Downmixing 5.1, 5.0 to stereo is used to playback multichannel audio files at stereo systems. As rule, stereo headphones are used for music listening on portable audio players and mobile phones. Read about converting multichannel to stereo to reduce music file size for limited disk-drive space of portable audio player or another device.
To downmix 5.1 to stereo:
Channel number reducing is not pure technical procedure. The processing have element of art.
Played back multichannel record may have different sound depending on listening room, apparatus and its settings.
When in studio producers have original mono tracks of separate sound sources of the record, they can mathematically model spatial location in target channel number N for the each source. As result we get several N-channel tracks (track per the source), that are mixed to single N-channel bus (distributing record).
Audio converter or downmix plugin of digital audio workstation have the distributing record as input. So there are issues with the sound source separation. And channel number conversion is not the same as studio work, where sources may be separated.
Studio records may be provided in several variants with different channel number. As example multichannel and 2.0.
It is not possible to say what is better in general case: stereo variant of studio record or multichannel file, that downmixed in conversion software. There are many conditions: original stuff, quality of math modeling, converter's algorithm, other. In author's opinion, the best thing to do, compare target stereo records aurally.
Above we considered that no single "right" way to convert 5.1 audio to 2 channel file.
Therefore AuI ConverteR provide 2 alternative downmixing modes:
You may select mode where you like sound more.
[5.1 (6 channel) to 2 channel] converter option is available in AuI ConverteR 48x44 PROduce-RD edition. You can check sound of the option in free DEMO edition.
For Modula-R edition added module "Downmix (add-on)" (purchased separately). For this add-on module need "Base (core)" module.
ISO-compatible configurations of AuI ConverteR allow to extract either stereo tracks from ISO or multichannel tracks with 5.1 downmixing to stereo.
To configure AuI ConverteR Modula-R go to Easy Configurator >
Read more
How to Normalize Audio Loudness and Avoid Overload >
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