Noob from Moog days

[Robint]

Hi Rex
I found this after an exhausting browse of your ca 120 apps & 90 vids. What a magnificent Magnum Opus
I sincerely hope that your work finds its way to a Sticky of the big time. IMHO what you have created starting (10 years go?) is a comprehensive set of building blocks for the dawn of the DAW era. Each of the small apps is a brick to build groundwork and experience. Sadly, most of the "unSound Designer" kit on offer is deliberately overhyped and shrouded in magical mystery to keep naive users in ignorance whilst charging $$$$$ for access to public domain techniques.
One wastes so much time trying to browse thru all the glitzy clap trap just to get to the nub of a basic effect.

So I am fully on board with your mission. It will take me a year to try out all your works I expect. So much gold in them thar Apps to be dug out.

One question I posed on your latest YT (2wks)

One thing that puzzled me for many years is how ineffectual a 5.1 system was at playing a std stereo CD. I concluded that 5.1 was a massive con trick to sell $$$ home theatre systems. These are fine if using a proper Source (blu ray?) with Dolby DTS or THX type coding. You will get all the theatre SFX etc - otherwise a waste of money. Whats your take?

I thought with all these super building blocks, one could come up with a truly immersive sound for a room . That was the aim of the Quadrophonic systems of the 70's. It failed cos the technology was not available to process 4 independent channels and code them onto a CD.

Stupid boy Pike says why not have two stereo channels (directed to front and rear). Kitwise its not challenging is it? AFAIK a PC can USB output two separate stereo channels.
I havent tried this yet but someone must be there already? Pls advs

[Spogg]

One question I posed on your latest YT (2wks)

Hi Robint and welcome to the forum.

Thank you for your kind comments; much appreciated.

I saw your question yesterday on YouTube and posted the following rather brief answer:

Ever since I heard Pink Floyd in 1969 with their “Azimuth Coordinator” sending the keyboard sounds around Birmingham Town Hall I’ve been fascinated by the possibilities of 4 channel surround but, alas, I’ve never experimented and stick to regular stereo. When you consider what most people listen with it hardly seems worth it. Pity.

I imagine you could use a USB audio interface which had 2 stereo outputs or 4 mono ones. I also imagine that some sort of X-Y (joystick) controller plugin system would be needed for sound placement and maybe dynamic panning. 4 channels of unique panned reverb could sound good too, or echoes with different timings going around the room. What fun eh?
Additionally you could burn an encoded disk to play in a home theatre system. I also wonder if anyone here has attempted this yet…

[Robint]

Hi Rex
I came across one of your earlier apps Director + Hilo

I havent Dld Flowstone (it looks dangerously like a heroin addiction path)

This appears to split the audio into two identical outputs which can then be further processed

Does this look like it might help? I havent tried getting two usb audio outputs from PC yet, maybe someone else has?

AFAIK with Quadrophonics, it was always the intention to present essentially identical audio with 4 separated mono channels suitably processed (matrix decoder) for room reverb acoustics and spacial info. It was never intended for the sort of whizz bang stuff used by cinema media to make you jump out of your seat. I heard a demo of Ambisonics using classic sources such as an Ambulance passing from behind left/front across/rear right etc. The result was truly spectacular making conventional stereo a pale imitation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics
Perhaps Dolby bought out the patents and squashed it in favour of it arcade style 5.1

It just seemed to me that we have progressed so far with DSP and stopped glaringly short of the obvious next step


Fancy admitting you Dont Make Music

[Spogg]

Yes I can guarantee that FlowStone is addictive. And I’m a pusher!

The Director is for distributing a signal based on its volume. I guess you could use such a thing for four channel surround distribution. Of course that wasn’t my intention and I never thought of that!

[Robint]

Yes I can guarantee that FlowStone is addictive. And I’m a pusher!

The Director is for distributing a signal based on its volume. I guess you could use such a thing for four channel surround distribution. Of course that wasn’t my intention and I never thought of that!

While browsing Ambisonics, I discovered there is significant active interest in 4 ch surround sound development from the gaming industry (not surprising). Whizz bangs all round the room a sure-fire crowd pleaser? Most seem to need headphones. However there are sound bars coming with Wall screens - Dolby Atmos(Opens in a new window) and DTS:X(Opens in a new window) are two such spatial audio technologies.
There appears to be a Dolby Atmos for Content Producers £250 to work with a DAW (seems like a spatial audio mixer rack).
https://professional.dolby.com/product/ ... derer-OLD/

Im a bit surprised/suspicious why this hasnt been taken up by Sound junkies?

[Robint]

Yes I can guarantee that FlowStone is addictive. And I’m a pusher!

The Director is for distributing a signal based on its volume. I guess you could use such a thing for four channel surround distribution. Of course that wasn’t my intention and I never thought of that!

While browsing Ambisonics, I discovered there is significant active interest in 4 ch surround sound development from the gaming industry (not surprising). Whizz bangs all round the room a sure-fire crowd pleaser? Most seem to need headphones. However there are sound bars coming with Wall screens - Dolby Atmos(Opens in a new window) and DTS:X(Opens in a new window) are two such spatial audio technologies.
There appears to be a Dolby Atmos for Content Producers £250 to work with a DAW (seems like a spatial audio mixer rack).
https://professional.dolby.com/product/ ... derer-OLD/

Im a bit surprised/suspicious why this hasnt been taken up by Sound junkies?

[Robint]

Yes I can guarantee that FlowStone is addictive. And I’m a pusher!

The Director is for distributing a signal based on its volume. I guess you could use such a thing for four channel surround distribution. Of course that wasn’t my intention and I never thought of that!

While browsing Ambisonics, I discovered there is significant active interest in 4 ch surround sound development from the gaming industry (not surprising). Whizz bangs all round the room a sure-fire crowd pleaser? Most seem to need headphones. However there are sound bars coming with Wall screens - Dolby Atmos(Opens in a new window) and DTS:X(Opens in a new window) are two such spatial audio technologies.
There appears to be a Dolby Atmos for Content Producers £250 to work with a DAW (seems like a spatial audio mixer rack).
https://professional.dolby.com/product/ ... derer-OLD/

Im a bit surprised/suspicious why this hasnt been taken up by Sound junkies?

[Robint]

Sorry my post got repeated???

cant get in an edit duplicates???

thought it had logged me out

all very archaic

[deraudrl]

I thought with all these super building blocks, one could come up with a truly immersive sound for a room . That was the aim of the Quadrophonic systems of the 70's. It failed cos the technology was not available to process 4 independent channels and code them onto a CD.

A minor nit: as I recall, Quadraphonic was already dead (deservedly so, IMHO) well before CDs were invented. The 4-channel matrix was encoded to a 2-channel signal, so putting it on CD should not have been a technical problem. The real issue was that it just didn't work all that well...all I got out of my attempt was an extra pair of speakers.

[Robint]

AFAIK you needed a special decode box to unscramble a redirect signals to the speakers. The analog stuff of the 70's was not reliable enough to keep it all in sync so it would just revert to std stereo - bit like todays 5.1 which only works well on cinema stuff and doesnt do much for audiophiles.
The experience I had was with Ambisonics (which Dolby deprecated in favour of its DTX

I hope someone will surface who has actually managed to get it to work out of a W10 PC into room speakers