I'm sure most of you will find this extremely obvious, but I figured
I'd post this for those of us who are a little behind.
I did this for poops and giggles and it really came out neat.
Materials Needed:
Your new Zoom H2 (kidding of course any recorder will do but I'm sure
liken' this little toy)
Sony Vegas (I'm using version 8 but any version or other DAW that is
capable of generating 5.1 ac3 should be fine)
A blank DVD+-R
First, record, let's say, 2 hours 2 channel stereo of some kind of
outdoor "ambiance". I did dusk in the woods behind my house which
included crickets, katydids, birds, stupid turkeys tromping through.
An occasional jet going over. The neighbor's dog off in the distance
etc.
What we are looking for is 2 files of basically the same atmosphere.
You can stop/start the recorder after an hour or use any form of
audio editor (including Vegas) to split the 2 hour audio file into 2.
Open Vegas and start a new project with the audio selected as 5.1
surround default template. Drag/drop the first file to the first
audio track. Drop the second file onto audio track 2. Drag the little
surround panner thingy on track 1 to the top which is center front.
Drag the panner of track 2 to the bottom, center rear. Render audio
file as 5.1 surround (ac3) default template. It only took a couple of
minutes on my core 2 duo laptop.
Open DVD Architect which comes with Vegas and start a new picture
compilation with 5.1 ac3 audio. Drop the rendered file from Vegas
onto the audio track, drag/drop a couple of pictures if you like (I
took a couple of the woods.) Burn the sucker, load it into your DVD
player and viola! A high quality surround "environments" type
recording. The whole room is filled with bugs, birdies and stupid
turkeys. Neighbor's dog rear left channel. Jet going by front left
to right. Very cool.
Very easy, very fast and just plain fun.
I can't wait to do babbling brook, thunderstorm, campfire, noisy
morning birdies, spring peepers=85
Enjoy.
Keith
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