Multi-channel recordings on USB

[flarbear]

I finally got around to setting up a USB drive with my music which includes some rips of DVD-As that I used to play in my Acura that supported them. Some in FLAC, some in WAV, all in 24/96k sampling.

I also included a DVD-A that I, um, found on my NAS one day that was apparently mixed by Alan Parsons. It's called DSOTM for whatever that means. It has this great track about something about currency that has change/cash register sounds that spiral around you in the DVD-A mix (like a, a bit, of a torrent?) and I was looking forward to hearing them.

When I tried all of these multi-channel rips in my Model X a few years back I was disappointed that not only was the multi-channel not played, but it just sliced out the 2 front L/R channels and discarded everything else making such tracks unusable.

When I just tried them in my Gravity with SSPro I could hear all of the channels, but they seemed like they were mixed back to stereo. I even tried the Acura demonstration DVD-A rip that has them show off each channel in isolation and the sound just moved left to right across the windshield even when playing rear channels. The subwoofer channel also seemed weak. It wasn't completely ignored, but you could barely hear it - maybe that's just par for the course for sub channels in multi-channel audio(?).

Is there some way to tell SSPro to do less "processing" on the DVD and preserve the channels? I saw in a Q/A thread that someone asked about fading with Atmos streaming tracks and that it was disabled. None of the fade/immersion/eq controls are disabled when it is playing my multi-channel rips, though.

 

[borski]

I finally got around to setting up a USB drive with my music which includes some rips of DVD-As that I used to play in my Acura that supported them. Some in FLAC, some in WAV, all in 24/96k sampling.

I also included a DVD-A that I, um, found on my NAS one day that was apparently mixed by Alan Parsons. It's called DSOTM for whatever that means. It has this great track about something about currency that has change/cash register sounds that spiral around you in the DVD-A mix (like a, a bit, of a torrent?) and I was looking forward to hearing them.

One of my favorite songs of all time:

When I tried all of these multi-channel rips in my Model X a few years back I was disappointed that not only was the multi-channel not played, but it just sliced out the 2 front L/R channels and discarded everything else making such tracks unusable.

When I just tried them in my Gravity with SSPro I could hear all of the channels, but they seemed like they were mixed back to stereo.

You need to ensure it is in Dolby Atmos in an .m4a file format, aka an AAC/MP4 container holding an E-AC-3-JOC (Dolby Digital Plus with Joint Object Coding) spatial audio stream. I know, sounds simple.

The USB can also play FLACs, but in stereo.

That song is also on Tidal for streaming w/ Dolby Atmos, fwiw (that whole album is)

I even tried the Acura demonstration DVD-A rip that has them show off each channel in isolation and the sound just moved left to right across the windshield even when playing rear channels. The subwoofer channel also seemed weak. It wasn't completely ignored, but you could barely hear it - maybe that's just par for the course for sub channels in multi-channel audio(?).

It is downmixing to stereo.

Is there some way to tell SSPro to do less "processing" on the DVD and preserve the channels? I saw in a Q/A thread that someone asked about fading with Atmos streaming tracks and that it was disabled. None of the fade/immersion/eq controls are disabled when it is playing my multi-channel rips, though.

You need to get it in an m4a container encoded properly.

 

[ke2]

DSOTM is probably Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd's 1973 Album (which has the song Money on it, side 2 song 1 for those who remember when music was delivered on vinyl two sided discs). Cash register sound starts the song.

 

[Pragmatic]

Money was the first encore at the first arena show I attended, while in HS. July 3, 1977 Animals tour MSG. The infamous firecracker concert.

 

[Aka-none]

Money was the first encore at the first arena show I attended, while in HS. July 3, 1977 Animals tour MSG. The infamous firecracker concert.

My Pink Floyd concert introduction was realizing that the song “several species of small furry animals” was exactly how it sounded in the auditorium while people were coming in combined by background audio that was playing through the concert speakers. I was also introduced to 6 channel audio.
There may have been altered reality involved, but I don’t recall.

 

[flarbear]

DSOTM is probably Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd's 1973 Album (which has the song Money on it, side 2 song 1 for those who remember when music was delivered on vinyl two sided discs). Cash register sound starts the song.

It's also the "hope they don't notice if we don't spell it out" name of a once-and-maybe-currently popular torrent that you could get (back in the days before streaming and probably even before DVD-A). There were rumors that Alan Parsons did the engineering on the tracks, but the studio (and band?) refused to release it. It's true that he created quad tracks for some of the songs and it is true that the studio used a different engineer for the SACD, but the rest of the story is probably manufactured to make the torrent feel more "grass roots".

 

[flarbear]

You need to ensure it is in Dolby Atmos in an .m4a file format, aka an AAC/MP4 container holding an E-AC-3-JOC (Dolby Digital Plus with Joint Object Coding) spatial audio stream. I know, sounds simple.

I looked into it briefly and ran into back pressure almost immediately. Lots of articles that seemed almost surprised "OMG! Why do you think you can create an Atmos file from a simple 5.1 rip? What are you thinking? How would we have any idea where these tracks are supposed to be spacially located??????" (Umm, perhaps because they are specifically encoded for a standard surround setup?)

In any case my rips are only 24/96 but Tidal can provide 24/192 for some of them. I didn't see any Atmos indicator as I was browsing on my PC, but that may be because I don't have an Atmos system on it. (I do have a paid subscription, though and it looks like they only provide 1 tier unless you're a DJ.) I'll check again later in the car. I did see a few 24/192 tracks in my sampling and I found a few 16/44.1 tracks that showed the yellow/orange indicator meaning "Max quality" so I'm not sure how they judge that.