Ambient Quadraphonic to 5.1 AC3 Recording

Here’s my new workflow:
1) Import both stereo tracks into Audacity
2) Create two new tracks (Center and LFE)
3) Raise and lower the tracks to the proper top-to-bottom order for AC3 (at least, the AC3 that is output by BeSweet and ac3enc) – FL, Center, FR, RL, RR, LFE
4) Go to Preferences -> Audio Files -> check “Use Custom Mix”
5) Export to wav file, use the default mapping
6) Open the wav in AC3Machine (part of BeSweet); disable all of the range, compression, and balancing controls; export to AC3.
(Note that AC3Machine is downloaded separately from BeSweet, but requires the command-line version of BS. Also, ac3enc is a “plugin” download for BS.)

One note in particular to the Zoom H2… the left/right assignment seems to be reversed in both the front and rear files.

Next, I’ll try to figure out the Dolby Digital CD thing, as well as making a simple dvd using the AC3 track.

Ambient surround recording

I’ve been playing with quad-track recordings of ambient sounds (provided by mstock, using the Zoom H2), trying to convert them from a pair of stereo recordings (2 files with 2 tracks in each) to Dolby Digital/AC3 5.1 surround. Instructions were found here and here. I first used Wavewizard to combine the two wav files into one 4-track WaveFormatEX file. Then I used Wavosaur to add two more channels (the center and sub). Wavosaur is also a VST host, which allows me to use the H2-Zoo plugin to visually remix and balance the channels. Finally, I used BeSweet (and AC3Machine) to transcode the resulting .wav file to a .ac3 one (which can then be added as the audio track for a dvd.) But after playing both the wav file and ac3 file through my receiver (via XBMC), I realized that the tracks were not corresponding to the correct speakers.

Then I switched to the most recent beta version of Audacity, which can actually be used for all of the above steps except for the transcode to AC3. I’ve figured out that the multitrack wav uses the following track order:
RF, LF, RR, LR, Center, LFE
This is *not*, however, the order that AC3 uses. So if I want the surround audio for the dvd to play correctly, I’ve got to figure out that track order… later.

Real Irishmen don’t call 911

… after drinking, that is. Please tell me that it would be absolutely ridiculous for a person in Ireland to go out to the pub, get completely plastered, and then call an ambulance because they were too drunk. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the St. Patrick’s Day celebrants here in the US wore their big-boy boots out to the bar and either drank within their limits, or decided to man-up and deal with the consequences.

Too many whiny I-think-I’m-gonna-die-because-I-drank-too much barely 21-year-olds calling 911 tonight, I guess.

Sicko

I watched Moore’s Sicko yesterday, and while it provided some good food for thought, it certainly didn’t convert me to the Moore Camp. Here are some points that I agree with:

• Health insurance premiums are out of control and quickly becoming unaffordable for employees, employers, and unemployed.
• The cost of medical care for the uninsured (and even the co-pays for those insured, as we found out from the birth of the twins) is a huge financial drain, if not a recipe for immediate bankruptcy
• Physicians are hog-tied by HMOs and paralyzed by legal fears, causing them to over-diagnose and over-prescribe in some case, and under-treat in other cases.
• Medicare/Medicaid is the broken, beaten stepchild of a bandaid to national healthcare. (Marie’s OB/Gyn told us that Medicaid will only compensate physicians $700 for care for a pregnancy, including pre and post-natal care and delivery.)
• Doctors don’t go to houses anymore, so patients have to come to them. Patients without transportation call ambulances. Ambulances don’t go to doctor’s offices, they go to emergency rooms. ER waiting rooms are aptly-named… a 6-hour wait (for a non-emergent patient) is not unusual.
• Actually… this list could go on for a very long time….

Some things that Mr. Moore and I disagree about:

• “Free” healthcare in other countries is not free. Everyone pays, whether they use the services or not.
• Health care for prisoners is not just at Guantanamo Bay… all prisons are obligated by law to provide health care to those incarcerated.
• By law, emergency departments can not knowingly deny life-saving or stabilizing care to any person, regardless of insurance coverage, which is why the uninsured are overwhelming the emergency system… the ER is the *only* place that can’t turn them away.
• I noticed that he didn’t ask any of foreign doctors who developed the drugs that they give away to their patients. Could it be those evil (American) drug companies that only exist to line their own pockets?
• Some people have to live with disabilities. There is no natural or legislative right to perfect health.

So… do I think we should institute universal, socialized health care? Well… we pretty much already have, it’s just broken. Those of us with health insurance already pay high premiums to a nation-wide organization that dictates to us which doctors we can see, what hospitals we can visit, and what treatment we can receive. Those that don’t have insurance… well that’s where things are really broken.

Marie and I have both experienced the phone-tag-not-it-revolving-door-pass-the-buck-not-my-problem attitudes of our insurance companies, and I guess my thought is, would a nationwide, government-regulated health plan really be any worse that what we have now?