surround sound and LE systems..any solutions?

[cruzbass]

I was thinking of getting one of those tascam us-2400 control surfaces to use as a control surface for pro tools. It has a surround panner joystick so im wondering if I could use it with other software such as nuendo, and use my 002 as an audio interface using ASIO drivers.

I think it will work, but im not sure? If I cant get simeltaneous control of all the 6 channels when monotoring then its not worth it. I need to be able to do sound for video.

and then to get it encoded to an actual dvd I would need an encoder. hmm, is there a cost effective way to do this?

[Digitrove]

I assume you've seen this:

http://www.spl-usa.com/smc/smc_E.html

Unless I'm wrong, I don't think you can do surround in LE with it because of the LE limitation. Somebody tell me if I'm mistaken.

It's silly that LE doesn't support surround in this age. I'd love to go back and forth between work sessions and home sessions.

Maybe buy the SPL (what an odd name) and Logic Audio or some other software.

[cruzbass]

ya that thing will give you 360 degrees of control in a linear circle. Not to usefull if you ask me.
and It probably wont work as a controler to do pan automation. Pan joysticks on the other hand with the right software give you an AREA of 360 degrees of panning, not a CIRCUMFRANCE of 360 degree panning.

surrond is darn expensive, all those extra monitors, encoders...etc. I wish digidesign would make a 5.1 surround optional upgrade for LE systems. The next step up is to a tdm system and that is looking like 20k minimum to get setup, even more probably.
*sigh*

[martian]

isn't that thing a volume control knob?

You can do surround in LE, but only if you have an external mixer that has surround panning........

Unless someone like say pluggo implements a plug-in that can route to 6 busses. At that point I will buy an 002R...

my bet is that digi will block that becos they want to keep on taking big bucks for the HD systems.....

maybe something will happen like FCP did to Avid Media Composer..

I tried Digital performer - yes it has surround- unlimited tracks and better MIDI but..,.,.,

is it as buggy as hell?!!!! yep had problems with it in every version from 2.7 up. now I paid for version 4 and it is crashing in a lovely kernal panic way 2- 3 times a day.

PT LE will run for days........

I find being able to work without distraction better than a billon extra flashy features.

[froyo]

Hello. To answer your original question, yes you can use the Digi002 as the I/O front end to use Nuendo (through ASIO). However the 002's faders only work for Pro Tools. So as you correctly surmised, a third party controller would do the trick. As far as encoding for DVD, about the only solution for Mac is DVD Studio Pro. Or plug ins like the Surround Tools by UA or Circle Surround's offering (I forget the name just now).

Oddly enough, surround can be accomplished inside of an LE system, it is just very cumbersome and not ideal when panning or monitoring. But it can be done. Auxes, busses and physical outputs do the trick.

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Vegas5.0 +DVD has an AC3 encoder. I have it but haven't used it yet. An earlier thread mensions that the Sonic Foundry solution for audio is pretty nice. Also the least expensive solution I have found to date at less than $400-. Check it out

[cruzbass]

hmm yes yes..*light bulb lights up in head*

I guess I can just get that tascam controler and watch out if digidesign ever pulls out support for mackie HUI compatable interfaces. that will be the day when i won't upload the new version. I have heard that having an encoder that will monitor in real time is really expensive (hardware encoder?). but being able to mix, automate in real time and then encode afterwards is good enough.

[froyo]

Hello. Oops my bad. I guess I was still thinking in the old mode of the forum being TDM only. Because almost 100% of TDM systems are Mac. Specially in Post.

Yes the solutions I mentioned above are Mac only. PC has many options besides what was mentioned about Sonic Foundry (Sony). Adobe, Sonic, Pinnacle and many more have encoding in their authoring applications.

Dolby and Circle Surround make hardware encoders and decoders, and they also have plug in packages. I think they are TDM only though.

[DESVED]

Hi ,

is there a way of watching DVD's (on a Powerbook) and using the 002 hardware to hear the sound on a 5,1 system?

I have the pro tools soft and 002 on the same computer maybe there's a way of making this work,to get all five outputs on 1 of the 002 outputs.

Thank you for your time