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Difference between revisions of "Glossary:Surround sound"

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Revision as of 23:50, 27 September 2018

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Sound
Sound
Sound card
Surround sound
Surround sound is used to give an increased perception of the space around the listener compared to normal sound setups.

Speaker-Based Surround Sound

Discrete surround sound

Most modern games are capable of delivering discrete 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound to the listener's receiver without the need for any post processing.

Use an HDMI cable and HDMI compatible reciever
Use an S-PDIF cable and a lossy compression mixer, such as Dolby Digital Live

Surround-compatible stereo

Also referred to as Dolby Surround, Dolby Pro Logic II-compatible, Dolby Stereo, or 4-channel surround sound (not to be confused with 4.0 quadraphonic sound). This was first used in theaters in the 1970s, and was introduced to the home alongside VHS and Betamax in 1982, predating discrete surround sound. It was used in many venues and mediums until discrete surround sound became viable. One notable benefit of

Use a surround sound upmixer
Suggested upmixers include Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6.
If using an upmixer that also incorporates height speakers; such as DTS Neural:X, Dolby Surround Upmixer, or Dolby Pro Logic II Z; you may want to disable your height speakers to remain faithful to the original mix.
Some newer all-in-one receivers do not include a surround upmixer.
Use headphones

Content mixed in surround-compatible stereo will have a surround effect when listened to over earphones or headphones.

Dolby Atmos for Home Theater

This requires a Dolby TrueHD-capable sound card and a Dolby Atmos capable receiver.


Surround Sound over Headphones

Binaural Sound: HRTF

HRTF (Head Related Transfer Functions) refers to the way that the curvature of one's ears are used to localize sound in 3D space. Algorithms exist that can simulate this action, allowing for full 3D surround sound with just a normal pair of earphones or headphones. The resulting audio is refered to as binaural. Listed are methods for adding HRTF using various APIs.

DirectSound3D

Use DSOAL

A pre-configured version of DSOAL that includes compiled HRTF tables can be found here. Note that while listed as being for Fallout New Vegas, it can work with most DirectSound3D games.

OpenAL

Use OpenAL Soft (Windows)
OpenAL Soft is a free, open-source replacement for OpenAL.
  1. Download OpenAL Soft.
  2. Paste the contents of the folder inside the zipfile of OpenAL Soft inside %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL. Do not paste it in %LOCALAPPDATA%.
  3. Use this video to determine your personal HRTF table. If your table is an IRC_10xx table, download it from here. If your table is CIAIR, download HRTF data (2) from here. If your table is KEMAR, skip to the configuration step (alsoft-config.exe) and use the built-in tables.
  4. If your table is IRC_10xx, extract the contents of the zipfile you downloaded to %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/hrtf_defs/IRC. If your table is CIAIR extract the contents of the .tgz file you downloaded to %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/hrtf_defs (you may need 7-Zip).
  5. Copy makehrtf.exe from %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL to %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/hrtf_defs.
  6. If your table is IRC_10xx, open IRC_1005.def in Notepad and replace all instances of 1005 with the number of the table you downloaded. Save as IRC_10xx.def, replacing the x's your respective number.
  7. In command prompt, change the directory to the location of your .def file, makehrtf.exe, and the HRTF tables you downloaded.
  8. If using 1.19.0 or newer, type makehrtf.exe -r RATE -d sphere -i YOURDEF -o YOURMHR. If using 1.18.2 or older, type makehrtf.exe -m -r=RATE -d=sphere -i=YOURDEF -o=YOURMHR. Replace RATE with the desired sample rate (usually 44100, although sometimes you may want to use 48000). Replace YOURDEF with the .def file of your table. Replace YOURMHR with the desired name of the resulting .mhr file (usual nomenclature is TABLENAME_RATE.mhr).
  9. Move the .mhr file(s) from %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/hrtf_defs to %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/hrtf.
  10. Open alsoft-config.exe in %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/alsoft-config. If SmartScreen pops up, click "Run anyway."
  11. Configure with these settings: Channels: Stereo; Sample Format: Autodetect; Sample rate: whatever your sound device is set to; Resampler Quality: all the way to the right; Enable Dithering: checkmark; HRTF Mode: Force on; Prefered HRTF: whatever .mhr file you created, or a built in mode (KEMAR).
  12. Click Apply, then close the window.
  13. Copy soft_oal.dll to the same location as the game executable. For 32-bit games this is found in %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/bin/Win32, and for 64-bit games this is found in %APPDATA%/Roaming/OpenAL/bin/Win64. It may be necessary to rename soft_oal.dll to OpenAL32.dll for some games.
  14. Launch the game to confirm it works.
The makehrtf.exe included OpenAL Soft 1.18.2 and earlier create 14KB 16-bit .mhr files, whereas 1.19.0 creates 40KB 24-bit .mhr files. OpenAL Soft 1.19.2 can uses the 14KB .mhr files, but OpenAL Soft 1.82.1 and earlier cannot use the 40KB .mhr files.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

Virtual Surround Sound

Some games do not support true binaural audio mixing. For these games, it may be beneficial to use a virtual surround sound solution.

Windows Sonic for Headphones

Free.
Doesn't work with games that auto-detect the system's speaker settings.

Dolby Atmos for Headphones

Successor to Dolby Headphone.

CMSS-3D

Exclusively for Creative sound cards.

Issues fixed

Sounds not playing on rear speakers when listening to 5.1 content on a 7.1 or higher system

The standard 5.1 setup does not have rear speakers. The "surround" speakers are actually placed close to where the side speakers on a 7.1 setup go.
Use a surround sound upmixer that supports 6.1 or 7.1
Suggested upmixers include Dolby Pro Logic II X and DTS Neo:6.
If using an upmixer that also incorporates height speakers; such as DTS Neural:X, Dolby Surround Upmixer, or Dolby Pro Logic II Z; you may want to disable your height speakers to remain faithful to the original mix.

Older games not using surround sound on Windows Vista or newer

See DirectSound 3D restoration software.


References