MTRX Studio x LFE/Bass Management

[MPizzaMusic]

My 7.1 setup has arrived, still waiting on my 4 overheads. I'm in the process of setting up and had a basic question. I bought 2 subwoofers as per Dolby's recommendation, one for LFE and one for bass management. How do most people configure the two subs? The LFE is straightforward, I already have a DADman monitor profile configured for it to get it's own dedicated output. But how are people setting up the sub for bass management? I know how to enable bass management rolloffs in DADman, I'm more curious as to the physical connection people are using to send the low freq information from the surround speakers to the bass management sub.

Forgive my limited knowledge on the subject. Diving into this world after spending my career in stereo for the sake of delivering what needs to be delivered to the labels. I'm having Westlake install my overheads once they come in, but also want to have a good knowledge of things myself incase/once things so south and I need to fix something.

[paulo m]

What subs have you bought?

[Bob Olhsson]

Dolby recommends one for "bass management?" I've never experienced worse translation than "bass management!"

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Dolby recommends one for "bass management?" I've never experienced worse translation than "bass management!"

Dolby recommends it for speakers that aren't full range. Which in most small Atmos setups they will not be. I think it's typical to have full range LCR and bass-manage the surrounds.

However I'm not sure how to accomplish this in DADMan. Obviously it will do bass management but it sends it to the LFE output. AFAIK but I'm no expert.

[ntp-jl]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

Dolby recommends it for speakers that aren't full range. Which in most small Atmos setups they will not be. I think it's typical to have full range LCR and bass-manage the surrounds.

However I'm not sure how to accomplish this in DADMan. Obviously it will do bass management but it sends it to the LFE output. AFAIK but I'm no expert.

You can define a custom format in DADman with up to 8 subs, see attached example of a 7.2.4 format. The term "Low freq effect" in the screenshot is a bit confusing as it is effectively referring to a sub.

Then in the bass management "routing" section in the monitor profile, you effectively define the "function" of each sub by routing. Each sub can be used as either "LFE only", "bass managed sub only" or "combined LFE + bass managed sub". You can also route each satellite channel to different subs, so you can for example have one sub which handles bass management for the ceiling speakers, another sub for the left side and yet another for the right side.

[paulo m]

Some subs allow bass management and LFe at the same time, for instance the Genelec 73XX series, when used with the 9301 units and the GLM app.

I have a friend with such a system. A 7370 sub receives the Sub Link out of a 9301 with individual AES outs to the rest of horizontal speakers. The channels for the horizontal plane connect to it via AES (from MTRX) managed by DADMan, Lfe included.

A second 9301 feeds a 7360 sub that handles the bass management for the ceiling speakers, no Lfe.

Then the bass management is done in the GLM.

Basically is all about extending the frequency range of smaller speakers and providing a separate Lfe input.

[JFreak]

I have a relatively old Genelec 7060B sub with 5 satellites (8040's) and can only comment that unless you are mixing in a movie theater that is all the bass you will ever need.

[MPizzaMusic]

I went the Kali road to just get up and running. My 7 floor speakers are all 3way 8inch so I would consider them full range compared to the overheads which will be 5". But not full range compared to larger LCR's like PMC's or ATC scm50s etc. They def lack low end compared to my ATC's (my separate stereo setup) so the low end supplement isn't the worst.

But I was a bit surprised that I was told to buy 2. In general I usually don't just "buy what I'm told" but there's so much to wrap my head around with this and the demand for atmos mixes is starting to increase so it's one of those situations where I just have to trust the people I know in town (Nashville.) Currently I have bass management on my 7 floors as well as LFE going to a single sub and it seems to be more than enough. But the custom format seems to be the way to go. My LFE channel will have to be fed from a mono aux in pro tools with ProSubharmonic on it to avoid any phase issues I'm assuming (most people I've spoken to are doing that regardless of whether they have 2 subs or not.)

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by ntp-jl

You can define a custom format in DADman with up to 8 subs, see attached example of a 7.2.4 format. The term "Low freq effect" in the screenshot is a bit confusing as it is effectively referring to a sub.

Then in the bass management "routing" section in the monitor profile, you effectively define the "function" of each sub by routing. Each sub can be used as either "LFE only", "bass managed sub only" or "combined LFE + bass managed sub". You can also route each satellite channel to different subs, so you can for example have one sub which handles bass management for the ceiling speakers, another sub for the left side and yet another for the right side.

Thank you Jan! Great info.

[smurfyou]

You might have been advised to go for 2 subs for headroom reasons. Dolby info I have recommends having 30dB over reference level available. (Including the +10dB typical for LFE)