LFE channel panning?

[czorro]

I recently completed a 5.1 mix using bass management in Protools and I'm confused about the settings for the panner of the LFE. When I solo it, there's duplicate audio from the other channels, not just low end info and it's being reproduced on the other speakers. Shouldn't the audio for the LFE be isolated on the subwoofer? How do I set the panner to accomplish this? The crossover is set for 80HZ and no filter.
Thanks,
Wrick

[tigas]

What are you using for bass management? Bass management will do precisely that: catch low frequency information that the monitors of the main channels can't reproduce and divert them to the subwoofer (based on the idea that low-frequencies are non-localizable).

Are you soloing on the surround controller? If so, what you're hearing should be right.

If you're soloing in ProTools and finding that you hear full-range sound on the LFE, you should note that the LFE send in each track's panner does not filter the sound to the LFE bandwidth, and some monitoring setups will not do it either (DMU in Line-in, for example). You should have an LFE master fader with an EQ3 1-band in Highpass@80Hz and 24dB slope inserted.

[czorro]

Thanks for your response, Tigas. Yes when I solo the LFE with the JBL controller, the audio is correct. What concerns me is when I do a bounce, high and mid frequency info shows up on the LFE bounced channel. Also how do I prevent the LFE audio from showing up on the rest of the speakers?

[garnoil]

Originally Posted by czorro

I recently completed a 5.1 mix using bass management in Protools and I'm confused about the settings for the panner of the LFE. When I solo it, there's duplicate audio from the other channels, not just low end info and it's being reproduced on the other speakers. Shouldn't the audio for the LFE be isolated on the subwoofer? How do I set the panner to accomplish this? The crossover is set for 80HZ and no filter.
Thanks,
Wrick

If you are using Bass Manager software (like Waves Surround Bundle) you have to disable the Bass Manager before you bounce. The bass manager is an emulator of a typical home theatre receiver, and it is used to let you hear how your mix would sound on a typical home theatre system. The bass manager extracts low frequency info from all 5 channels (typcally from 120 hz and below) and routes it to the subwoofer. Aside from playing these "bass extraction" from the 5 speakers, the subwoofer also plays the LFE channel (which is a separate discrete entity). If you bounce with the bass manager engaged, you will be bouncing an "incorrectly equalized mix with a wrong bass distribution" as you will be bouncing a "heavily equalized sound mix"..this will sound horrible and the low end will be completely wrong. The bass manager is a "monitor only" system. Cinemas do not use bass manager but most home theatre receivers do.

[tigas]

Originally Posted by czorro

Thanks for your response, Tigas. Yes when I solo the LFE with the JBL controller, the audio is correct. What concerns me is when I do a bounce, high and mid frequency info shows up on the LFE bounced channel. Also how do I prevent the LFE audio from showing up on the rest of the speakers?

Like I said, make a mono Master Fader assigned to the LFE output or mix bus channel (mono subpath) and insert in this Master Fader an EQ3 1-band with the settings in my previous response.

As for LFE audio on the other channels, I'm not sure what you mean.

[czorro]

I'm using the JBL 4328s with a JBL subwoofer. It comes with monitor control software including bass management. When I calibrated my control room, I did a calibration with and without bass management so I can selectively mix. Should I do a "cinema mix" without bass management and a "home theater mix" with bass management for home use?
What I mean about "other speakers" is when I re-import the 5.1 bounced tracks including LFE, back into a Protools session, that channel has a surround panner on it which sends the LFE audio wherever it's panned. I don't know how to defeat the channel panning so it goes only to the sub.
I hope that's clear and I appreciate all the responses.

[mixboy bob]

You have to route that track directly to the LFE hardware output.

IHTH.

Rob Burrell
aka mixboy