Basic questions about surround audio

[kazzamy]

Hi folks,

The music to the project I am currently working on is in stereo but the sound editor wants me to deliver surround stems.  Also my sample libraries are stereo and I only have a stereo speaker set but it is still possible to deliver surround stems from Sonar through busing and effects, right?  I haven't done before so am looking up tutorials and documentation but I assume just like how now I can export my audio as stereo mix down, I can take this same project with a surround bus and export it to a surround mixdown through busing?

Any general tips or pointers?  Thank you!

[Gswitz]

Sure. You can mix to a surround output if you want. You could choose some content for center, some for left and right you could even do a brief delay before the rear speakers if you want. It's hard to make it sound good without listening on a surround system of your own (even if you have to burn it to DVD and listen in your living room or a friend's living room.

But, yes, you make a stereo mix 'surround'. You'll still have to pick music for each of the 5 channels. Front left and right should be easy enough. You can set rear left and right to the same or give it some small off-set. You will have the biggest struggle with the center channel I think. Channel tools plugin might help there.

[razor7music]

I'm guessing you have a sound card/audio interface that supports surround? I don't know how you could mix in surround if your audio device doesn't support all those channels--maybe I'm wrong.

[kazzamy]

Hi guys, thanks for your help.  I did figure out how to do the surround.   I have a surround card but not a surround speaker set up nor interface but was working on a project wanting me to deliver in surround mix.   I routed my stereo tracks to a surround bus though I wasn't able to hear the proper sounds because then everything phased poorly since it was routed to two speakers.  What I did do is export as 5.1 and then listen to the tracks one by one to see they looked correct as mono tracks though I couldn't hear them correctly as surround.  I don't know if it makes sense for me to purchase a surround set up, I just don't have the money, space, or demand for this it just doesn't happen that often.  I guess what would be great is if I had access to a buddy with 5.1 where I could go test it out with their set up but for now, I think my approach worked for my immediate deadline at least.  Thank you!

[razor7music]

Back when I was a gamer, I bought a Logitech 5:1 surround system for $40. The quality wouldn't 't be there, but you could check your speaker panning placements before having to leave the studio. I would just go into Windows playback settings and choose the integrated sound card where the 5:1 was attached. Then I could flip back to my pro-audio setup for using Cakewalk.

Just an idea.

Quick search returned this for $55 US. FYI

Edited September 3, 2019 by razor7music