Surround PAN question

[ttako]

Hi, I have the question, how the SAWstudio's surround PAN works?
I see there is a round PAN and a Center send and a SUB send.
My question is, how I can set the ballance between the Front LR and the Center?
I wouls like to be able to set as radikal, as in some cases the ch doesn't sound in the LR, just in the Center! I was using some other softwares, where the Center send was just a "balance" pot between the Front LR and C... Any good techniques there with Sawstudio?
Thanks,

Tamas

[Neal Starrett]

I think I can help Tamas. There are 8 nodes around the surround panner. Clicking a node turns it red and shuts that surround position off. Just below the panner is a S (sub) and C (center). What I did was to click all nodes off and then use either the sub or center for that channel. Remember to turn your out assignments off for the input channels your using for surround and set the output channels for surround. For instance, set out 01 for LR Front, set out 02 for LR rear, out 03 for center and so on. HTH

[Bob L]

You can experiment with many variations on surround assignments between nodes of the XY Panner.

Some will assign the LR Front and LR Center as the surround, then the FB Center for the center... some will use the LR Rear for the back to use the entire Panner area... If you use the center fader as the center speaker, you can have complete control of when and how much something is leaked into the center channel... the nodes can be muted to eliminate the surround... or by setting it up as first mentioned, you can pull the panner towards the back half to loose all signal in the surrounds.

It becomes easy to setup mix templates for the various configurations.

Bob L

[ttako]

Just another question on the surround mixing...
When I use the sub, I don't have a LPF on it and of course I don't have HPF on the Front/Rear LR and the Cent outs. If I remember, this function is called "bass management". It is built in into the Yamaha 96k digit consoles.
How one could solve this problem during mixing?

Thanks,

Tamas

[Bob L]

I left the filter choices up to the individual since each seems to have different ideas of which is best and what freqs to use and so forth... simple... just use your favorite plugin and patch it into the Out track that is assigned to the sub... you can control the cutoff and slope with your plugin.

or... leave it full range and let the encoder handle it or use a hardware crossover... the flexibility is there to your advantage.

Bob L

[Cary B. Cornett]

When I use the sub, I don't have a LPF on it and of course I don't have HPF on the Front/Rear LR and the Cent outs. If I remember, this function is called "bass management". It is built in into the Yamaha 96k digit consoles.
How one could solve this problem during mixing?
Bass management is a MONITORING function, and it is NOT applied to the actual mix files. How bass management is implemented should be specific to the monitoring setup (including the speakers) used. At least one active surround monitoring package that I know of (from Blue Sky) includes its own bass management and level control.

The Yamaha console you mentioned (like most hardware mix boards) includes a monitoring section (which is also where they put the bass management). SS does not perform monitor control functions (as computer based DAW systems generally do not), leaving monitor control to external hardware (where it belongs, IMO).

If you need bass management in your setup, get the monitor equipment that you need to do that job (some consumer surround receivers include this capability). Do not do this function within SAW, as you do NOT want it applied to your actual mixdown files.

HTH

[ttako]

Thanks,

Thats clear...

Tamas