5.1 mix how to ???

F

fixyjohn

New member
ear guys


I am a computer musician and working in a home studio set up for last 3 years i get all the stuff from net.
Gears: M audio inter face, reaper , protools, freewares. \ windows xp, no mixing board and control surfaces.

Just i want to do 5.1 mix in my home set up (if possible ). i tried and studied a lot in web with spat and reaper surround plugins but it all the techno stuff confusing me and made me insane......

(DAW) As the mixing and mastering is finished the tracks are rendered in stereo mix. that is 2.1 rt and left.
consider the song bears 10 tracks and all rooted to master.
from this point any one help me how to do the dream 5.1 mix.........


i have a home theater setup (5 speakers with a center woofer pc multimedia setup)


advance thanks for your valuable tips..

fixyjohn
 
I don't know anything about how to encode a 5.1 mix for distribution, but I'll try to help...

Standard stereo is 2.0. Yes, they call those systems with stereo speakers 2.1, but the sub signal is actually derived from the main stereo signal, not a true separate LFE track.

True 5.1 is actually six separate tracks - the five satellites and one sub, each getting their own dedicated signal. In order to mix for 5.1 you need six discrete outputs from your interface assigned to six discrete outputs from your DAW (either six mono busses, two stereo and two mono, or some can actually do all six on one master fader) and six discrete inputs to the monitor system. Sometimes this is all carried on one fiber optic ADAT/TOSLink cable into a home theater system. Sometimes (I think) it's carried via an HDMI cable. Sometimes they just fake it by processing the stereo signal, or by decoding some proprietary signal. I think it's pretty rare to actually have six separate analog inputs on one of those things.

To give much more info about how you would accomplish it, we need to know what you've got for a home theater system. What kinda jacks does it have on the back? Also need to know which interface you're using. Both Reaper and Protools should be pretty easy to configure once you get the hardware sorted.
 
I don't think encoded over coax etc is an option because your DAW won't do that encoding.
Bottom line, the DAW needs to see six separate outputs, whether analog or digital.
That choice depends on the ins at your home theatre system.
 
fixyjohn said:
... how to do the dream 5.1 mix...
Click to expand...

That's going to depend quit a lot on the tracks/content/arrangement..etc.

Just get getting individual sounds out individual speakers in 5.1 is not a big deal....making it a "dream mix"....something much more involved. I guess if you don't care how it sounds in stereo, and you're not going to distribute the mixes, but simply want to entertain yourself on your own 5.1 system....just mix it however it sounds good to you.

Are you going to mix in 5.1 using your home theater system.....or are you trying to simply encode a 5.1 mix on your computers while listening in stereo....and then taking that to the home theater and playing it back in 5.1....????

What DAW are you using? Is it 5.1 capable?
If so, I would think the instructions for setting up the 5.1 matrix are.....somewhere in the DAW manual/help files. :)
 
In order to monitor your mix, you will need an interface with at least 6 separate outputs, 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer with amps powering them.

There will be tutorials on youtube on how to set up the routing and such in reaper. I don't use reaper, so I am no help with that.

Once you have the DAW set up for surround, you just use the panning joysticks to put the instruments where you want them in the mix and route the instruments that you want going to the sub to the sub channel.

Once you have the mix the way you want it, you render it to the 6 discreet wave files. You then take those wave files and encode them into the surround format you choose. That is the part that will trip you up, because the encoders are expensive and aren't common in the cheaper versions of DAWs. It's one of the reasons why Nuendo is $1500 more than Cubase...The extra encoders needed to do post production add that much to the price.
 
Guys

Thanks a lot , for spending your valuable time
i get a basic ideas from the above articles that i need a interface with 6 i/o's

thanks
 
ashcat_lt said:
I don't know anything about how to encode a 5.1 mix for distribution, but I'll try to help...





To give much more info about how you would accomplish it, we need to know what you've got for a home theater system. What kinda jacks does it have on the back? Also need to know which interface you're using. Both Reaper and Protools should be pretty easy to configure once you get the hardware sorted.
Click to expand...
iball 5.1 backside.JPG

Photo : at the top 2.1 audio input, then 5.1 audio input then audio out put


its a Iball 5.1 home theater in which i directly plug the trs phone jack to my pc audio out . pls refer the image of the home theater back side
 
Ok, first off, the top is 2.0 stereo.

If you have the six separate outputs, all you have to do is decide which output is what speaker and hook it up accordingly. Then, you will be able to monitor in surround through your receiver. The big issues is that the only way you will ever be able to listen to your stuff is by hooking up your computer and interface to a surround receiver with discrete inputs like this one.

There will be no way for you to distribute, and therefore sell, the surround mixes you make.
 
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