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Hi,

I just had a few questions about the conversion process. I'm looking at converting a Star Wars Soundtrack to the DTS mix using the SPEC method. I've got it all set up and ready to go but I had a few queries about the following:

CUE Sheet - I'd like to keep each track as a seperate DTS file on the computer as I use the AC3 passthrough method to my Decoder. I just wanted to see if it is possible after the SPEC process, to split the converted Mono or completed DTS files into separate tracks or does it have to be processed individually from the start.

ZAG - With the above if you process individual tracks can you load the complete cue sheet but only process one track at a time and get the measurements or is that pointless be it your converting each track individually.

48Khz - I'm putting it through as 48khz as passhrough on my sound card only allows that level and not 44.1 Khz, will a 48 Khz file be able to be burtnt to cd and played via a cd/dvd player as a DTS file still.

Setting for Instrumental Music - One final question, what would be the recommended settings for an instrumental track in the SPEC method. I figured keeping an even output on all channels would work best with the 360 degree setting in Arc Tan.

Thanks for your help in advance and thanks to the programers and designers of this method, great work!

I haven't heard the Star Wars soundtrack over headphones in ages, so I can't speak to where things are in the mix. I could give a listen by tomorrow and give an even more informed opinion than this.

I never see a reason to go under 360 as your total width with this sort of music. As for front and center widths, I could see starting with a wide center width as working well, but listen to your rears closely. There's nothing worse than audibly artifacted string instruments with this sort of music. Stay away from blending Slice into the rears unless you're finding that the separation is natural and that the mix would respond well to a bit more specific speaker placement thrown in there.

I know of someone who worked with the "Tron" soundtrack, and he found that it separated really, really well. You never know.

Don't know why I never thought of converting "Star Wars."

Thanks for the quick replies and the info.

I'll have a look at the cue splitting process and get familiar with it in Foobar2000, thanks for the info. I had a quick look at AudioMuxer, looks like a really good program and it seems to be the way to go in order to share the files with others. I'll make a DVD and have the files available as individual tracks also.

Nice banner Zeeround I'm sure many a fan will be over the moon as long as I can make it sound right.

River, I heard the Tron DTS mix which was really good, the guy who made the conversion did a great job with it. I'll wait and see what you think before I start converting the original trilogy soundtracks. Should be a good project once it's all done.

Cheers and thanks again. Seriously those algorithms in the software and arc tangents are way over my head, I'm just glad I don't have to be great at maths and just let the program do most the work

Played around with a couple of the soundtracks tonight. I'd say the material would convert reasonably well. Not a ton of front/rear separation, but a lot more differences between L/R. Adjusting widths for the most part would do the job. Now, if you're curious as to what sounded good to me....

Main Theme from Episode IV:



Cantina Theme:

Interesting River161, I always use the default settings.

Thanks for the info River, I will give them a try. I'll see what it sounds using sum and across before going through all the soundtracks.

Does anyone know where I can get a tutorial on splitting the DTS Cue at the end of the process using foobar2000?

Thanks!