AC3 to AAC

[Drillakilla]

Need some help converting Ac3 to AAC using belight,

I am coverting the sound so that it can be muxed into an mp4 container with a H264 file, to be then used on my ps3

these are the settings I am using:

AAC, Lc, CBR 160kbps, Stereo, quality: fast


The resulting sound the volume is a bit low, and there is very little bass and surround effects, please can some one help to show me what settings to use to rectify this?

I would like to keep the best possible quality, with surround sound and some good bass,

[Davinator]

Are you normalizing your audio?

[Drillakilla]

i think so, will double check teh settings when i get home after work, i am pretty sure i am, will get back to you mate

[Drillakilla]

hello mate, i havn't been normalising the audio, on some quide it said not to use this setting

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/audio-guides.htm

It says not to use the normalisation 100% feature but to use the OTA from the main menu, ( but that doesn't have any options to normalise~)

[tebasuna51]

Post the BeSweet log.

[Drillakilla]

will post it tommorow, won't be near my home cpmouter till then, thanks for your help

[Drillakilla]

BeSweet v1.5b31 by DSPguru.
--------------------------
Using azid.dll v1.9 (b922) by Midas (midas@egon.gyaloglo.hu).
Using Shibatch.dll v0.25 by Naoki Shibata & DSPguru (shibatch.sourceforge.net).
Using bse_FAAC by dimzon, Build Sep 14 2005, 11:26:17

Logging start : 09/29/07 , 11:59:25.

BeSweet.exe -core( -input C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Movies\HD\heroes 5 channel.ac3 -output C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Movies\HD\heroes 5 channel.aac -logfile C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Movies\HD\heroes 5 channel.log ) -azid( -s dplii -c normal -L -3db --maximize ) -dimzon( -dllname bse_FAAC.dll -b 161 --obj-type LC ) -ota( -g max )

[00:00:00:000] +------- BeSweet -----
[00:00:00:000] | Input : C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Movies\HD\heroes 5 channel.ac3
[00:00:00:000] | Output: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Movies\HD\heroes 5 channel.aac
[00:00:00:000] | Floating-Point Process: No
[00:00:00:000] | Overall Track Gain: 14.769dB
[00:00:00:000] +-------- AZID -------
[00:00:00:000] | Input Channels Mode: 3/2, Bitrate: 384kbps
[00:00:00:000] | Output Stereo mode: Dolby surround 2 compatible
[00:00:00:000] | Total Gain: 0.000dB, Compression: Normal
[00:00:00:000] | LFE levels: To LR -3.0dB, To LFE 0.0dB
[00:00:00:000] | Center mix level: BSI
[00:00:00:000] | Surround mix level: BSI
[00:00:00:000] | Dialog normalization: No
[00:00:00:000] | Rear channels filtering: No
[00:00:00:000] | Source Sample-Rate: 48.0KHz
[00:00:00:000] +---------------------
[00:51:54:464] Conversion Completed !
[00:09:07:000] <-- Transcoding Duration

Logging ends : 09/29/07 , 12:08:32.

[Drillakilla]

after doing this enciode and testing the sound,

the resulting sound is mainly coming out of the centre speaker,
there is hardly any sound coming out of thefronts or the rears, and there is hardly any bass

I am using the FAAC encoder engine, through belight

[Naito]

Give a try to Nero's AAC-CLI-Encoder.

[tebasuna51]

-azid( -s dplii -c normal -L -3db --maximize ) -dimzon( -dllname bse_FAAC.dll -b 161 --obj-type LC ) -ota( -g max )

Using -azid(-c normal --maximize) you apply the Dynamic Range Compression and maximize the output (= Normalize 100%) and you obtain the max volume recommended without distort. After --maximize you don't need -ota( -g max), make the same effect.

The downmix method Dolby Prologic II with LFE ( -s dplii -L -3db ) is not recommended by Dolby, sometimes the LFE signal cancel the low frequency in front channels instead maximize. Try without LFE.

Try also NeroAacEnc (like Naito say) or Winamp-CT encoders more advanced than Faac and also accessible with BeLight

[Drillakilla]

tebasuna51

Thanks for your tips mate, will give it another try, in the OTA what mode shall i use then, i have been using pregain -- which is giving me -ota( -g max), should i use hybridgain? Or should i just uncheck and not use at all because i am using (-c normal --maximize) = normalisation =100%

I have taken out the LFE , will do some more tests.

[tebasuna51]

Thanks for your tips mate, will give it another try, in the OTA what mode shall i use then, i have been using pregain -- which is giving me -ota( -g max), should i use hybridgain? Or should i just uncheck and not use at all because i am using (-c normal --maximize) = normalisation =100%

Hybridgain is not allowed with aac/mp4 output, only work with mp2, mp3 and ogg output, because BeSweet can't apply a gain after encode to this format.

BTW if the azid decoder output is maximized (Normalized 100%) any ota option can do anything, then uncheck ota or don't use --maximize.

[Drillakilla]

thanks, will get back to u once i have doen some more tests

[Drillakilla]

Okay guys it worked, i stopped using the LFe to surround channels, and only used Normalisation 100% ( NOT ota as well) and the bass seems to have returned, along with distinct surround channels, there is good overall separation between all the speakers.

thanks you so much for all your help, the funny thing is , i did this with the FAAC encoder, I am yet to try Nero, maybe that will give me even better results.