[ursamtl]

NOTE: THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN IN JANUARY 2006. RECENTLY, A NEW VST PLUGIN ADD-ON FOR FOOBAR2000 HAS APPEARED THAT GREATLY SIMPLIFIES THE PROCESS. IF YOU'D LIKE TO TRY IT, CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING POST. FOR BACKGROUND AND OTHER APPROACHES, YOU CAN ALSO READ THE ORIGINAL GUIDE BELOW.

2007 GUIDE BY TEBASUNA51
2013 GUIDE

Many of the stereo-to-surround conversion guides posted in this forum and elsewhere on the internet rely on Plogue Bidule or other VST hosting software such as Steinberg Cubase, Steinberg Nuendo, or Adobe Audition. These are all fine programs but they are not free. Bidule has a time-limited free version but eventually that will run out.
If you can afford Plogue's $75 US for an early bird license, let me say that in my opinion, this is the best value available. You get tremendous value for your money, one of the most interesting, unique and powerful audio programs available today. If you can't afford this, however, there is a way to convert stereo to 5.1 sound and do it for free, using legal software.

There may be other approaches, but this is one I'm proposing.

Here's what you need
V.I Stereo to 5.1 Converter Suite
Foobar 2000 version 9.0.
Bridge plugin for winamp DSP plugin NEW FOR FOOBAR v0.9x
VST Host Winamp Bridge by Christian Budde
MultiFXVST (Optional-for chaining VST effects) French site or Google translation of site
johnman's wavewizard

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING GUIDE WAS WRITTEN USING FOOBAR V0.83. THE BASIC PROCEDURE WITH VERSION 0.9 IS ALMOST THE SAME BUT WITH SOME CHANGES. FOR THE BASIC METHOD OF USING THE V.I PLUGINS, READ THE GUIDE BELOW. FOR THE FOOBAR2000 V.9.4 AND HIGHER PROCEDURES, INCLUDING AC3 ENCODING WITH AFTEN, SEE THIS POST.

As for why these programs and plugins:

• Foobar allows a user to right-click and save a 32-bit file to disk as a wave file without having to play it back in real time. Similar to Plogue Bidule's offline mode, this can save a lot of time over VST hosts that can only process while playing a file. Foobar also has built in dithering, limiting, resampling and convolution. Why not Winamp? Because to my knowledge, its diskwriter plugin only saves 16-bit files. If you prefer to use it, go ahead!
• Foobar does not support VST plugins, nor does it support Winamp plugins. However, if you add the Bridge plugin for winamp DSP plugin and then in turn use it to load Christian Budde's VST Host Winamp Bridge, you can then host a VST plugin.
• If you want to chain more than one VST plugin, you can load MultiFXVST into the VST Host Winamp Bridge. It works! However, for limiting, reverb convolution (impulse responses), resampling and dithering, you can use Foobar itself. Just be sure your settings for writing files have the Use DSP box checked.

Procedure Overview
You will process a stereo file three times, each time using a different V.I companion plugin from the fLfR, CLFE, and sLsR plugins to write processed files to disk. This will create three stereo files. Then you can use wavewizard to create 6 mono files or one 6-channel file for encoding. If you need a freeware 5.1 encoder, wavewizard comes with a free AC3 encoder.

Part 1: Foobar and plugins

1. Install Foobar.
2. Install all files for both Bridge plugins in Foobar's Component subdirectory. This includes all files such as the msvcr71.dll that comes with the Foobar2WinampPlugin. Important: The installation program for the Winamp VST bridge installs to the Winamp/plugins folder. If you don't have Winamp, let it create and install to that folder anyway and then manually move the dsp_vst.dll file to your Foobar/Component directory.
3. You can check to be sure the bridge is installed by starting Foobar and pressing Ctrl+P. In the Preferences dialog box,
   select Component libraries at the very top of the left tree and find "foo_dsp_Foobar2WinampPlugin.dll."
   
   
4. Expand the Components branch of the tree on the left and select Diskwriter. Setup Foobar to write 32-bit files by choosing 32 from the Preferred bit depth dropdown list and then check the box next to use DSP in the [b]Processing[b] section.
   
