simple (I hope!) q re mixing 5.1 separations to stereo

[AiN]

Hi all
I don't have a surround sound system, I watch vids through a monitor with outputsto my stereo soundsystem.

Using audacity with ffmpeg to rip, I've got the soundtrack from an mp4 displaying as five mono channels.

What I want is to get the same stereo mix of the music that I hear when I watch the vid outputted on a wav.

Is there a simple setting or a manual setting-up of the tracks that I can do to the 5 tracks to achieve this?

does this even make sense ?

cheers!

[BDJ]

Easiest would be to set Audacity to rip to stereo.

[AiN]

great!
can you tell me how? didn't realise it wasn't!
cheers!

[BDJ]

In my version (2.3.0):

Edit -> Preferences -> Import / Export -> Mix down to mono or stereo

[AiN]

thanks for helping here but I've got version 3.4.2 and Mix down to mono or stereo isn't an option on Edit -> Preferences -> Import / Export

[michael_charles]

Hit, Control A to select all channels
Hit Export than change the Output Channels from 6 to 2.

[alphabeatles]

I would suspect the panning of each mono track would affect the stereo output mix, so check to see if they're centered L/R and if that works for stereo. If not, I guess you have to do your own mix...

[Lord Reith]

You just use the FILE tab and import the 5.1 file into audacity. Then to the left of the first track there is a small dropdown window which says something like "make stereo track" which will join the first two tracks into a stereo track. Then ignore the next two tracks, but do the same thing to the last two tracks.

Then highlight all the tracks, and from the TRACK menu select "mix and render" and it will fold them down to a stereo file. You may then need to highlight that new track and use EFFECT "amplify" to bring it to 0db. Then FILE$ "export audio"

There's probably tools that convert directly to stereo, but this method allows you to change the mix to suit your tastes. Sometimes the two bottom channels just contain reverb or stuff which can be dispensed with for a drier mix (think Anthology or 1+)

You may have to download the ffmpeg plugin for audacity but it will prompt and guide you if that is needed.

[AiN]

Thanks all!

Dear Lord, are the channels always presented in the same order, and if so do the first two relate to the l/r 'front' of a surround sound setup? If I'm thinking along the right lines, what are the middle two? On the soundtrack I'm using as an example, track 3 seems to be the main song with added 'environment' sounds (footsteps etc) and the fourth essentially inaudible (although visible)?

Sadly the temptation to remix anything is always to the fore with me, which is why I'm looking for a nice simple way to fold down to stereo!

Lastly, is 'amplify' similar to normalise?

Many thanks!

[Lord Reith]

Thanks all!

Dear Lord, are the channels always presented in the same order, and if so do the first two relate to the l/r 'front' of a surround sound setup? If I'm thinking along the right lines, what are the middle two? On the soundtrack I'm using as an example, track 3 seems to be the main song with added 'environment' sounds (footsteps etc) and the fourth essentially inaudible (although visible)?

Sadly the temptation to remix anything is always to the fore with me, which is why I'm looking for a nice simple way to fold down to stereo!

Lastly, is 'amplify' similar to normalise?

Many thanks!

It is always presented as:

Front left
Front right
Centre
Subwoofer
Rear left
Rear right

Amplify is the same as normalise yes. It will make it so that 0db is the peak. Normally 5.1 files have very low volume so you will need this to amplify it.