[Mike Rivers]

Is there such a thing? Surely there must be, with all the games with
surround audio, and all the consumer grade sound cards with multichannel
outputs. But what applications play this stuff?

The reason why I'm asking is because I'm trying to find a good answer
for someone on the Mackie forum who wants to know how he can get stuff
coming out of the rear speakers that he has connected to his Satellite
Firewire audio interface. It has six outputs, and they all show up and
work in a real DAW application. I've confirmed that with my Satellite.
But I don't know what I might have, for example, as a DVD player, that
would take advantage of outputs 3-6. In the Windows Sound control panel,
there's a "Speakers" menu that lets me select 5.1 surround and I did
that. I stuck in Ethan Winer's Tele-Vision CD, selected the cello
extravaganza, selected 5.1 surround, and I still get no outputs beyond
channels 1-2.

I'm using Media Player Classic, which uses the VLC MPEG-2 codec. Maybe
that's not capable of giving me surround sound. I just don't know
anything about these things. I tried using Media Player 9, but that
tells me that it doesn't have the proper codec to play a DVD. Obviously
I have a suitable codec, but Media Player (and Microsoft's decoder
checker) can't seem to find it. No big deal. I don't care if that's a
Microsoft quirk. I'll let that pass (and please, you do, too).

I'm not going to go out and buy something to do this - heck I don't even
have surround speakers anywhere. But if the answer is "you need to buy a
real DVD player application" then that's what I'll tell this guy. But
what do all the game players use?



--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me he
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)

[Richard Crowley]

"Mike Rivers" wrote ...
I'm using Media Player Classic, which uses the VLC MPEG-2 codec. Maybe
that's not capable of giving me surround sound. I just don't know anything
about these things. I tried using Media Player 9, but that tells me that
it doesn't have the proper codec to play a DVD. Obviously I have a
suitable codec, but Media Player (and Microsoft's decoder checker) can't
seem to find it. No big deal. I don't care if that's a Microsoft quirk.
I'll let that pass (and please, you do, too).

But that would seem to be more a function of the "sound card" and
its bundled drivers, utilities, and toys (vs. a function of the "sources"
like Media player, etc.) I would think that the plastic consumer sort
of sound cards ("Sound Baster, et.al.) would have synthisizers to
create "suround" sound out of conventional stereo sources.

I'm not going to go out and buy something to do this - heck I don't even
have surround speakers anywhere. But if the answer is "you need to buy a
real DVD player application" then that's what I'll tell this guy. But what
do all the game players use?

The games have real multi-channel outputs, don't they?
(i.e. not just 2-channel stereo like a CD or an MP3)

[Mike Rivers]

Richard Crowley wrote:

The games have real multi-channel outputs, don't they?
(i.e. not just 2-channel stereo like a CD or an MP3)

Yes. When I was shopping for a new computer, I saw lots of garden
variety audio hardware that had three pairs of line outputs. The
Satellite has six real 1/4" TRS jacks for outputs. In a DAW, I can
assign tracks or mix buses to those outputs. I can see what I'm doing,
and it works just like I expect. But this guy I'm trying to help isn't
looking at using it in a DAW environment, he wants to use Windows Media
Player.

So what I'm looking for is what the Windows Sound equivalent is to
selecting the output destination for a track in a DAW.

I didn't mean to confuse anyone with the MPEG-2 and DVD diversion. That
was just a source that I could play using a "media player" that
presumably provides six channels of audio. I was just trying to figure
out how to make them come out the six holes in the Satellite and
couldn't see anywhere in Windows to do that.



--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me he
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)

[Richard Crowley]

"Mike Rivers" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:

The games have real multi-channel outputs, don't they?
(i.e. not just 2-channel stereo like a CD or an MP3)

Yes. When I was shopping for a new computer, I saw lots of garden variety
audio hardware that had three pairs of line outputs. The Satellite has six
real 1/4" TRS jacks for outputs. In a DAW, I can assign tracks or mix
buses to those outputs. I can see what I'm doing, and it works just like I
expect. But this guy I'm trying to help isn't looking at using it in a DAW
environment, he wants to use Windows Media Player.

So what I'm looking for is what the Windows Sound equivalent is to
selecting the output destination for a track in a DAW.

I didn't mean to confuse anyone with the MPEG-2 and DVD diversion. That
was just a source that I could play using a "media player" that presumably
provides six channels of audio. I was just trying to figure out how to
make them come out the six holes in the Satellite and couldn't see
anywhere in Windows to do that.

I think that would be a good question for one of the "sound card"
newsgroups. I suspect that most of us here aren't into the "fru-fru"
consumer sound cards with all the artificicial synthisis rubbish, etc.
There's probably a nice gaudy SoundBlaster product that does
just what your friend is asking for. Or maybe even a 3rd party
surround synthizer that could be plugged-in.

[Mike Rivers]

Richard Crowley wrote:

I think that would be a good question for one of the "sound card"
newsgroups. I suspect that most of us here aren't into the "fru-fru"
consumer sound cards with all the artificicial synthisis rubbish, etc.

My, but you've been crotchety lately, Richard. My question isn't about
sound cards or synthesis, it's about Windows audio applications. If you
can't talk about that, then cool it and let others offer what they know,
if anything. I'm trying to approach this from a professional direction
and I would appreciate the courtesy of a professional answer (or none at
all if you don't have one).



--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me he
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)

[Richard Crowley]

"Mike Rivers" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:
I think that would be a good question for one of the "sound card"
newsgroups. I suspect that most of us here aren't into the "fru-fru"
consumer sound cards with all the artificicial synthisis rubbish, etc.

My, but you've been crotchety lately, Richard. My question isn't about
sound cards or synthesis, it's about Windows audio applications. If you
can't talk about that, then cool it and let others offer what they know,
if anything. I'm trying to approach this from a professional direction and
I would appreciate the courtesy of a professional answer (or none at all
if you don't have one).

Sorry if I'm not making myself clear. I think what you are asking for is
some method of taking conventional 2-channel audio sources and
making them come out of the 5.1 channels of speakers on a computer.
(Whether just routing the 2 channels to multiple outputs, or creating
some kind of artifical "ambience" or whatever)

If that is your question, I am saying I believe that is a function of the
*sound card and its drivers*. It is NOT a function of the source
(the media player, etc.) and it is NOT a function of the operating
system (unless it is part of one of the special "media" versions of
recent OSes like Vista which I am not personally familiar with)

If that is NOT your question, then I misunderstood and I apologize.
However if that IS your question, then I think you are looking for
a solution in the wrong place (and I'm not refering to newsgroups)
And that is my professional answer. I wasn't intending to come off
as crochety.