New surround bus summing feature pre or post plugins?

[Frank Kruse]

Hi,

does anyone know if the new surround bus summing/fan out feature is pre or post plugin chain?

Let's say I have a 7.1 aux with a ProLimiter going to a stereo bus. Will PT automixdown the limited 7.1 signal or is the summing happening before the limiter?

So

a)
7.1--->stereo sum---->plugin---->stereo bus

or

b) 7.1 ---->plugin----->auto-downmix----->stereo bus

B would make the most sense to me but I guess that means you still need a "manual" downmixer plugin to create stereo versions before going to the stereo bus in order to limit the stereo sum and not the 7.1 incoming signal, right?

Hope that made sense...

Thanks

Frank

[BScout]

It's B (sum post-plugins)

Don't understand your second question.
Why do you need a manual downmixer? It's already downmixing (per the ratios setup in preferences.)
If you want a limiter, use a multichannel limiter. If you worrying the sum is too hot, pull the fader down or put the trim plugin after your plugin chain.

[Frank Kruse]

Thanks! I want the resulting downmix to have a brick wall limiter. If b) is true the limiter would be pre-fold down and only limit the incoming 7.1 signal not the outgoing (under the hood) fold down.

Unless i'm misunderstanding.

Before the new feature was released I would create 7.1 aux. Then..

7.1---->Spanner 7.1 to Stereo---->limiter------>stereo bus.

I was wondering if I can skip the Spanner now but keep the limiting of the stereo fold down or if I have to stick to the old method in this case.

[BScout]

old method

[Frank Kruse]

Thought so, thanks!

[Gregor B.]

Hi Frank,

If I was keen on using the "automatic" downmix, I would introduce limiting via a master fader of that stereo bus, that sits in between the aux and a rec track. This doesn't add anything performance- or voices-wise, except visually being 3 tracks.

I stumbled across your post while wondering about something quite related:
Where can we apply limiting to a bed/object fold down? Or does Pro Tools somehow manage that automatically?

I guess the same can be asked for "Monitor Path" and "Audition Path". All of these seem to be PT-internal outputs that cannot be controlled from the session via a master fader or am I missing something? (I can set a master fader for a bus that is routed to an out, but not an out itself)

I haven't thought about this too much until now, but how do editors on atmos shows limit their fold downs before their interface / speakers?

Best,
Gregor