The Joys of DTS MixDiscs

[cliffbig]

Ever since a fellow Acura MDX enthusiast told me what software I needed to transcode my DVD-Audio discs to DTS (works for any that are 5.1, but it will not work on 5.0 or 4.1 or 4.0, alas), I've had a great time listening to DTS discs that I've burned for my MDX enjoyment. I also rediscovered the fun of creating my own MixDiscs (takes me back to the old mixtape days). Today, I've been listening to 5.1 versions of Fleetwood Mac's "Monday Morning," the Beatles' "Help," Chicago's "Make Me Smile," Carly Simon's "No Secrets," John Lennon's "Imagine," Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle," the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin," and more. The sound, while not as great as DVD-Audio, is very crisp and sharp and the surround placement is strong and distinct.

One thing I did right away was to transfer my three or four Acura DTS DVD-Audio demo discs to DTS, since they often had songs that I don't own on DVD-Audio otherwise. (And in the case of "Monday Morning," the only place I know where that 5.1 mix appeared was on an Acura demo disc from 2009 or 2010.)

Now, if I could only figure out to transfer that 5.0 version of David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name or that 4.0 copy of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, I'd be truly thrilled...

 

[dgreen]

You can't leave us like that. What is the software?!!

 

[cliffbig]

You can't leave us like that. What is the software?!!

I'm using DVD Audio Extractor for the conversion; XLD to transcode the data file to individual tracks; and Toast Titanium 11 (in audio CD mode) to burn the disc. It's very simple on a Mac; once I actually set it right so that it doesn't automatically add a 2 second gap in DVD Audio Extractor (if it does that, the first track won't play), everything else has been perfect.

 

[Werno]

I've backed up, sort of, many DVD audio discs that have a DTS track with a standard ripping program. Burn the resulting TS_VIDEO file to a DVD and it will play the DTS track on any DTS-capable DVD player I've ever tried.

Not sure if your car has a DVD player or if you're making DTS CDs, but FWIW you might be able to get your Crosby or Beach Boys working in the car if it's got a DVD player.

 

[cliffbig]

I've backed up, sort of, many DVD audio discs that have a DTS track with a standard ripping program. Burn the resulting TS_VIDEO file to a DVD and it will play the DTS track on any DTS-capable DVD player I've ever tried.

Not sure if your car has a DVD player or if you're making DTS CDs, but FWIW you might be able to get you Crosby or Beach Boys working in the car.

The car does have a DVD player as well, and I can use DVD Audio Extractor to make a copy of the disc that I can then burn to DVD, but the advantage of the DTS CD in the '14 Acura MDX is that I can create MixDiscs and more control over editing, arranging, etc. Plus, the Acura system was designed by an imbecile: the DVD screen is not visible on the main nav screen, even when the car is parked, so any DVD that has a menu that you actually need to see can only be properly set up and played if you climb into the back seat and use the ceiling-mounted DVD screen. Sheer lunacy, I realize, but Acura has remain firmly committed to this sort of lunacy ever since they introduced DVD players into their vehicles.

 

[HomerJAU]

My car only plays DVD-V in 5.1 (including DTS) so I've made quite a few DVD-V DTS 5.1 discs from all sorts of disc format (MLP, DTS-HD, LPCM etc) by first converting the original music to 5.1 FLAC (at original sampling rates) then creating a DTS DVD-V with this software which has a DTS encoder, so you are not limited to tracks that started as DTS:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...nk-PowerDirector-12-(includes-DTS-5-1-Encoder!)

I can import any file then drag and drop onto an audio timeline to get my mix.

My current favourite is my 5.1 mix disc of 70's acoustic tracks (actually tracks with acoustic guitars). Mostly real 5.1 but a couple of up mixes such as Pink Floyd's Fearless (Meddle) and Uriah Heap's The Wizard which were never released in surround. Sounds awsome!

 

[elshagon]

Why dts? does the car play dvd-audio? I've been playing dvd-audio mixes in my Genesis and burn multiple formats to disc, 5.0, 5.1, 4.0 etc all on the same disc.

 

[Surround_Junk]

Now, if I could only figure out to transfer that 5.0 version of David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name or that 4.0 copy of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, I'd be truly thrilled...

Sure you can do that, no problem. The trick is simply to create 'empty' channels for 5.0 and 4.0.

Say for example you have a 4.0 disc, then what you do is extract the channels as you normally do, then take one of these (say Rf) and copy/paste this one twice and rename them 'C' and 'LFE', take these two to a sound editor and mute them, do NOT change the length of the track by even a millisecond, just mute and save.

Now take all the tracks to your DTS program and from there on it's business as usual. Your Acura will now play them as any regular 5.1 track, but (in this case) the center and LFE will be mute obviously.

 

[cliffbig]

Sure you can do that, no problem. The trick is simply to create 'empty' channels for 5.0 and 4.0.

Say for example you have a 4.0 disc, then what you do is extract the channels as you normally do, then take one of these (say Rf) and copy/paste this one twice and rename them 'C' and 'LFE', take these two to a sound editor and mute them, do NOT change the length of the track by even a millisecond, just mute and save.

Now take all the tracks to your DTS program and from there on it's business as usual. Your Acura will now play them as any regular 5.1 track, but (in this case) the center and LFE will be mute obviously.

Problem is, my program of choice (DVD Audi Extractor for Mac) doesn't extract multi-channel tracks unless it detects 5.1. There may be other programs that can do what you describe, but I haven't found them. If you can point me in the right direction, that would be great!

 

[LizardKing]

Using Windows (I know you're using a Mac) you can use DVD-Audio Explorer to extract mono WAVs from a DVD-Audio.

Then using Audiomuxer you can merge them back into a multichannel WAV file with extra blank channels (automatically) via the "Force Channel Layout" option:


Works a treat...

All you need is a PC rather than a Mac..

 

[LizardKing]

Refer to Audiomuxer here:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...7-Audiomuxer-new-software-on-surroundbyus-com

 

[Cheezmo]

It is pretty easy with sox (command line) to add empty channels to a flac. This script converted a 4.0 to a 5.1. You just need to know the channel orders to do other variants...

#!/bin/sh
for filename in *.flac
do
    sox "$filename" "$filename.flac" remix 1 2 0 0 3 4; rm "$filename" &

 

[Surround_Junk]

Problem is, my program of choice (DVD Audi Extractor for Mac) doesn't extract multi-channel tracks unless it detects 5.1. There may be other programs that can do what you describe, but I haven't found them. If you can point me in the right direction, that would be great!

I see... Maybe you can use something like WINE or Crossover? Any of these should enable you to run Windows programs on OS X (Mac). That may give you more options as to which program you can use to extract the audio.

Good luck.