PT Surround Panic!
 

Hey all. Not new to 5.1, but only in other software as I've just jumped to PT a few months ago. Happily learning and enjoying PT10 (waiting for UAD before moving to 11) and feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. I knew I'd commit fully eventually, but I unexpectedly inherited a 5.1 feature in progress, naturally being done in PT HD, that has to be delivered by the 16th. So over the course of the next 10 days I'll be: 1. Buying, installing and implementing PT11 HD hardware and software; 2. Conforming a mix I know nothing about to a new edit; and 3. Learning how to mix 5.1 in PT11 HD. :eek:

I've been unable to find any specific information or tutorials on using Pro Tools' 5.1 features. Are they intuitive? Is any of this even possible in this amount of time? Any advice on speed-learning would be greatly appreciated. Suicide recommendations will be...taken under consideration. Thanks, and my apologies in advance for the likelihood of many upcoming questions. :o

Sean McCoy
Oregon Sound Recording

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

doable, yes
are you going to sleep much, probable not

5.1 is not much different form mono or stereo tracks in terms of editing
routing can get a bit more complicated especial when you need to do stems and sub-paths

The big question is do you have the proper monitoring setup for 5.1

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

Thanks, Craig. Yeah, sleep will be at a premium for awhile. Fortunately it's strictly a mix, with no sound design or dialogue editing involved. And yes, my room is properly calibrated for 5.1.

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

I would arm yourself with a copy of Maggot Software's Spanner - the best PT surround panner.

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

Looks interesting in a 'yikes!' sort of way. Can you tell me what the weaknesses or drawbacks of PT's built-in surround panning are?

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

It is clumsy and frustrating to use - spanner is touch sensitive on an iPad and to do clever things is quick and simple

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

One thing you may want to try to ease your entry into 5.1 is - setup a separate send dedicated to just the LFE channel (and then don't use the LFE on the 5.1 panner). It requires a bit more work to set up - but then you will have a visible graphic representation of what the LFE is doing on the channel without having to open every pan window - which I find handy.

In our Avid Pro Mixing series we posted a session for you to download and check out the routing and play with (The Indie Film Soundtrack one). We also talk about setting up channels and signal flow to chains and then print tracks in the LOST webinar. You can find a link to all of our Pro Mixing webinars in my signature below.

Just keep your routing basic and in manageable chunks and you should be fine... Good luck and have fun with it!

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

Thanks for that, Tom. I'll definitely check out the Webinars. Great idea about the LFE send as well, from a screen real estate standpoint. Ever since I started working with Pro Tools I've been grateful for my dual-monitor setup. Now I'm wondering if I can somehow get up to five or six.:rolleyes:

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

I would reccomend using your available and calibrated hardware for the quickstart and save the time it would take the AVID HW to install.

You can do that later, but it is not needed for 5.1

The HD Software you get with the hardware will most certainly work flawless with your existing core audio hardware and you save a lot of time wiring up and calibrating something new.

you will need every minute possible to get the mix done, i think.

EDIT: You will only need to insert the new iLok you get. Your already installed version will just offer the new features

Re: PT Surround Panic!
 

Funny you should mention this (and very insightful) because that's exactly what I'm doing. Turns out it will take up to a couple of weeks for Avid to clear my exchange and ship me the system, so I got a temp HD license and am successfully running everything with my existing RME and Apogee hardware. It's going to take some discipline to force myself to install the Native card and OMNI when they get here, knowing I don't really need them. Expensive door stops, anyone? Word has it that the converters in the OMNI are really good, though, so I'll use the lure of a sonic upgrade as an incentive. (But can they really sound that much better than my Rosetta 800? :confused:)