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Hi everyone,
I'd like to set a First-Order-Ambisonic Multitrack session in Audition. I know that Audition is not specifically suited for multichannel-multitrack sessions since its presets are limited to few standards like 5.1. Anyway I'd love to use Audition for my FOA project (since I love Audition's tools).
What I'm planning to do - please, let me know if I'm wrong - is to start with a 5.1 session (since 5.1 implies 6 channels) and add a 5.1 track that I call track-1. In track-1 I'd add an FOA AmbiX clip (i.e. a B-format 4-chan clip) and as an effect I'd add (just for example) the IEM MultiBandComp. This compressor expects a 4-chan file (not a 5.1 file...) and what I HOPE is that it will receive ONLY the first 4 channels and output 4 channels as well. I also HOPE that Audition doesn't “treat” the 4th channel (LFE) in any way nor with any bandpass or whatsoever filter (I need that Audition stays “neutral” about all the track/clip channels leaving them as they are). If so, the Master track should receive a WYZX+2cha signal (2cha means 2 void channels) instead of an LRLfeLsRs signal. Now, if I render the Master, Audition should output a 6-chan file: Audition thinks it's a 5.1 file with silence in Ls and Rs, instead for me it's an AmbiX+2cha file. But again, how does Audition process the 4th channel (LFE) in rendering? Will that channel have some auto-filter/bandpass treatment or some metadata??? If not (I HOPE) I'd open my rendered AmbiX+2cha file in Waveform Editor and I'd simply delete the last two channels in order to obtain a regular AmbiX file.
May all this work? If yes, it should be a way to handle a multichannel-Multitrack Ambisonic session with Audition, right?
P.S. Obviously, to have a feedback in headphones, I'd use the IEM BinauralDecoder plugin on the Master track, and I'd disable it once I was ready to render.
Thanks in advance for your kind help.
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You might be better using Premiere, it has more multitrack options.
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I know nothing about ambisonics, but in case it's of use to you: I found this article.
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Thank you Richard M Knight and Rag and Bone for your kind replies.
To Rag: I know that article and unfortunately it doesn't cover multitrack mixing (my target), it's limited only to Waveform editing.
To Richard: Premiere is not an option. The reason I'm trying to set a multitrack ambisonic session in Audition is that I'd prefer to use a single software avoiding "coming and going" between two. Audition has the best tools for sound analysis and the unique patch tool for spectrum retouching. In Waveform tab I can perfectly "prepare" my single ambisonic clips one by one. Unfortunately it seems that Audition is not flexible to handle ambisonic mixing in a Multitrack session, so if I can't find a way to handle this I will be forced to make the ambisonic multitrack session in another software, and the best one for this task is Reaper (infact all the current free suites of ambisonic plugins are tested on Reaper). Of course it's possible to work with Audition and Reaper side by side, but it means complicating the workflow.
So, in sum I'd prefer to use only Audition, if possible! (i.e. if the idea of disguising the FOA multitrack mixing/editing under the aspect of a 5.1 session is actually practicable.)
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* Not "patch tool", I mean HEALING BRUSH.
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In theory at least, what you are proposing should work, although I haven't tried it (even though I have a large number of FOA recordings available) simply because I always reduce them to stereo. To address your specific issue with what Multitrack does with files - if you use a blank template, it should be nothing, because there is no encoding available within Audition; you have to do that externally. And anyway you're only using the first four channels. Whether the routing for your effect works correctly in Multitrack I'm not sure, as it's another thing I never do. What I do know though is that if you use a multichannel effect on a 4 channel file in Waveform view, it works fine. Certainly in Waveform view you can alter the channel layout, but I'll have to check what happens in Multitrack, because I never let B-format get that far! Will report back.
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Seems I was being a bit optimistic. Starting with a B format file, there's no way I could, in a 5.1 Multitrack session, get the outputs to go where I wanted them to, and monitoring the result was something of a nightmare. I suspect that because it was never intended to work this way, no reconfiguration was allowed for different channel layouts. Feel free to experiment, but so far I've had no luck at all with this, and I suspect that Reaper is probably the most cost-effective way forward - albeit not the most convenient.
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Thank You Mr. SteveG for Your kind reply and help.
So, if I correctly understand, You are saying that Multitrack should not filter LFE (the 4th channel in a 5.1 track) nor add a specific metadata to the 4th channel of the Master track. If so, it would be a good starting point.
About monitoring the Multitrack session, I would do as following:
- Master track in 5.1 (even when your monitor system is only stereo);
- All the other tracks containing FOA clips must be 5.1 too;
- If FOA clips are B-format, you have to use EQ/Compressor/Expander/Reverb/Panning/etc. specifically designed for multichannel or ambisonic (like for example the wonderful free IEM Suite by Felix Holzmüller);
- In order to monitor the result with your audio system (for example stereo or 5.1 up to 7.1.4) I'd add the Soundfield plugin by Rode (free) to the Master track, so that you can convert B-format to your audio system setup (the order of the channels and the connection with the physical speakers can be set in Preferences > Audio Channel Mapping, and/or you can set it within your audio-card software - for example I use RME TotalMix);
- Otherwise, if you monitor the result using headphones, add the IEM BinauralDecoder plugin to the Master track (in place of the Rode plugin).
Theoretically it should work this way, but I'd need a confirmation that Audition actually does/applies nothing to LFE or other channels, so that both the multichannel plugins and the Master track treat all the channel in the same “neutral” way.