Wwise can import media files with up to 6 different audio channels, ranging from 0.1 to 5.1. The 0.1 or LFE channel is a totally independent channel that must be imported into Wwise as a x.1 media file. The LFE property controls within Wwise only affect the .1 portion of a media file, which means they have no effect on regular mono (1.0) and stereo (2.0) sounds.
The following table lists each of the source channel configurations supported by Wwise, the possible channels that can be used for each configuration, and the default configuration used by Wwise, if not otherwise specified.
Note: Wwise always follows the Microsoft standard for channel ordering.
| Channels | Channel Configuration Possibilities |
Default Channel Configuration Used by Wwise |
| 0.1 | LFE | LFE |
| 1.0 | Left Center |
C |
| 1.1 | L + LFE C + LFE |
C + LFE |
| 2.0 | L + R |
L + R |
| 2.1 | L + R + LFE |
L + R + LFE |
| 3.0 | L + R + C |
L + R + C |
| 3.1 | L + R + C + LFE |
L + R + C + LFE |
| 4.0 |
L + R + RL + RR L + R + SL + SR |
L + R + RL + RR |
| 4.1 | L + R + LFE + RL + RR L + R + LFE + SL + SR |
L + R + LFE + RL + RR |
| 5.0 | L + R + C + RL + RR L + R + C + SL + SR |
L + R + C + RL + RR |
| 5.1 | L + R + C + LFE + RL + RR L + R + C + LFE + SL + SR |
L + R + C + LFE + RL + RR |
If you have a specific multichannel configuration that you want Wwise to preserve on import, you must define it in the WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE format chunk in the WAV header. If the channels defined in the channel mask of the WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE are not supported by Wwise, they will be changed automatically to supported values. For example, if a configuration defines a Left channel but no right channel, the Left channel (0x01) is changed to the Center channel (0x04), and if a configuration defines Side channels, but no Rear channels, the Side channels (0x100 and 0x200) are changed to Rear channels (0x10 and 0x20).
You can combine individual mono and stereo audio files into a single multi-channel file using the Wwise Multi-Channel Creator application. This standalone utility is installed as part of the Wwise package and can be found in the same directory as the Wwise application in the Tools folder. The Multi-Channel Creator allows you to create files with any multi-channel configuration so that they can be imported into your Wwise projects. You can also use this tool to flag specific mono files as the 0.1 component so they can be imported into Wwise as the independent LFE channel.
