Surround Pans/Assigns Explained?

[conleec]

Alright, guys. I've spent what few free hours I could muster the past couple days messing around with the surround panners in SAWStudio. I've mostly got things working and I now have a lawnmower happily flying about my edit bay...

But if somebody could give me a basic overview of how to assign the surrounds, I think I could still use it, 'cause what I have working I only got working by throwing a bunch of switches until something started sounding right. Not sure I really understand any of it.

I'm using an M-Audio FW410 audio interface with the first six outputs hooked up to an Alesis Surround Monitor kit with powered sub/amp.

I've got my outputs set up something like: 1/2 Front Left and Right, 3/4 Rear Left and Right, 5/6 Center and Sub.

What I Can't seem to figure out is how to route anything discreetly to the subwoofer. I'm clearly missing something, and there aren't enough hours in a day to get my paying gigs done and then mess around with SS. I'd rather just mess around with SS, and screw the paying gigs -- but Bob might squawk the first time my GFA payment is denied

Anyway, any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a million.

Chris Conlee

[conleec]

Anybody? Not too worried about the details specific to my audio interface, just the general settings to make surround panning work. I'm still getting my head around direct outputs, sub-groups, xy pan assigns, etc. Thanks.

Chris

[AudioAstronomer]

Well, Id love to chime in, but I use the surround pans more as an advanced bussing tool in a stereo environment... so Im not sure exactly how it all goes together in a surround environment.

[MMP]

Sounds like you are doing things correctly. Just remember that the Center/Sub pair need to have tracks panned full L/R to be channelized correctly. It may be easier to asign the sub and center to 5/6 and 7/8 and hit the mono buttons at the top of the output channels.

Make sure your output channels are sending to the correct hardware outputs by choosing the correct assigns on the output channel strips, otherwise everything is summed to 1/2 by default.

Hope that helps...

MM

[Sean McCoy]

What I Can't seem to figure out is how to route anything discreetly to the subwoofer.

Right above the "XY Pan" letters are boxes labelled "S" and "C." These are for discrete sends to the center channel and subwoofer. These are independent of the pan controls, and are, of course, automatable.

[Bob L]

The use of a separate device for sub and center makes things much nicer to work... so device 1 for front lr, device 2 for rear lr, device 3 for center, device 4 for sub... this makes it easy. You can set the mono switch for the center and sub output channel or simply use the L output to feed the speakers.

Turn OFF the normal Channel assign switches and select the XY Pan switch for your input tracks... then on Out channel 1 set the XY LR Font switch on... on Out channel 2 set the XY LR Rear switch on, (or LR Center) depending how you want to work the XY panner... on Out channel 3 set the XY FB Center switch on if you want to use the panner to push forward and backward for center feed... or use the separate Center control and use the XY Cenetr switch for complete independence from the panner... on Out channel 4 set the Sub switch on...

Save a mix template... whenever you want to do surround, load your mix template into the session and go to town.

Bob L

[conleec]

Okay, so I think I'm starting to get it. If I use the separate device for center and sub, then out of my 8 analog outputs, 6 and 8 won't really be used (in a 5.1 application), correct? I could, for instance, feed the center channel to device 3 and the sub to device 4 and either mono the devices or pan the feeds hard left?

Sorry if I'm dense, but I'll get it soon enough, I'm sure. Just got done with the paying work and have no time left tonight to play...

Also, Bob, what's the difference in layman's terms between FB Center, and just Center? LR Rear and LR Center? Thanks in advance.

Chris

[conleec]

Right above the "XY Pan" letters are boxes labelled "S" and "C." These are for discrete sends to the center channel and subwoofer. These are independent of the pan controls, and are, of course, automatable.

As I read this, I may have just figured out the answer to my earlier question. If you have a discreet center channel, then you can set your front and rear LR panners to "skip" the center channel so you don't conflict (for lack of a better word). Is this the idea? You would therefore always control the level of the center channel (and sub) via means other than the panner, right?

Chris

[Bob L]

There are numerous ways to set up the panner... the LR Front and LR rear use the four corner nodes on the panner and give full use of the entire square of the panner for positioning.... by using the LR Center also (the two nodes in the center of the panner on either side), you can now use the panner for suuround sweep and use the LR rear for extra feeds as in a 6 point surround for theatre, for instance...

There are 8 node points on the panner... the switches refer to them... the FB center are the two nodes in the front and back of the panner... you could feed the center channel from these and then leaning forward on the panner will move signal to the front center and vice versa... just depends on what works best for your style of mixing.

Some use the LR Center for fronts and the LR Rear for rears... then with the FB Center for the center channel you can sweep around the room using the back half of the panner... leaning foward starts to fill the front center speaker... many different ways to go.

I like the separate center and sub controls which allow me to have full use of the panner with no concerns for leaning forward or backward to keep things in or out of the center speaker... the seaparte control is completely automatable along with the panner sweep so you can fly things around the room and also move it in and out of the center at the same time... very powerful.

The separate sub allows you to control what leaks into the sub regardless of panner position.

Have fun... there's lots to explore there.

Bob L

[tomasino]

Well, Id love to chime in, but I use the surround pans more as an advanced bussing tool in a stereo environment...

More than 2 years later - I totally feel ya on that brother.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of true 5.1 surround sound work and have been workin the hell out of the XY Pan routing buss with amazing results.

Think I'll be using them most of the time like that too "as an advanced bussing tool in a stereo environment". Well said.