2.0 downmix from strange anime audio configurations

[tormento]

I hate when anime have strange audio configurations.

I have found 2.1 (L+R+LFE) and 3.1 (L+C+R+LFE) utterly annoying because there are only a few formats that can support them.

The easy way would be to use ffmpeg with -ac 2 but I am almost sure that there are better formulas out there.

I just can't find them :)

Any help is welcome.

[hellgauss]

Try something like

ffmpeg -i "input.wav" ... -ac 2 -rmvol 1.000 -center_mix_level 0.707 -lfe_mix_level 0.0 ... "out.wav"

Those numbers are default values (lfe is discarded). You can rise/lower center_mix and lfe_mix as you desire. Note that with rmvol=1 the volume is scaled in order to ensure no overflow possibility, so you have to tune -rmvol to get the desired volume.

[tormento]

Try something like
Thank you!

What are good values for LFE? I've read that it can damage loudspeakers when fed directly but I believe it's FUD.

[hellgauss]

If you have good speakers try 0.3 and then tune, otherwise something less.

I do not think a wav file can damage, perhaps the speaker will not play those frequencies, but I'm not expert. The standard however is zero.

[Sunspark]

I have a 2.1 system so I keep the LFE. If I had a 2.0 system, I would probably drop it though. It's relative though, if you have giant room-size speakers from the 70s then it's fine. If you have a headset, then it's not worth it.

My downmix settings for LAV for my 2.1 system, Output speaker config: Stereo, center: 1.0, surround: 0.71, LFE: 1.58, Clipping protection: Off, Normalize matrix: Off, Matrix: None.