Mono to 5.1 upmix

[idris]

I've been asked by a client if I could do some mono to 5.1 upmixes.
I've read pleanty on Halo, Penteo and Waves, but as far as I can see, those all need to start from stereo.
Any experience of the less well known plugins that claim to handle mono?

[smurfyou]

I don't know what your client expects.... but this is usually wishful thinking with a single mono mix. Usually requires some sort of remix and maybe additional sound design/edit.

But there is a Schoeps Mono Upmix plugin that goes to L-C-R. I've use that to spread old mono sound like b-roll and nat sound.

[quadraphonics]

I used to do this when I worked for a company called Chace Productions. It was a combination of phase manipulation and editorial. Took quite a bit of work for limited result.

Randall

Originally Posted by idris

I've been asked by a client if I could do some mono to 5.1 upmixes.
I've read pleanty on Halo, Penteo and Waves, but as far as I can see, those all need to start from stereo.
Any experience of the less well known plugins that claim to handle mono?

[mgoorevich]

I made a restoration for older films (in mono).
There are some opinions today that there is "a thin, center only sound" when it comes only from the center.
It might be true in large cinemas halls but yet you should keep original feel and artistic intentions of the mix. So there is no really easy solution for that.
However what I did and IMHO it didn't harm the film, I sent some audio to L and R by divergence control set on 90% in C. So it became LCR (still remaining mono). You can manually send music or some low end effects to the Lfe.
I also made a stereo track containing dual mono and inserted on it Halo st to 5.0. It did some reverb extraction and I sent it exclusively to LsRs and terminated the L,C,R it produced.
At the end in my 5.1 bus I diverged a bit front and rears signal with the Spanner (5-7%).
So the result was a 5.1 which sounded very close to original but with some sense of space at the same time.

[aholicsound]

You can use a stereoizer ahead of penteo and it works fairly well. I think you should be honest with your client on the limitations and that it'll basically be an LCR mix with some LsRs scattered in there...but it does work.

I used the bx_stereomaker to good effect for this exact issue.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[FunkzzaJ]

Originally Posted by idris

I've been asked by a client if I could do some mono to 5.1 upmixes.
I've read pleanty on Halo, Penteo and Waves, but as far as I can see, those all need to start from stereo.
Any experience of the less well known plugins that claim to handle mono?

I use DearVR Music. It does just that. Mono input, and outputs binarial, stereo, and FOA. It's bigger brother DearVR Pro adds 5.1 and upwards. Check it up. Maybe it is 4 U.

/T