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Is it worth making a separate stereo track?

geminigod

geminigod

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I have long wondered just how well is software able to downmix 5.1 audio to stereo on the fly during playback, as opposed to an alternative rendered stereo track.

After conducting an experiment, I am sad to report that the two sound extremely different. The one rendered in stereo sounds much closer to the way I intended it to sound. This makes a compelling argument to always do a stereo track in addition to whatever else.

NOTE: It is also extremely important to set your project properties according to the kind of setup you are using while editing. In other words, if you are editing with headphones, make sure to set the project properties to stereo, even if your ultimate finished product will 5.1!!! Just make sure it gets switched back before doing any 5.1 rendering.
 
I think this is fine if you intend on releasing as a file (AVI, MKV, etc.) or on a dual-layer disc, but the loss in video quality can at times be too great on a SL DVD.
 
True, SL DVD can get tight. Since my current project is 3 hours long, I have no choice but to do DL DVD anyway, so I will make a separate stereo track.
 
I'm all for dedicated stereo mixes. On the fly 5.1 downmix on stereo equipment is atrocious, no matter what player you use. I used to check every dvd menu for a stereo mix and love it when I found one (the LOST blurays and the Twin Peaks gold box, for instance). I've heard the only decent solution is a hidden setting in XBMC, but I haven't tried it myself since I ultimately bought a surround receiver just to avoid the downmixes altogether. (I didn't really want one, I just wanted to stop having to downmix.)
 
theslime said:
I used to check every dvd menu for a stereo mix and love it when I found one (the LOST blurays and the Twin Peaks gold box, for instance).
Click to expand...

+1

Media players seem to do a better job of downmixing to stereo than stand-alone players, but a true stereo mix is always preferable.
 
Captain Khajiit said:
+1

Media players seem to do a better job of downmixing to stereo than stand-alone players, but a true stereo mix is always preferable.
Click to expand...

Yup. Even if it downmixes well in terms of proper sound reproduction, the total levels seem to invariably get wacked in places, and potential clipping can also occur (though I think there is a way with dolby digital pro to encode some metadata info to attenuate stereo downmixes by -3 or -6 dB).
 
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