Stereo Mix Proposal

This was posted to the Xiph-Advocacy e-mailing list. The link has been updated.

Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 16:56:03 -0700
From: Martin Leese
Subject: [Xiph-Advocacy] Stereo Mix standard
To: advocacy  xiph.org

This looked like the most appropriate list to post this to. I would like to know whether Xiph is interested in supporting an initative to embed stereo downmix information into multi-channel audio files. I have in mind something similar to the Replay Gain standard.

The standard would allow the producer of a multi-channel file to say what downmix to stereo is appropriate for their material, and it would take precidence over any defaults embedded in the audio player or sound card. In addition, the standard will dictate a default stereo downmix to be adopted by all audio players and sound cards. Standardization in this area is much needed because, at the moment, audio players and sound cards use different downmixes to stereo.

To show what I have in mind, I have created a draft for WAVE-EX files at:

• https://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/Audio/StereoMix_chunk.html

This would need to be extended to other types of multi-channel audio file using an ID3 tag, VorbisComment, (possibly) FLAC METADATA_BLOCK_APPLICATION, etc.

Support from Xiph could include:

1. Space to host the documentation.
2. Advice.
3. Promotion and advocacy under the Xiph banner.

The tricky part will be getting audio players to recognize the standard. The really trick part will be "forcing" the audio players and sound cards to adopt the default downmix. I see the Xiph banner being crucial to both of these.

Is this something Xiph would be interested in?

Regards,
Martin