   
5. Select DSP Manager in the tree on the left. Use the <= and => buttons on the right to move DSPs from the Available DSPs list on the right to the Active DSPs list in the middle. Be sure that the Advanced Limiter DSP is at the very bottom (use the Up and Down buttons to re-arrange the list order.
   
   
6. Expand the DSP Manager branch of the tree and select Winamp DSP plugin. Select the VST Host DSP v.10 for WinAmp in the middle Plugins pane and Use the On ==> button to move it to the list on the right.
   
   
7. Click the Show Plugin Interface button if the VST Bridge does not open with the last plugin used in it. If it's the first time it's run, click the space to the right of VST Plugin: and choose Load DLL... from the menu that appears. Navigate to the folder containing the VST plugin dlls you wish to use and select flfR.dll. Adjust set it as desired. Note that you can play a file in Foobar while adjusting. Just move back and forth between the two windows.
   
   
8. When you're ready to write a processed file, stop Foobar from playing the file. Select the file you wish to process in Foobar, then right click on the stereo file in Foobar and choose Convert to save as a wave file. Name your file in such a way that you can identify it later as the front channels.
   
   
9. Once this is complete, go to the Bridge window and click the dll name to the right of VST Plugin:. If you cannot find the Bridge window, click the Show Plugin Interface button in Foobar's Preferences dialog box. Load CLFE into the VST bridge and set it as desired.
10. Right click on stereo file in Foobar and choose Convert to save as a wave file. Name the file so that you can identify it later as the center and LFE channels.
11. When complete, load sLsR into the VST bridge and set it as desired.
12. Right click on stereo file in Foobar and choose Convert to save as a wave file. Name the file so that you can identify it later as the rear surround channels.
13. When finished, go back to the bridge and click the text to the right of VST Plugin: and choose Reset to clear the bridge for the next time it's used.

Part 2: Merging or splitting files
Note: you can use other utilities to combine or split the files. For example, CDP Multi-Channel ToolKit at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~masrwd/mctools.html or Besweet as documented elsewhere in this forum. If you're going to split the files, it's a good idea to combine them first because some encoding programs that require 6 mono files will only work if the files are all the same length.

Here's how to merge or split the files with Wavewizard.

1. Load the three files into wavewizard.
   
2. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+F4. Select the options you want for Stream manipulation according to your encoding software's requirements (1 6-channel file or 6 mono files).
   
3. Choose Conversion Batcher from wavewizard's Edit menu or press Ctrl+F3. Important: Make sure the two boxes are not checked next to Send jobs to batcher and Start batcher when finished. You will use the Conversion Batcher later, but not yet!
   
4. Click the Convert button to carry out the conversion. You should end up with one merged 6-channel file or 6 mono files, depending on the settings you choose in the previous step.

Part 3: Encoding
The subject of this guide is how to end up with a surround sound file using completely free (and legal) software. Unless you own commercial AC3 or DTS encoding software, there are only a couple of options for encoding to AC3 files. One option is to use wavewizard with ac3enc.dll, as I explain here.

1. Go to the directory where you installed wavewizard and in the ConversionBatcher subdirectory, find and run ConversionBatcher.exe. Click the Configure button and then the Programs 2 tab at the top. You need to set it up with the path of your AC3 encoder.
   
2. Close ConversionBatcher and run wavewizard.
3. Choose Conversion Batcher from wavewizard's Edit menu or press Ctrl+F3. Choose the AC3 Encoder.dll at the bottom of the dropdown list. Be sure to check both boxes next to Send jobs to batcher and Start batcher when finished.
   
4. IMPORTANT: Choose Channel mapping (F2) from the Edit menu. Be sure that the box for 6 -> 6 Softencode and ac3enc is checked as well as the box for Enable channelmapping. This ensures the final ac3 file will have the right channel order.
   
5. Click OK to apply the channelmapping settings and return to the main window.
6. Click the Convert button to carry out the conversion.

For now, experiment and see if you can get it to work. I tested on several files and got it to work each time.

An extra bonus: stereo playback enhancement
I might add that the fLfR plugin by itself can enhance stereo playback if you use it by itself and turn the front ambience up near its maximum. This won't give you the full V.I effect, but depending on your source material it can have you looking for speakers that don't exist! ).


Happy surrounding!
Steve.