothers In Arms SACD was much less focused compared to Wish You Were Here. I much preferred the latter as an SACD experience.

I know some DTS 5.1 is encoded for a Rear Center rather than a front, and that the L- and R-Rear get parsed that "mono" signal together. It does change the feel. I have yet to try a discreet Rear Center as an Experiment, but I can hear the spread from the Rears of my 7.1 set up.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
If you start with 5, or 5.1 discreet channels, why would you down mix it to stereo and expect it to sound great played from 4-Left and 4-Right channel speakers? Doesn't make sense.

I could see taking those discreet channels and upmixing them with various degrees of success... but actively sending Surrounds in a 5.1 to both Surrounds and Rears in a 7.1... or Mains to Wides... You are going to lose the placement of the audio cues (assuming, that is, that the production was halfway competent).

On the other hand, perhaps there are times where it isn't a specific location... it seems my experience with Brothers In Arms SACD was much less focused compared to Wish You Were Here. I much preferred the latter as an SACD experience.

I know some DTS 5.1 is encoded for a Rear Center rather than a front, and that the L- and R-Rear get parsed that "mono" signal together. It does change the feel. I have yet to try a discreet Rear Center as an Experiment, but I can hear the spread from the Rears of my 7.1 set up.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
I was basically hitting buttons on the remote one day listening to wish you were here and in 7.1 it does mix content into the rear surrounds and it does but what I ment to say was I was still getting surround content when it was on 9.2 not that I did that on purpose. I like to try new sound fields on music sometimes and just wondering why a stereo setting would still give off a surround mix just trying to figure out how the brains of the unit works .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I was basically hitting buttons on the remote one day listening to wish you were here and in 7.1 it does mix content into the rear surrounds and it does but what I ment to say was I was still getting surround content when it was on 9.2 not that I did that on purpose. I like to try new sound fields on music sometimes and just wondering why a stereo setting would still give off a surround mix just trying to figure out how the brains of the unit works .
Well I'm confused why you call it 9.2 stereo perhaps. What avr and what specific name does the sound mode(s) have where you say it's just expanding the content into 7 or 9ch?
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
Well I'm confused why you call it 9.2 stereo perhaps. What avr and what specific name does the sound mode(s) have where you say it's just expanding the content into 7 or 9ch?
it’s a Yamaha they call it 9 channel stereo in the menu now I don’t know how they mix the content as far as center or rear surrounds go . Yes it’s set to expand 5.1 to 7.1 if the content is there to extract or mix . I call it 9.2 because I have the crossovers set to use the front subs everything set to small that’s where I get the .2 from . I assume the center is summed from the front left /right the two front presence Iam not sure where that comes from .
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
it’s a Yamaha they call it 9 channel stereo in the menu now I don’t know how they mix the content as far as center or rear surrounds go . Yes it’s set to expand 5.1 to 7.1 if the content is there to extract or mix . I call it 9.2 because I have the crossovers set to use the front subs everything set to small that’s where I get the .2 from . I assume the center is summed from the front left /right the two front presence Iam not sure where that comes from .
I think that mode is just the L/R thing expanded through your speaker pairs and summed in the center.....but Yamaha terminology is a bit odd sometimes, too. It's still only 9.1 with two subs unless you're specifically describing a speaker layout rather than audio format.
 
Mark E. Long

Mark E. Long

Audioholic General
I think that mode is just the L/R thing expanded through your speaker pairs and summed in the center.....but Yamaha terminology is a bit odd sometimes, too. It's still only 9.1 with two subs unless you're specifically describing a speaker layout rather than audio format.
Yes speaker layout there terminology can be very confusing Iam going to expand it to the full 11.1 when I get the cables run that’s kind of a job . There terminology for front and rear presence speakers in my older unit are now called front and rear height speakers as they have something to do with Atmos now which I don’t have or see in my future or need so might as well add the rear presence and see how it works out .
 

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