Hi All
Acouple of posts from Rob Danielson and Rich Peet in the recent
"Ergonomic Barriers" thread set me thinking how i could try some
surround recording at low cost (it was to be an experiment).
Following Rob's suggestion I cobbled up a four channel barrier mic
http://ad2004.hku.nl/naturesound/TomR/Surround%20Tests/surroundmic.JPG
Don't laugh - it was an experiment.
The Rapid triplets formed the front facing stereo mic and the
Panasonic triplets the rearward facing mic. Two MZ-NH1 minidisc
recorders were used for recording.
I used Audacity to make the FL, FR, FC, LFE, BL and BR mono tracks -
splitting the Rapid stereo trac fto make FL and FR. Similarly the
Panasonic stereo track was split and changed L to R to make the BL and
BR tracks. I made new mono tracks, filled with silence, for the FC
and LFE tracks.
I followed up Rich's suggestion and downloaded the MP3 surround
encoder ((this software is free for trial purposes until end December
this year) and the free MP3 surround player from
http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/fhg/iis/EN/bf/amm/mp3sur/index.jsp
The MP3 Surround encoder require a single, six channel wave file as
its input. Easier to say than to make. I eventually managed to do it
with an 30 day evaluation copy of Audition 2. I had earlier tried to
use the MultiWave freeware, as suggested by Bill Thompson in the
"Surround 5.1 Without Hardware Soundcard" thread on the Yahoo
Phonography Group, but did not manage it. After cutting my teeth
making 6 channel wave files with Audition 2 I went back to MultiWave
and found it very easy and quick. Look for MultiWave under the the
digital audio/dsp banner on the left of the webpage
http://www.nicolasfournel.com/
The end result of the experiment is the MP3 Surround file
http://ad2004.hku.nl/naturesound/TomR/Surround%20Tests/StoepMP3S.mp3
This plays on a normal MP3 player - but only in stereo. If you want
to hear it in surround you can download the MP3 surround player from
the "fraunhofer" website mentioned above. This file was made using
Audacity > MultiWave > MP3 Surround Encoder.
The equivalent stereo file, made with the forward facing Rapid triplets is
http://ad2004.hku.nl/naturesound/TomR/Surround%20Tests/afrontpair12amp3.mp3
The surround file comes into its own when the light aircraft flys over
my backyard.
I don't have a 5.1 surround playback system so I used two stereo
amplifiers fed from a low cost, Creative 5.1 external soundcard. I
just did not connect a lead to the FC, LFE feed. The four, good
quality (but old) speakers no doubt sound a lot better than a typical
Message: 5.
Subject: 1 speaker set designed for DVD players/computers.
For me, the resulting surround sound is sufficiently intrigueing to
merit further experimentation. A first step will be the construction
of a more serious looking surround mic based on 12 Rapid capsules
(four triplets).
Cheers
Tom Robinson
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