Setting Up For 5.1 - Studio session 10th May 2011

Tuesday the 10th May 2011- New skills learned 

Setting Up For 5.1 - Studio session

This class has been the most exciting of all. I set up a session for 5.1. We went into the i/o and imported the preset for 5.1 and deleted the setup for stereo. We then created a master 5.1 channel and were able to assign individual tracks to different speakers. There is to way of getting space out of your mix you can send the individual channel to a LFE/C/LS or on the top right side of the channels strip on the top right click on the arrow and use the pan pot menu pop up and you can assign /pan and automate with the touch/ latch.

I would like to experiment more with mixing in 5.1 to get the feel for different spaces and different moods like a war fighting scene or a chase scene, moving sounds.  

With mixing it's good to be aware of is the space you are trying to create and where to send the different frequencies. All low frequencies are sent to the LFe or centre and sometimes L and R speakers. Most of the ambient sound and high frequencies are in the rear LS RS. For mixing music in Surround Sound the bass and kick stays in the Lfe and the center speakers you don't put it in the rear surround speakers. 

Phasing
It seems like the mixing process is much the same with Eqing and dynamics, with phasing I don't think it matters as much as stereo. With 5.1 you have more space to fill so phasing isn't so much a problem.

 Illustration of phase shift. The horizontal axis represents an  angle (phase) that is increasing with time.

                                          In-phase waves

                                          Out-of-phase waves