0
I know that the MP3 file format essentially supports mono and stereo audio with a number of sample rates and bit rates, but can it contain true surround sound audio? Is there a way to pack more than 2 channels into an MP3?
Naftuli Kay
Posted 2013-02-19T00:15:55.187
Reputation: 8 389
2
No.
You could use MP3 surround (an extension of MP3, not part of the MP3 specification) if you really want to. It is backwards-compatible with MP3 (which, I assume, means that most MP3 players will simply play it back as a stereo MP3). You'll probably have to pay for an encoder or decoder, though.
evilsoup
Posted 2013-02-19T00:15:55.187
Reputation: 10 085
1
You won't be able to do this with MPEG-1 layer 3. You would need to use MPEG-2 part 3.
For real-world encoding, you'll probably want to use an AC3 or AAC 5.1 encoder. Audacity with the ffmpeg plugin can do this for you if you're just concerned about encoding audio.
ShutterBC
Posted 2013-02-19T00:15:55.187
Reputation: 21
Perfect answer. – Griffin – 2013-02-19T00:41:49.307