# 3-D audio effect



## TophatHorror (Apr 16, 2017)

Hey Y'all! So I'm working a new design for a scene and long story short, I'd really like to deploy an effect where the audio sounds like it moves around the scene, not dissimilar to what Disney did with the Ghost Host's voice in the Haunted Mansion's stretching rooms. I know there HAS to be software/hardware out there to create this, but I am having a really hard time pinning something down. 
I know I can do some limited stuff with Binaural audio using a stereo channels and splitting them in Audacity, but I need something that can control 4 separate speakers independently...

Please send help! Thanks a bunch!


----------



## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Believe audacity can work with up to 32 channels - if you use a corresponding output format(?)

This seems to suggest WAV, AIFF, and OGG support 32 channels, FLAC and WMA can do 8, and some of the other formats... MP2, MP3, etc are limited to 2... or less.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/export_formats_supported_by_audacity.html

As for the actual effect - I've used audacity to generate 'sort-of' the '3D effect' you mention... witch cackles, wolf howls, screams, etc, directed to one channel or the other, or starting at one channel then fading off to the other to simulate movement, etc. Though if you're looking for something to do 'real time 3D / movement / multiple sources and sounds' - that might be a much different effect.


----------



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Keep in mind that the multiple channels means you will have to have multiple amps and speakers to do the actual output.


----------



## Pyronious (Sep 25, 2013)

Adobe Audition has tools for creating multichannel surround sound. There's even a nice 3D track panner tool where you can take a mono sound and drag it around with your mouse to make the sound fly around your head. There are instructions for how to do this here.

For computer-free playback you could export two stereo files (front stereo and rear stereo) and use something like the Sparkfun WAV Trigger to play the sounds back to your 4 speakers.


----------



## RowlandHarris (Sep 11, 2009)

A couple years ago, I purchased a four channel dtmf relay board (this decodes phone tones to turn on one of four relays). The idea is to use audacity to encode one stereo channel with dtmf tones (there's an option for this) and the other channel to have the audio output. My thought was to have two speakers on each side of the driveway and have voices, whispers, whatever come thru the various speakers to make the TOTs think someone (or something) was moving around them.

I made it as far as doing a test mp3 file and playing the dtmf channel into the board. It worked quite well. Next step, if I ever get back to it, is to hook up four speakers to the board and test how well the sound works. You could have the signal come through two speakers at once to simulate a sound coming from between them.

This is similar to what I purchased:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4CH-Audio-...534562&hash=item2f214d7278:g:8vwAAOSwLEVbihqB

and I see now that there's an 8 channel version! Just search 'dtmf audio relay'.


----------



## DarkOne (Oct 16, 2012)

I've also thought about doing this. I looked into audio switching and found mechanical relays are said to work very well. So my plan is to play an Mp3 with an arduino and turning on an off the relays to send the audio to various speakers. A stereo file could then play different things at the same time on two different speakers, or just switch speakers to get the surround sound effect you're looking for. The relays will have a faint click, so insulate it well or place away from the area. Let us know what you work out!


----------



## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Another approach could be my da_Soundscape software. You can have up to 4 stereo outputs, each with their own random list of effects playing.


----------



## Hippie Crane (Sep 17, 2019)

Some PC's have 7.1 surround sound audio capability which is unlocked by simply mapping each track in audacity to the channel you want manually.


----------

