5.1 to Stereo downmixing in Ableton Live

Discussion in 'Live' started by Sonar Sounds, Jun 6, 2015.

  1. Sonar Sounds

    Sonar Sounds Ultrasonic

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    Hi all,

    like title says, how can I turn a 5.1 audio signal into a stereo signal in Ableton?

    Thank you for your help!! :wink: :wink:
     
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  3. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Audiosexual

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    Best Answer
    ableton got no internal way to handle 5.1, i think PT can help you there.
     
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  4. Infidel

    Infidel Producer

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    Try using the analog out of a DVD or BluRay player. They automatically downmix. :wink:
     
  5. Mostwest

    Mostwest Platinum Record

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    Use Studio one 2 or 3 free convert/bounce stuff
     
  6. Clandestine

    Clandestine Platinum Record

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    Like Artic mentioned Pro Tools good for that. Not sure if this suitable for what u wanting but one tutorial I read highlighted using Aux Busses & sends & changing volume level . Look at the standard Dolby protocol for suggested volume levels etc.

    You could say create 4 auxilliary channels.

    Put 2 channels in stereo & 2 in mono. Then create a new 5.1 bus with sub paths.

    Next channel your signal thru the auxilliary channels & split the signal. Then you must adjust the volume levels ie adjust LR and LsRs -6dB and your center channel -9dB LFE can b a problem & u dont have to keep it if u not need to.

    You can also try messing with the Waves 360 Bundle as these used for downmixing etc using sub paths etc allthogh u may not get exact results but they can b near enuough.

    Good luck *yes*
     
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  7. boomoperator

    boomoperator Rock Star

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    The simple LoRo (Left only Right only) -method is to route all your 6 channels to a stereo pair. Pan C dead centre (now it's a phantom centre). 'Pan Law' (-3 dB) will occur. Drop the surrounds 3db (now panned hard left and right). Adjust the LFE to taste (or -6db).

    If you'd do a LtRt (Left total Right total), when played on a Dolby Prologic system, you can unfold the stereotrack to surround again. But for LtRt you need expensive software (or a friendly site, and look for: Minne.tonka (without the dot).


    http://www.hiltonmediamanagement.com/2010/06/ltrt-information/

    Edit: if you still have an .ac3 or AAC file, you first need to unpack that to 6 separate Wav files. On a Mac, you can use MP4tools, MKVtools or Apple Compressor, depending on the file format.
     
  8. Sonar Sounds

    Sonar Sounds Ultrasonic

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    Thanks for all your answers, I'll try to show you the problem with images:

    as you can see in the image below, the reverb track is outputting a 5.0 signal to the master, but the metering plugin is showing only the stereo part of it (and Ls/Rs tracks are at -inf dB on the meter even though they are present in the reverb). The reverb feels wrong-pictured, with an exaggerated spatiousness, and the L channel is almost 4 dB louder than R (this happens a lot with Waves reverbs, don't know why...) :wink:
     
  9. Sonar Sounds

    Sonar Sounds Ultrasonic

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    Here's the image, sorry for double-posting but it didn't upload correctly on the first message.
     

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  10. Clandestine

    Clandestine Platinum Record

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    With waves 360 LFE channel gets confused and sometimes dropped in which case you will lose valuable info which is why I mentioned u might not get exact results.
    Don't know if that the problem in this case as knowledge not deep n this area but would be better to use the LoRo method described by Boom in which case u don't need to use the plugin which I've read doesn't exactly work 100%
     
  11. boomoperator

    boomoperator Rock Star

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    What could be the case here: I guess downmix-plugins only work if you have separate 5.1 outputs. If you just have stereo out, everything will be summed to LR anyway. (in a 1:1 ratio,
    this would explain your 'exaggerated spaciousness'). Then LoRo is your only option, besides just muting C and/or Ls-Rs.
     
  12. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Audiosexual

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    but ableton cant handle more outputs, it will just smash all in to a stereo file.
    well you can set mono channels and render dem separate as mono and then put the together in a daw with 5.1, if you want to keep your workflow.

    ableton was never intended to be a daw like Cubase and all the others, it was more to perform live.
    an option for ableton would be to split ableton into 2 apps, one for live and one for the studio, they could earn so much $$$ that way, but they are not listening like they do with everything their community suggests.
     
  13. Cav Emp

    Cav Emp Audiosexual

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    Yeah seriously. Remember this for the last decade (up until a year or two ago)


    Ableton Devs: What PDC Problem?


    and then finally

    "Ohhhh that PDC Problem. Well Live is for performing, so you shouldn't need that"
     
  14. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Audiosexual

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    exactly or VST3 support, they do active not care about it and i hate it. thank odin i have no paid for it.
    but right now Ableton is really stable, they really improved that.

    Ableton could own the market, but they do not care at all.
     
  15. Cav Emp

    Cav Emp Audiosexual

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    Yeah. Everyone thinks the VST3 thing has to do with them not wanting to pay Steinberg or something, which I guess makes sense. Stability is hit or miss for me. Opening a project with Max devices has about a 33% crash rate for me unless I open a Max device on a blank set before loading the project.

    Everyone thought Bitwig would be their savior. They were right, but for the wrong reasons. The competition got the Ableton Devs off their asses slapped them back into reality where they need a happy customer base. I love using Ableton Live, but I hate that the developers are so arrogant that they think they can just ignore the requests of the people who pay their salaries.
     
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