so with what I got I have one remaining issue.
besweet split my test 5.1 EX Ac3 file into six waves which are about 800mb each and of good volume.
when I then run it through 5.1 soft encode it's bloody quiet.
now, I scanned the center channel in soundforge as per Doom9's suggestion and it's average RMS value was -22db.
now my read of the doom 9 thread means that I apply -9 to make it -31 altogether or have I read it wrong?
*edit * since writing this I've re read this with a fresh head and it would appear that the value you use is the value of the average.
so I should have set -22 in soft encode? the more I read I think this is what I've done wrong. no wonder it's so quiet.
the only other thing seems to be that soft encode is bloody buggy. would I be better off encoding in Scenarists own AC3 encoder?