Perhaps many of you know this technique already, but the question has been asked in the forum several times that I know of and the answer has always been "it can't be done". Well, that is true, but...
I accidentally discovered this trick today:
1. Multiplex your AC3 file with any video. I used five seconds of black and multiplexed with MPEG-VCR.
2. Load the resulting MPEG file into Vegas. Vegas will create five tracks: video (five seconds of black) and four audio tracks (Front L & R, Center, LFE, and Rear L & R).
3. Delete the dummy (blank) video track.
You now have added previously recorded/rendered full 5.1 surround to your project. I hope this helps anyone who as puzzled as I about how to move AC3 files around in Vegas. Of course this works for stereo AC3 files also.
If you want to mix several 5.1 or stereo tracks, this is hardly ideal; multiple encodings with their implied quality reductions would be involved. But occasionally I find that I have as many as ten or twelve audio tracks in a project and preview playback suffers. So I render the audio separately and use this technique to play a version of my project with just the video and the AC3. I get a much better feel for the final project this way.
I accidentally discovered this trick today:
1. Multiplex your AC3 file with any video. I used five seconds of black and multiplexed with MPEG-VCR.
2. Load the resulting MPEG file into Vegas. Vegas will create five tracks: video (five seconds of black) and four audio tracks (Front L & R, Center, LFE, and Rear L & R).
3. Delete the dummy (blank) video track.
You now have added previously recorded/rendered full 5.1 surround to your project. I hope this helps anyone who as puzzled as I about how to move AC3 files around in Vegas. Of course this works for stereo AC3 files also.
If you want to mix several 5.1 or stereo tracks, this is hardly ideal; multiple encodings with their implied quality reductions would be involved. But occasionally I find that I have as many as ten or twelve audio tracks in a project and preview playback suffers. So I render the audio separately and use this technique to play a version of my project with just the video and the AC3. I get a much better feel for the final project this way.