Surround Sound Editor

The Surround Sound Editor allows you to mix multiple sound tracks to produce surround sound audio. The Surround Sound Editor supports standard speaker layouts for 5.1 or 7.1 audio. It can also be configured to support any 2-D speaker layout.

The following are the main elements of the Surround Sound Editor:

Radar Display:
Speakers and sound tracks can be positioned graphically with the help of the Radar Display. Speakers and sound tracks can be added or deleted.
File list:
All currently opened audio files are listed in the File List. This allows selecting/deselecting of sound tracks to include in the Radar Display.
Sound Tracks:
All sound tracks are mono. All multichannel sound tracks are separated into multiple mono sound tracks and added to the File List. A track number is displayed along with a track icon.
Speakers:
A speaker represents a channel in the surround audio mix, which will be usually played back through a single speaker. A channel number is displayed along with a speaker icon.
LFE Speaker:
An LFE speaker is a special type of speaker. It usually carries a Low Frequency Effects (LFE) sound track. Any sound track assigned to an LFE Speaker is played back exclusively through that speaker (channel).
Volume Indicator:
The length of a blue line extending from the speaker icon towards the center of the Radar Display indicates the relative volume of a speaker. When a sound track is selected, the length of the line indicates the percentage of the total volume of the selected track played back through the speaker.
Pan Envelopes:
Pan the envelope of a sound track between multiple speakers. This can be used to create a moving sound effect. The Pan Envelopes graphical display consists of two sets of points. The points on the yellow line control the horizontal movement and the points on the green line control the vertical movement.
Spatial Blur:
Spatial Blur is a parameter which controls the volume distribution of a sound track between multiple speakers. Its main use is to blur the localization of a track. Lower values mean higher localization.
Speaker Weight:
By default all speakers carry equal weight in surround panning. This can be controlled by assigning a weight to each speaker. Low weight means low contribution in panning (Note: LFE speaker does not carry a weight). Setting the lowest weight results in the total exclusion of a speaker from panning.

The following are the options available in the surround sound editor dialog:

Add a speaker:
Click on the Add button.
Add an LFE speaker:
Click on the Add LFE button.
Delete a speaker:
Select the speaker using the mouse and click on the Delete button.
Select a preset speaker configuration:
Select a speaker configuration available in the speaker configuration preset combobox.
Add/Remove a track:
Select/deselect a track on the File list.
Change the position a speaker/track:
Left click and drag the speaker/track icon using the mouse.
Assigning a sound track to an LFE speaker:
Drag and position a track on top of an LFE speaker. The color of the speaker icon will change to blue on assignment.
Change speaker weight:
Select a speaker and change the Speaker Weight slider.
Change the spatial blur:
Select the desired spatial blur using Spatial Blur slider.
Enable/Disable Pan Envelope (Moving sound effect):
Select a track and click on Pan Envelopes check box.
Control moving sound effect:
Select a track and adjust the points on the yellow and green lines to control position and timing. The yellow line controls the horizontal movement and the green line controls the vertical movement. Left click and drag creates the new points and right click deletes a point. Click on the red cursor and drag to preview the sound movement graphically.
Saving output:
Once you have positioned your sources, the Apply button will create a new wave window with as many channels as the speakers that you chose. This can then be saved in a file format which supports surround sound, such as WAV.