Converting Stereo To DTS
Converting Stereo To DTS
In this tutorial, I will explain how to convert a normal stereo (2 channel) sound track to a 6 channels
DTS or Dolby Surround track and burn them on DVD that can be played on any home of PC DVD
player.
Front-Left => This will be taken from the left channel of the stereo file.
Front-Right => This will be taken from the right channel of the stereo file.
Center = > We will bandpass filter the stereo file to extract audio in the vocal frequency range (150
Hz to 3 Khz).
LFE => We will low-pass filter the stereo file to extract the bass for the LFE.
Warning: Extreme care must be taken here to let only signal above 20 Hz in this file. Or else signal
below (lower than) 20 Hz may damage your ears or surrounding equipements when it gets
amplified by the sub-woofer. Audio editors like Adobe or Wavelab have this control implemented
by default but I don't know for other software.
SL => Extracted from the stereo left channel, we will add reverbs and flanger effect to make a
swirling sound fly on your back.
SR => Same as above but extracted from the right channel of the stereo file.
You can do this with any usual CD ripping software and save the tracks in wav PCM 16 bits
format. The resulting file is about 10 Mbytes for every minute of sound.
You can also use mp3 files but I advise you to only use High Bitrates (upto 320 Kbits/s VBR).
This file has a sampling rate of 44.1 Khz (The CD specification) but DVD accept only 48 Khz. You
can keep the 44.1 Khz if you are only going to burn DTS audio-CD. Not for DVD.
Open the « test.wav » file in Adobe Audition (From now on I will call it Adobe),
Click Edit in the menu bar and select « Convert Sample type »
In the next window select 48000 as sample rate / Stereo as Channels / and 16 as bit depth. Set
quality to high by moving the slider to the left till you read 999 then click « ok ».
From now on we will use the audio files bundle with this tutorial. These are from the movie :
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani – Song – I'm the best.
I have chosen this one as it is in stereo and is a good song.
(And finally you will be the best after completing this tutorial).
Files included :
I'm the best_stereo.flac
foobar2000.rar
Adobe Audition documentation can be freely downloaded on adobe web site.
I have compressed it in lossless FLAC audio format. Use any FLAC decompressor or if you are like
me, use FOOBAR2000 (Bundled with this tutorial). You will only have to decompress the
original track « I'm the best_stereo.flac ». The file is already in 48000 Hz, so you wont have to
resample it.
Double click on the name of the file in the list and you will see the waveform in the main window.
Be sure to click the « edit » button on the left hand corner of the main window.
Now, type « CTRL + L » to select the left channel. Then right click on the waveform and select
« Copy to New ».
This will extract and generate the left channel as a new waveform.
Click on the file name « I'm the best_stereo (2)* » in the left window and save it as
« I'm the best_L.wav ». Always save in wav 16 bits / 48000 Hz pcm format. (The default).
« CTRL + R » short-cut does the same thing with the right channel. So, do it with the Right channel
also and save it as « I'm the best_R.wav ».
You will now have 2 new files. Save a copy of them in a seperate folder by naming them.
« I'm the best_L_final.wav » and « I'm the best_R_final.wav ».
Close all files in Adobe and reload the original stereo file. ( I'm the best_stereo.wav)
In the menu bar, click on « effects » then on « Delay Effects » and « Flanger ».
Click on the « play » button to preview what this effect does.
You can see (hear), what it does: Swings the sound from R to L and modulate the loudness.
You can play with the different options and other effect to sweet your needs. Most commercial
movie converted to Dolby 5.1 use the classic «Reverb » effect.
Click on the « play » button again to stop the preview. Click « ok » to apply it to our file.
With « CTRL + L » and « CTRL + R » as previously, copy to new track and save each track to a
new file. Name them as follows:
I'm the best _SL.wav => This will be the surround-left channel.
I'm the best _SR.wav => This will be the surround-right channel.
Creating the Central channel :
Ok. Let's creat the central channel. Normally in movies, this hold mainly the vocals. So we will
extract the vocal from the original file.
Close all files in Adobe and re-open the original stereo file.
In the menu bar, click on « effects » then on « Filters » and « Central Channel Extractor ».
For those who knows about devocalising software, this is what the filter do. It attenuates most of the
sound components not in the vocal region that are in both tracks by doing an inverse followed by a
difference function.
As the main vocal is female we will use the « female voice » preset : In the frequency range tab
select « female voice »
Click on the preview button to hear what it does. It mostly attenuate lower and higher frequency
ranges and emphasizes the vocal frequency (arround 250 Hz to 3 Khz). For male vocal it will be
around the range of 150 Hz to 2 Khz. All this can be finely tuned to get best results.
The only tuning we will do here is to decrease in the discrimination settings the « crossover » to 0,
thus making the vocal clearer (Huh ! And being less « macho » to the lady).
Click « ok » to process the file. Then with « CTRL +L » and « CTRL + R » select and create 2 new
tracks as before.
Save them as
I'm the best_CL.wav
I'm the best_CR.wav
Now click on the «MultiTrack » button just below the menu bar.
The multi-track window will open, displaying track 1, track 2, track 3 etc... By default it displays 6
tracks but as many as 1024 tracks can be inserted.
Select « Bounce to new track », then « all audio clips in session mono ». This can also be done
with the ctrl+G short-cut.
This will mix the two tracks in one mono-phonic track which will be named by default
« mixdown ».
The different controls in the left of the multitrack window is not used here. Read through the
documentation of the software to see all the options.
The main item I will highlight here is that when you downmix tracks (2 or more tracks) care should
be taken to the volume level. Here our 2 tracks have level at arround -6 dB, the final mix will result
in a -3dB signal (twice louder than the original). This is OK. You should note that in Digital
processing, 0 dB is equal to infinite level.
So if you mix 2 tracks with -3 dB you will surely have a 0 dB resultant mix. That's not good
because the signal will start clipping (very annoying sound effect).
When processing finishes a new track « mixdown » is shown in the left window.
Use the « effect » , « amplitude » « amplify » function to raise the volume to arround -2 dB then
save it as
Close all files and re-open the original track. From the menu click « Effects », « Filters »
and « Parametric Equalizer ».
Click on the « play » to preview what it does and then click « ok » to process.
Use Ctrl+G to copy to new track and the save the file to « I'm the best_LFE.wav ».
This is our final track for the LFE section.
We donot have to process both tracks cause they contain the same informations.
In the track panel : click on the « Master » button, then select « mono ».
For the next and final step we will not use Adobe so you can close it.
Converting to DTS or AC3.
You will get a DTS file that can be directly burnt to a CD and played in a DTS compatible DVD
player. If you want to burn on DVD, use Nero 7 or any other DVD authoring software and insert the
DTS tracks. The DTS track will be recognized as an LPCM lossless compression track and can be
converted to AC3 if you are making a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio DVD.
I'll personally prefer the DTS type of DVD cause DTS has superiour audiophile uncompressed
sound far better than AC3 but takes more disk space.
Kindly for all music lovers (And good seeders) and specially for the Desi community.
MikeKhan