building surround workstation

[griffbear]

i am asked by my employer to build a basic workstation to generate 7.1 surround audio content. not clear of formats yet, but likely PCM, Dolby, and DTS files will all be required. i am familiar with pro tools, but only in stereo, and know almost nothing about the surround process/workflow.

can anyone familiar with this topic tell me what i'm missing or have got wrong? Note that I already have a good solution for monitoring in surround, so i don't need to worry about that. thanks much in advance.

i'm proposing a two stage acquisition/setup process, mostly to let me get a little more up to speed and establish final format requirements before making final decisions on encoding and authoring options.

Stage 1: Recording/mixing hardware and software
Stage 2: Encoding and authoring software (and hardware?)


Stage 1:

Hardware to acquire:

New MacBook Pro

Focusrite Saphire 40 Interface
I-Lock


Software:

Protools 10
Avid Complete Toolkit
Mixing/Mastering plug-ins



Stage 2:

Encoder Software:
Dolby Encoder:
DTS Encoder


BluRay Authoring Software:

Examples:
Pro (fully meet BD specs):
Windows Only*:
Scenarist, Blu-Print, or DoStudio
Consumer:
Mac: Toast , Adobe Encore
Windows only: Cirlinca, HD-Audio Solo Ultra v4.1

VMware Fusion if windows only authoring software.

griff bear
portland, OR

[C]

Can't deal with your whole question but:

1- I'd recommend going for the Mac Pro rather than the MacBook Pro. I am a MBPro user and while it works for what I need to do (and works well) for more production work you'll be better served by the expansion options available in the Mac Pro.

2- PT10 I believe comes with an iLok as a new purchase. So you can take that off the shopping list Yay!! :)

3- I absolutely love VMware Fusion but you may once again be better served with a Boot Camp partition for this kind of setup. If you are determined to go with the virtual machine option then buy a lot of RAM, this will enable VMware to take a large chunk to ensure better performance in the virtual machine. For BluRay you'll be dealing with lots of HiDef material and that requires RAM.

4- Not an expert but in my mind BluRay and even DVD authoring live in Windows world. While Toast might be able to burn a BluRay i'm not sure it technically Authors a BluRay.

5- DTS/Dolby - I'm sure someone with more experience of this will chime in but to draw your attention to a few quick things. Neyrinck's Dolby Encoder under PT10 stamps the encoded file incorrectly, I'm sure a fix is on the way but today bear that in mind. The SurCode bundles seem like a good all round option.

6- You should look at a control surface too maybe something like the Artist Mix Series.

Hope this helps in someway and gets the ball rolling for others to chime in with better knowledge and experience.

Ceri

[nst7]

To clarify, if you get the BOXED, FULL version of Protools 10, it comes with the Ilok. Anything else (full version download, upgrades, crossgrades) does not.

For encoding, the Neyrinck stuff seems to have a good selection of what you need.

For blu ray encoding, on Mac, Adobe Encore looks to be very professional. But you have to get it bundled with Premiere Pro or Creative Suite.


One other thing - looking at what you'll spend on the Saffire, Protools software, Complete Toolkit, etc., you may want to seriously look at just getting the Protools HD Native and HD Omni bundle.

You would need a Mac Pro to use it, at least for a couple of months, then PCIe to Thunderbolt adapters will be out, so you can use it with the current Macbook Pros or Imacs that have Thunderbolt.

[Henchman]

Why would you get a laptop with less power, instead of a desktop?
Makes no sense to me.

[griffbear]

thanks all for very helpful comments, confirming and clarifying, and correcting.

one question - do neyrinck and/or surcode encoders handle 7.1? i can only find 5.1 capabilities - and 7.1 is a very definite requirement for me.

re: laptop vs. mac pro, yup - mac pro makes more sense for just this use, but unfortunately this machine is going to have to be mobile and available for other uses.

[signoaudiodesign]

don't forget a display,

a keyboard for pro tools
http://www.editorskeys.com/audio-edi...-keyboard.html

and a magic trackpad

good luck!

[tom_lowe]

Originally Posted by griffbear

thanks all for very helpful comments, confirming and clarifying, and correcting.

one question - do neyrinck and/or surcode encoders handle 7.1? i can only find 5.1 capabilities - and 7.1 is a very definite requirement for me.

re: laptop vs. mac pro, yup - mac pro makes more sense for just this use, but unfortunately this machine is going to have to be mobile and available for other uses.

Then you'd need a Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD encoder. No software on Mac can currently author these formats to Blu-Ray. Any reason you need 7.1 so much? Usually sound people deal with audio then deliver their files to an authoring specialist rather than doing everything themselves. Sure, you could get the Dolby Media Encoder, but then give your files to someone else to author the discs. Good Blu-Ray authoring isn't as simple as DVD, it's more specialised.

[griffbear]

yes, for right now my plan is to use the DTS and Dolby encoders that they each sell directly.

we need to generate our own content (for copyright reasons) to test some basic functionality of various 7.1 systems. i've definitely come to understand that 5.1 solutions abound, but 7.1 is a much bigger challenge. so the bad news is that yes, i really do need to generate 7.1 content. but the good news is it won't need to be very complicated or involved content, at least at first. the very first files, for instance, are likely to just be just test tones and spoken channel i.d.'s (i.e. "this is the right surround, this is the right front, etc).

so when you say that Blu-Ray authoring is more specialized and not simple, do you mean it's challenging to get music content to sound good, or do you mean it's difficult to even get the content encoded and burned correctly? i don't need to make great sounding discs for now, though i am hoping to get there eventually. but if i can't even get simple content into a usable format, then i may have to re-think the whole deal.

thank you much for the help.