PT WaveEx Audio Output

[DReim]

I'm mixing a soundtrack now in a planetarium theatre I did for a new show and for the theatre system to run the final surround mix it needs to be a WaveEx file. The mix is channelized for 19 surround dome speakers so there are many convoluted output tracks here. I had to make several output channels for various aux configurations. I'm using the Dante virtual sound card on my Mac Pro to interface with the theatre Dante system and I'm able to output to all 19 speakers this way (19.2). The OMNI interface is irrelevant to this scenario. I've managed to make this work but ultimately I need to output this mix to a WaveEx file. It looks like this is a PC format file also known as Wave Extensible but I've found no other Mac apps to output a file like this. I gather this has several layers of metadata that needs to be included with the final wave file. I did manage to import a Wave file like this from another planetarium show in Pro Tools and it broke out into 17 separate tracks So PT can interpret these. Any suggestions?

[kelsey]

How is the file you want different from a Poly WAV file?

[originalscottyg]

I just got done doing a 43 channel 4D theater. I ended up outputting mono files. For the main show I was able to deliver 43 split mono files, but for load and exit music and some of the other elements, I needed to deliver polywavs anywhere between 10 & 18 channels. I ended up outputting mono files from Pro Tools and combining them into polywavs using the free Wave Agent software from Sound Devices. I'm not sure if WaveEx files and Polywavs are the same or not, but if they are, then this could work.

[DReim]

Thanks for this. I will try Wave Agent and use your approach to outputting separate files. Will have to determine if Poly works in the same context as WaveEx first. I do have a mix of stereo and mono audio files and there's a lot of panning motion with these. I've synched the audio design/sfx to a lot of on screen motion which I'd really like to retain. The music is split stereo across the dome and narration is full dome. This might be a real nightmare.

[originalscottyg]

It sounds like you have 21 actual, discrete output channels (19.2). So however many axes and overlapping output paths/assignments you have created to address those speakers channels in various ways, you are ultimately ouputting 21 mono files, one for each speaker. You should select each output path, mono or stereo and either print to tracks, or bounce to disk, selecting mono format, so that you end up with 21 mono files in the end. Hope that helps!

[DReim]

I have a number of tracks assigned to overlapping speakers with other tracks. For instance the narration track is assigned to all the surround speakers and music into stereo quadrant groups of speakers with sfx in various configurations to simulate movement. Would these speaker assignments be picked up by the metadata or should I output each split mono track to one speaker at a time as originally assigned? I have a mix now that I really like and put a lot of work into so I'm really hoping this can be exported accordingly for the last phase. I see how the grid pattern works for these track assignments in Wave Agent so the output processing looks fairly straight ahead. Thanks for your input.

[originalscottyg]

Just remember you are outputting the channels that actually go to your speakers (one channel per speaker), so the motion/panning/spread will already be baked into those channels. Good Luck!!

[DReim]

Originally Posted by originalscottyg

Just remember you are outputting the channels that actually go to your speakers (one channel per speaker), so the motion/panning/spread will already be baked into those channels. Good Luck!!

[DReim]

Just to update you on this project. I followed your instruction to a T and it all worked out perfectly. I had several AUXes with a variety of speaker configurations outputted and I just isolated each one that had audio activity per channel and muted all the rest. There were 19 in all to match the 19 surround speakers in the theatre. Then I took these and inputted them into the grid in Wave Agent and outputted them as one poly file. I took it in yesterday and we played it with show in the theatre and blow me down it worked perfectly. All the cross panning with sound design/sfx following visual elements to surround picture were there as originally programmed through Pro Tools. I guess a poly file is a poly file and I don't know why they specified WaveEx primarily. Anyway greatly appreciate your input. Thanks.