SurroundByUs.com

Hi all,

I am new to sbu, I downloaded SPEC 4.85 and Plogue and installed on win7.

do I need other software or plugins ?

which build should I user spec simple or spec zag 3.0

already read guide for spec 4.85 but can't figure out from ware I can start.


I want to convert single track stereo to dts 5.1

do I need cue file for single track?

I add wav file to audio player but wont play, cursor stuck on 0.00.

For a single track, use the simple layout. Then you don't need a cue file.

Your audio file player is "stuck" because you need to turn processing on. At the top of Plogue, there is a row of bottons. The last one on the right says "off". You need to press that so it's "on".

Check out the videos here:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=171

and here:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=164

Re other software, that depends on what you want to do. If you are just going to playback multichannel surround from your PC you may not need anything else. If you want to dts encode (for a DTS music CD, DVD, AVCHD or BluRay) you'll need a DTS encoder and (for anything other than a CD) Audiomuxer (also from this site): viewtopic.php?f=7&t=135

Other cool and free software you might find handy:

foobar2000 for playback and audio file conversion
imgburn to burn CDs and DVDs
Exact Audio Copy to rip music from CDs

Thank you, I converted stereo to 5.1 and decodec to DTS. now how do I burn DTS files on CD or DVD-A ?

Check out the videos here:
http://www.surroundbyus.com/sbu/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=171

and here:
http://www.surroundbyus.com/sbu/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=164

Unfortunately the video that I am really interested in "Surround Conversion with SPEC - Quick Start Guide" from url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNY_PRDhKsk cannot be downloaded but all the others can - I'm using Firefox 67.0.2 (on Win 7 pro x64 and on Ubuntu 16.04 with the addons VideoDownloadHelper and YouTubeDownloader - both fail miserably. I distrust (with good reason) IE, Chrome and Safari.
I know this is not a Firefox help forum but maybe zeeround could post or reupload the video.
I had started going the Surround 5.1 route years ago (stared with SQ decoders (Fosgate and Dolby)) and then stumbled on SBU. Unfortunately, things have changed from then to now - Plogue, SPEC and now SPECWeb, ZAG, etc and also surround has advanced past 5.1 - currently running 11.2 (all Denon except for the speakers). I was (a little at a time) converting my collection of Vinyl (yep, I'm that old) and then my collection of CDs to 5.1 but time was not with me. Now that I'm retired, I'd like to get back albeit starting afresh to wrap my head around Plogue (my version is 0.95.x, SPEC 4.2, etc) which has advanced to P2 from my perusal of various posts) and SpecWeb, etc and trying to fathom how to get to at least 9.2.
For that, I need to start from the beginning and that's where the videos come in - especially "Surround Conversion with SPEC - Quick Start Guide"
Any ideas?

I will take a look. Most of those videos are out of date as you noted.

FYI immersive upmix is in the works. 7.1.4 (using the Dolby and DTS-X nomenclature). How many ceiling speakers do you have?

Do you have the ability to drive all your speakers discretely from a PC or only with encoded material (such as Dolby Atmos)?

I need beta testers with 4 ceiling speakers.

http://www.surroundbyus.com/sbu/download/QS2.mp4

OK, some things that have changed since that video was made:

1) We don't need tracktime anymore. You can cut and paste cue files into ZAG now for the same functionality (The kind of cue files with ONE audio file and a different index start point for each track).

2) In general, you should follow this: http://www.surroundbyus.com/sbu/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=221 as a starting place fore defaults and a methodology.

3) Some of the controls have changed, specifically blends now work backwards from how they are in the video (no blend would be with fader full right, instead of full left).

4) I don't believe in manually setting levels any more. I recommend "norm only" gains setting in ZAG. However, LFE should be set -13 or something around that point (actually depends on your encoder).

5) it is no longer necessary to delete the audio device to go into offline mode (with modern versions of Plogue) and I DO NOT support old versions of Plogue.

6) In case it's not clear, in all steps, in the video, always turn processing off, before pressing play in the audio file player, then turn processing on. Failing to do so will mean your output won't be bit perfect aligned with the input file in time.