In general, upmixing is problematic because of this issue, and so far I have found just 2 software that will cope (artefact free) and the Penteo hardware. This is almost identical to what I hear in LsRs with SPEC upmixes. Sorry, but the effect I am hearing can be reproduced by taking any ordinary track, running it to 128kbps MP3 then going from L-R to M-S and playing just the S component. If you are working in a high end facility, I'd suggest giving a listen to Penteo.I could not agree more, Rick.Īt least the DTS algo is eliminating those have played a lot of these Bidule upmixes, and the ones I have (SPEC, I believe) are riddled with artefacts in the rear channels very similar to what Thomas Lund calls "Space Monkeys" and in the worst cases they sound "watery" is the best word I can think of. and Waves are the heavy artifacting and problems with downmixing.
The biggest problem I have with both T.C. I would call DTS directly and see if they have a demo download.Īpparently Robert Fripp chose Penteo as his preferred upmixer for the King Crimson 5.1 mixes on the material where the original sources were not available. I can't speak for the DTS Neural Audio upmix as I have not had an opportunity to A/B it with Penteo, but if you need a Plugin, that may be the way to go. If you are doing both ambiance and music, you either need two boxes or do two passes. Granted, it is a bit more time consuming than a plug-in and does used up some I/O capabilities. Then I can adjust panning, level, or other signal processing individually if needed. Plug ins would permit to work over a greater number of tracks, one aux bus for ambience and another for music and, voilà, your problem solved.My solution with Penteo has been to use an aux send to an AES output into Penteo and then return the Penteo to 6 mono audio inputs. Convert each stereo track trough a hardware device seems maybe too laborious. The things sometimes have to go really fast here. Not sure if they have a demo version yet.
If you are budget constrained and are on an Intel Mac with ProTools, you might want to look at DTS. If you are working in a high end facility, I'd suggest giving a listen to Penteo. It is also automatable which could be helpful. It will do stereo to 5.1 or 7.1 and 5.1 to 7.1 if you are upmixing for Blu-Ray. DTS also has a new ProTools plugin (Neural Surround Upmix) available that looks interesting, but I have not had a chance to thoroughly evaluate it. Unwrap is now available as a plugin as is the Waves version. Yes, I am a convert who became a Los Angeles sales rep for Penteo, but it works and in my opinion is far superior in sound quality to Unwrap and I hear no artifacting on downmixing to stereo or mono. Hardware, there is the TC Unwrap and my personal favorite Penteo Surround. Sorry.There are a number of different options including some new ones. Hi, recently saw a post asking about the same. Nevertheless, i don't know much of the basic principles of these plug ins, how they really work and how they would differ from pannig and divergence controls in pro toools for example. Due to the fact that we're not likely to receive multichannel material to mix (music, ambiances will continue to be delivered in stereo, if so) and all the time constraints that would interfere with the creation of multi-layer 5.1 ambiences, this solution seems adequate. I work on a post television studio that's about to change for 5.1 mixing. I would like to know the opinion of some of you regarding stereo to 5.1 upmix plug ins like wave's um 226 or tc unwrap.