Conversion
of the two stereo files into one four channels file. Softwares : Wavewizard, Wavosaur,
the plugin H2-Zoo (all
freewares)
Hardware : a Windows computer (not
too old...), a multichannel sound card with at least six outputs, an ASIO
driver (ASIO4All for example), and five loudspeakers...
You can use of course other VST hosts, such as Audiomulch, Bidule, Cubase,
Nuendo, Podium...
Conversion
of the two stereo files into one four channels file.
Open Wavewizard :
With the Add button select first the file that corresponds to the front mics (....F) and the one for the rear mics (....R).
Then, open the Edit menu / Preferences, and choose Merge
files in Stream manipulation,
and WaveFormatEx as the output Format (Wave
PCM could work, but is less reliable) :
Apply and click on the Convert button in the main screen
: it is done, you must have now a new file with the same name but with
"_merge" added !
(You see that you can do also a lot
of things in Wavewizard. It is a must have for everybody !)
Prepare
the file in Wavosaur.
(If you have not used Wavosaur before, you will need first to set the audio driver properly. See below)
Open the four channels merged file in Wavosaur :
Before starting to process the sound, we will need to add two blank channels so that we can use the plugin after.
Go in the Process menu and select Insert channel. Repeat the same action a second time to add another channel.
Now we have a six channels file, with two empty ones,
that will allow us to insert and use the plugin.
Click on the VST Rack button on the toolbar, and, in the popup window, click on Load VST :
In the dialog box, you must select the plugin file H2-Zoo.dll (that you have perhaps put in your VSTPlugins folder)
Click on the View button to see it !
Process
the file with the H2-Zoo plugin.
Click on the brown rectangle in the middle of the 2D zone
: all the surrounding objects disapear, that means that you operate now in "direct mode"
:
- the two Front input are sent to the outputs 1-2
- the two Rear
input are sent to the outputs 5-6
- a center channel is generated from the
Front input and sent to the output 3
- the four inputs are mixed together,
filtered and sent to the output 4 (you can adjust the cutoff frequency)
All
that you have to do is eventually to adjust the levels of the six outputs with
the colored sliders at the bottom :
In order to listen to the processed signal you must check the Processing option in Wavosaur's VST toolbar, and press play...
When you are satisfied with the result, press the Apply button
in the toolbar, and wait until the calculation is finished.
For example, the
previous audio file will now look like this :
Advanced
surround processing.
The previous method is rather straightforward
and is well adapted to simply make you quadraphonic record appropriated to a
5.1 system.
But, if you need more "creative" processing, some can
be done right with the plugin.
Click on the little rectangle at the center of the 2D zone
: five objects represent the five outputs appear.
They have the name of the five
standard loudspeakers positions, but you can drag them anywhere you want for
special purposes...
There is also five little numbered
balls which represent of course the five audio channels (the four original
and the newly generated one).
You can move them as you like : the result is both a change in the output volumes and perhaps an impression of moving spatial image.
Each output volume is calculated according to the distance
between each ball and each speaker.
This volume (in percentage) can be
read with the little numbers on top of each loudspeaker picture.
Only the volume
corresponding to the first channel input can be viewed, but it might be enough
to help you to adjust the very important Area values and the Amplitude Shape.
Each output channel has an Area setting that changes
how the volume of the inputs are controlled... Do you follow me ?
With a
low value, the sound will disapear rapidly when you move a ball away, and you
will even finish by having no more sound at all !
With a high value,
it will decrease slowly, making the sound cover more outputs at once.
The
Global Area setting changes all the five separate Areas together, which
can be very useful ;-)
The Amp Shape curve is a complement of the Area settings. In stereo it is often called "panning law", but you have here ten different curves to choose from, that allow you to separate each channel or make them overlap several at once for very smooth movements.
In most cases, you will set the balls positions one by one until you have a convenient result.
But you can also do some more fun things, especially if you
are working in a host that supports automation !
(Look at Podium
and Reaper for example.
A complete list is available here)
From now, you can already play with the three colored tools
at the right edge :
- the bue one moves the five balls together
- the
red one changes how they are aligned
- the green one change the distance
between them (Y axis) and rotate them (X axis)
The little thin button at
the bottom of each resets their position to make a pentagon...
Don't forget
that you can save Presets for later use.
Things that might be added later to the plugin :
-
basic internal automation of the three global position controllers
- one
band parametric equalizer
- better bass management of the LFE channel
Setting
the audio driver and the outputs in Wavosaur.
- open the menu
Options / Audio configuration
- check ASIO Driver
- choose the correct
ASIO driver in the list in Audio out
If your sound card doesn't not have
an audio driver you must install first ASIO4All.
- open the menu Options / Audio out routing
- the two first
channel must be alrady connected : click on the first output on the left side
and the Left/Mono1 channel must be highlighted
- click on the third
outputand select the number "2" in the right list (I know, it seems a
little silly)
- repeat the same thing for each output on the left and
each channel on the right (4th to number 3, 5th to number 4 and 6th to number
5).