Help with Octophonic (7.1) surround

[Leoespejo]

Hi,

I am new to PT Ultimate and I am trying to configure an octophonic project and I've been breaking my head trying to make it work.

I say octophonic because I'm working with 8 monitor speakers and no subwoofer, I want to be free to move sounds between the 8 speakers, so LFE it's a real problem, there's no octophonic panner in PT.

I'm trying to use GRM-Tools Spaces to pan sounds between the 8 speakers but for some reason I can't do it.
- If I create a 7.1 audio track I can't use Spaces with 8 outputs (it doesn't appear in the Plug-in options)
- If I create a Mono track (to move that sounds between speakers), PT panner disappears and I have no option to send that track to my 7.1 Master fader, the only option PT gives me is mono outputs.

Of corse I have created 7.1 outputs in the I/O page and 7.1 Busses with sub paths.

Maybe I'm forgetting something, but I can't find what it is

Help please

[albee1952]

Not sure you can actually do it this way, unless you can figure out how to cheat the .1(of 7.1) to be your 8th output, but NOT be LFE. Could you do a regular 7.1 project and just use 7 outputs?(leaving the LFE blank)

[originalscottyg]

The lack of custom channel paths and freely configurable panners is frustrating to those who work in non-traditional formats. I just got done mixing a flying theater in 17.1 (top row of 5, middle row of 5, bottom row of 3, 2 pairs of surrounds top & bottom, and an LFE) and had to get pretty creative in the use of sends, etc. to get the height panning correct. Reaper is much more suited to these types of jobs, but I've been using Pro Tools since version 3, and the learning curve in Reaper aside (fairly steep), I need software that I know in and out, and can quickly troubleshoot, when I am on-site doing a mix in challenging conditions with a very limited schedule.

It is understandable, given that Pro Tools has so much backwards compatibility for hardware and software that it needs to maintain, and that Pro Tools has always primarily focused on music and traditional post (i.e. Film & TV).

Sorry for the not so helpful post, but this one hit kind of close to home, as I just got back from doing this mix in China, and custom panners and channel paths would have been so helpful!

All that being said, Reaper does allow for custom panners and buses much wider that what PT can do. I just can't seem to wrap my head around it very easily.

[originalscottyg]

To try to be more helpful than my last post , what about creating 2 quad paths and splitting the panning between them? You could use sends to switch between the paths, while outputting the main output to a dummy bus. The dummy bus should return to an aux that is muted, so as to not mess-up delay compensation.