I don't really have any other place to ask and it is about surround.
I have a multichannel focusrite product with 10 outs.
The outs can be configured 1L 1R, 2L 2R, etc... or 1L 1L, 2R 2R, this is confusing... I have a 5 speaker system - can someone explain this?
question about surround
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 52 posts since 10 Sep, 2006
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- KVRAF
- 12379 posts since 7 May, 2006 from Southern California
Well are you trying to playback DVDs or are you trying to mix in 5.1 from you're daw?
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- KVRAF
- 12379 posts since 7 May, 2006 from Southern California
DVD's are encoded in AC3 which is normally transmitted via a S/PDiF cable, some sound cards (Sound Blaster or M-Audio Revolution) can decode AC3 natively and send out discrete audio channels in which case:
1= Left front
2= right front
3 = left rear
4 = right rear
5 = center
6 = LFE
If you are trying to mix in 5.1, the outputs you use to feed your speakers are assigned in your daw.
1= Left front
2= right front
3 = left rear
4 = right rear
5 = center
6 = LFE
If you are trying to mix in 5.1, the outputs you use to feed your speakers are assigned in your daw.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 52 posts since 10 Sep, 2006
I am trying to mix and playback with the daw...justin3am wrote:Well are you trying to playback DVDs or are you trying to mix in 5.1 from you're daw?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 52 posts since 10 Sep, 2006
There will be no decoding... I understand the channel thing of course I just don't understand why the software energyxt and usine and tracktion all allow you to treat a channel as both a left and a right.justin3am wrote:DVD's are encoded in AC3 which is normally transmitted via a S/PDiF cable, some sound cards (Sound Blaster or M-Audio Revolution) can decode AC3 natively and send out discrete audio channels in which case:
1= Left front
2= right front
3 = left rear
4 = right rear
5 = center
6 = LFE
If you are trying to mix in 5.1, the outputs you use to feed your speakers are assigned in your daw.
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- KVRAF
- 12379 posts since 7 May, 2006 from Southern California
I'm afraid you'll have to consult the manual for those apps to figure out how and if they support surround mixing.
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- KVRist
- 439 posts since 27 Jan, 2004 from France
Hi Joojoo...
You must not confuse the outputs labels and the channels numbers.
Since most audio softwares are made for stereo mixing, they often label the outputs as stereo pairs while the audio interfaces are most of the time labelled as a series of numbers.
The fault is 50 years of stereo mixing habits
Since EnergyXT and Tracktion are not conceived at all for surround, it is after all logical that they use a stereo based labelling.
On the other hand, channels in surround are not totally standard.
In fact, there is at least 3 standards, and even if one of them (ITU-SMPTE) is by far the most used in soundcards or DVD, audio softwares might let the user choose one or another.
For example, the channel list that had given justin3am is the one used by Apple and DTS.
If the logical (DAWs and plugins) and the physical outputs (audio interface, mixer...) are labelled according to the surround names and if they share the same standard, there is no problem.
In other cases the channel order can be wrong.
Most of the good softwares allow the rename the audio outputs, so you have just to rename them according to your choice, where 1L/1T = 1/2 etc...
It is not a big deal.
In Usine it is even more confusing because the track outputs are labelled from 1 to 8, instead of the direct outputs are labelled as stereo pairs.
I hope that Olivier will change it...
You must not confuse the outputs labels and the channels numbers.
Since most audio softwares are made for stereo mixing, they often label the outputs as stereo pairs while the audio interfaces are most of the time labelled as a series of numbers.
The fault is 50 years of stereo mixing habits
Since EnergyXT and Tracktion are not conceived at all for surround, it is after all logical that they use a stereo based labelling.
On the other hand, channels in surround are not totally standard.
In fact, there is at least 3 standards, and even if one of them (ITU-SMPTE) is by far the most used in soundcards or DVD, audio softwares might let the user choose one or another.
For example, the channel list that had given justin3am is the one used by Apple and DTS.
If the logical (DAWs and plugins) and the physical outputs (audio interface, mixer...) are labelled according to the surround names and if they share the same standard, there is no problem.
In other cases the channel order can be wrong.
Most of the good softwares allow the rename the audio outputs, so you have just to rename them according to your choice, where 1L/1T = 1/2 etc...
It is not a big deal.
In Usine it is even more confusing because the track outputs are labelled from 1 to 8, instead of the direct outputs are labelled as stereo pairs.
I hope that Olivier will change it...
