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.

[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.

[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

[Sean McCoy]

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.Bob L

I'm setting up for a surround mix, and find that I cannot seem to use one device pair for both center and sub. I've assigned both output tracks 2 and 3 to device 2 and panned them left and right, respectively. But in that configuration I only get signal from the center and nothing from the sub. If I move the sub to another device output, all is well. I realize this makes some sense anyway, but since the standard configuration is L-R-C-S-LS-RS, it would be nice to be able to assign these to my converter outputs in that same order. This would also leave converter outputs 7 & 8 for a separate stereo mix. What am I doing wrong?

[Bob L]

The XY pan assignments must be used with individual OUT tracks assigned as hardware devices... meaning assigned to their same respective out number... you can not use them as sub group faders and then also as XY pan assigns.

Bob L