playing back 8 channels

LadyMarmalady wrote on 8/30/2021, 1:15 PM

Hi I'm trying to play back a single long wav file through 8 monitors. I play 8 channel works regularly, using separate tracks allocated to busses and an external soundcard. However I can't find a way of playing back using a single track without duplicating the track 8 times. This makes it an extremely large file and playback is disrupted. Is it possible to allocate the single file to multiple busses? Any ideas gratefully received. I'm using ACID Pro 8 on a pc with Windows 10 64 bit OS.

Comments

sheppo wrote on 9/1/2021, 3:03 PM

Whether the 8 channels are in a single file, or 8 mono files it should still be the same size in memory / storage. If you're having issues playing it back and suspect storage bandwidth is the issue then look to put the files on a faster, or less frequently used storage device. e.g. ssd, or nvme ssd that isn't hosting the OS.

That said, acid doesn't support 8 channel audio at a project level (stereo, mono, and 5.1), so wouldn't support 8 channel audio channel splitting. If you right click an audio event clip, go to event clip sub menu, you can select the channel of audio to use. So I've never worked with more than stereo to say what would happen if you imported an 8 channel audio file. But if it did, then yes, I think you'd need to look at setting up 8 audio buses based on what you've said.

I'm not sure I've been any help there, sorry :)

LadyMarmalady wrote on 9/1/2021, 3:08 PM

Thanks sheppo. It's more about trying to play a single track file through 8 speakers, so each speaker plays the same, in order to fill a large space. Sounds like it's not possible in ACID... I appreciate the reply.

johnebaker wrote on 9/2/2021, 5:41 AM

@LadyMarmalady

Hi

. . . . It's more about trying to play a single track file through 8 speakers, so each speaker plays the same, in order to fill a large space. Sounds like it's not possible in ACID. . . .

How is the signal from the computer amplified to drive 8 monitors ie:

Do you have an external amplifier that drives all 8 monitors or multiple amplifiers driving pairs of speakers?

If the latter is there a mixing desk before the amplifiers?

John EB
Forum Moderator

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 23H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

Rednroll wrote on 9/4/2021, 4:59 PM

Thanks sheppo. It's more about trying to play a single track file through 8 speakers, so each speaker plays the same, in order to fill a large space. Sounds like it's not possible in ACID... I appreciate the reply.

If it's a "single track" file like you're describing then it should be as simple as creating a 7.1 project and setting that track's surround pan to dead center.

 

If it's a single container file with 8 tracks, then that's another story.

So what type of file is it? Let's start there. File format? Encoding properties, Etc?

LadyMarmalady wrote on 9/11/2021, 5:06 PM

Thanks johnebaker and Rednroll. Sorry for the delay, been flat out. I've made it work using Reaper this time but it would be good to know if it's possible using ACID for future work. I have 4 amps and 4 speaker pairs with an external soundcard. It's a single track (wav stereo) but I can't see how to create a 7.1 project in ACID Pro 8 - that would be good to know. No mixing desk.