Stereo to 5.1 questions

[Doug Graham]

I’ve just started messing with 5.1, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Bear in mind that not all your listeners will have 5.1 systems, so you’ll have to mix so that the audio will play well in both stereo and in surround.

I’d put most of the stereo left channel into the 5.1 left front, likewise with the right channel. If you have dialog, filter and/or compress your best dialog track to emphasize it, and place that copy into the center channel, along with a little bit of the left and right.

Use a low pass filter on a mix of the L&R channels for the 5.1 low frequency channel.

Add a tiny bit of reverb to the stereo tracks and send that to the rear channels.

You can do a lot more with a 5.1 mix if you have recorded a number of individual audio sources…for example, if you’ve mic’ed individual instruments in a recording session, or if you’re using one of the newer music programs like StackTraxx that allow you to choose individual instruments.

Room setup is important. You can get an inexpensive sound level meter to calibrate your speakers for your listening position. The room should be as acoustically “dead” as possible. With stereo, you want room reverberation to create the ambience. With 5.1, you are creating the ambience with speakers, and room reverb often acts against you.

Regards,
Doug Graham

[Unlearner]

You may not have to go through all of that trouble to create a “faux 5.1” mix, as you say.

Many surround sound systems are run through amplifiers that can take stereo sound and emulate a 5.1 setting, so there is nothing you need to do if your homne theater has those options. You can prove what I’m saying by putting a cd into your system and fool around with your amp’s presets, and you’ll see that the stero sound can be channeled through all of your surround speakers to create different listening effects.

What you are talking about is really creating a stero sound into a true 5.1 mix. Once you start spreading signal to left, center, right, and rears, there is nothing “faux” about what you’re doing. 5.1 mixes won’t sound like 5.1 on a normal stero system, so if your aiming for that type of output, mixing for a 5.1 would be a waste of your time.