Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Charlie T.]

I used to use a Carver Hologram generator for a enhanced sense of depth and positioning.  My main listening with MC19 is through an HDMI with no sound card employed.  I can not use the Carver Hologram C9 with this system.
I shopped around and found Astoundsound did the same enhanced staging without the changes in the audio done with others like SRS.  On a second system using an ASUS Xonar Essence STX card (analog only to a Kenwood Model 600 amp from the 70's), the Astoundsound is in many ways better than the Carver (no hiss and no need to add the generator between pre-amp and amp).
Is there a way to use an add-on that creates an expanded sound stage via HDMI?  My better and preferred audio speaker system is in the home theater and uses an amplifier via HDMI.  For MC19 in this room, I settled for "Studio" with medium enhancement but it's not the same as the Astoundsound.
Any ideas or suggestions?

[6233638]

AstoundSound is edit: currently a gaming product that is used when rendering 3D audio, it's not a product that works with your existing audio sources.
It's implemented in AMD's video cards as AMD TrueAudio (I believe they acquired the company?)
 
It's exciting stuff (finally a return to the 3D audio that we had in the 90s) but not really applicable to music or even films.
 
 
There seems to be a large number of Spatializer VST plugins available, both commercial and free, if you search around for them. (e.g. http://dallashodgson.info/articles/OpenAmbienceProject/)


Unfortunately Media Center does not support downmixing via VST plugins though - if you select a Stereo output, MC downmixes the signal before it even gets to the plugin, so binaural plugins which take a multichannel input and process that to a 3D binaural signal for headphone listening won't work.

[andrewjhay]

Hi guys.  Andy here - one of the engineers at GenAudio, the creators of the AstoundSound technology.

Charlie, I'm happy to hear that you enjoy what AstoundSound brings to the listening experience.  We feel the same way! 

We are diligently working on bringing the AstoundSound process into the home listening environment as well as mobile/tablet.  While we certainly are a video game product (you will start to see AAA video game titles using the technology very soon), we are also absolutely relevant in both the music and film spaces. 

We have an iOS app launching very soon which replaces the need for the iTunes app on your phone/tablet, giving you the same access to your music library as with iTunes, but also adding our advanced audio processing features to enhance the audio for both headphone and speaker listening. 

As for film, we have a couple of different implementations of the technology.  One for the consumer, and one for the professional film audio industry.  For the consumer we have a multichannel to stereo fold-down process that allows us to "virtually localize" the original speaker locations of a multichannel listening environment in a stereo system.  This means a 5.1 or 7.1 or x.1 soundtrack can be faithfully recreated over only 2 channels - for headphone and speaker.  On the professional end, we are working on a system that is essentially very similar to Dolby Atmos, opening up the sound field to immerse the listener, however we employ digital filters to process the audio and play it back through the existing speaker system rather than adding more speaker/amp hardware as with Atmos.

Finally, we have not been acquired by AMD or any one else.  We're still going strong here and doing our best to bring the AstoundSound experience to as many platforms as possible.  We thank you for your interest and look forward to the day when everyone can enjoy AstoundSound as much as we do.

[6233638]

Sorry for the misinformation. I had been led to believe that both a) Genaudio had been acquired by AMD and b) That TrueAudio was only applicable to games. (though perhaps TrueAudio is, while AstoundSound is not?)
 
It would be amazing if this could be integrated into Media Center (possibly via a VST plugin, if the required changes are made?) as there is currently no way to do 3D binaural downmixes from multichannel sources for headphone listening.

[andrewjhay]

Correct, AMD's TrueAudio is currently applicable to games but the AstoundSound technology goes beyond just gaming applications.

Agreed, the AstoundSound fold-down process would be great inside of Media Center, but that would depend on Media Center granting us access to the necessary multichannel streams to be processed.  I will definitely look into it further.

Just a quick reminder, AstoundSound is not a binaural 3D audio technique relying on the physical modelling of the head.  AstoundSound is based on studying how the brain processes audio information through mapping the auditory cortex of the brain.  This is what sets AstoundSound apart from all other 3D audio techniques.

Very best,
Andy

[Dawgincontrol]

I like the sound of that.   

Hope you guys could work together in some manner.