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How to make a work station to work whit surround sound
Hello everybody
I present a proyect to a gubernamental entity of my country Chile (South America …you can see us play in the South africa World Cup Football games …jejeje) …i present a proyect to make a surround sound studio. If i win they will give the money to create it, so i want to ask if you can help me on this. Maybe you can recommend me the most economic way to do it. Is not so much money, is around 2700 U.S dollars. I am thinking on buy an audio interface, because im already have a computer whit protools LE 8 (M box 2)…but as you know, it not support surround sound. Well… thank you very much in advance. Regards.
César Guerra
Acoustic Engineering student.pd : sorry for my english …i hope you understand me…
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2 Replies
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Hola César y a America del Sur y Chile and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.
Your English is much better than my Spanish. 🙂
From a tutorial on the SoundOnSound web site…
One of the limitations of Pro Tools LE systems is that you can only create mono or stereo tracks. You do not get the option to create tracks in multi-channel formats such as 5.1. All is not lost, though, and with a little ‘out of the box’ thinking you can produce surround mixes with a 002 or 002R system — the M Box only has two analogue outputs so you will have no way to monitor a surround mix from one!
You will need a single control to change the volume of all six output channels. Using I/O Setup, assign outputs 1&2 to Front L&R, 3&4 to Centre and LFE and 5&6 to Surround L&R. Then create master faders for these outputs and group them together and there you have it, a 5.1 monitor level control! LCR panning is tricky, but for music production in surround there is very little need for LCR panning. Route audio to the front stereo and surround stereo to taste, and use an aux send to route small amounts of things like kick, snare and bass to the centre channel. You can do the same for vocals if you prefer not to use the centre speaker, or you can do the opposite: send the vocals to the centre channel and add a little to the front stereo to help spread the sound, maybe with a little delay.
With the limitations of LE, surround reverbs are not an option so you are going to have to use stereo reverbs creatively. Try a shortish reverb into the front channels and a longer reverb, preferably using the same algorithm, but with a larger space with less pre-delay, into the surround channels.You may also need their DV Tool Kit if you will be working with SMPTE and video.
Hasta luego, senor.
Ty Ford
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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Thank you very much Mr. Ford for your answer, but you did not understand my question. I dont want to use Protools LE for mix surround. My question is it simple: What equipment, hardware and software can i buy to make a work station to make surround sound. I will have 2700 US Dollars if i win the proyect. Im thinking about Nuendo, or digital performer, because Protools HD for surround is too expensive. I hope I expressed myself well. Thank you again. Regards.
César.
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