Which surround sound edit software?

[Will Salley]

It depends on the hardware you have available. I use a Digidesign 002 Rack to output six channels of discrete audio via FCP, but this is really not the best solution. There is no “surround matrix” and the encoding can be tricky.
To do truly professional quality mixes you need to export your synced audio to a Pro Tools TDM system – and even then, it is a stand-alone application that requires an export using Digitranslator (a software tool by Digidesign).

Another possible solution may be Apple Logic, which, I think, can use third-party hardware to sync to QT video.
There may be other solutions of which I’m not aware, but many editors wisely choose to leave the surround mix to an audio post facility because of the skill, time and hardware involved.

Oh yeah. When mixing for 5.1, the listening environment is critical. The mix position, speaker placement, room treatment and size all effect a surround mix much more than a stereo mix; so most video edit environments naturally don’t allow for good mix environments.

System Info – G5/Dual 2 – 10.4.8 – QT v7.1.3 – 8GB ram – Radeon 9800Pro – External SATA Raid – Decklink Extreme – Wacom 6×8

[Dave Stenz]

Have you looked into BIAS “Deck” software?

Regards,
Dave

[Delano Bryant]

I tend to agree with you about the using the pros attitude. I’d perfer to use a audio post house. I have a feeling they are going to want us to edit this in house. I might not actually deleiver true 5.1 for now. Just use pro tools for an audio mix down then back to FCP for deliever to Sony HD 1080i Deck or digi beta. Is it a must to use an external audio mixer? if so which one is the most common and has the cleanest sound? Or, can I use the interface software that comes with PRo Tools?

[Jean-christophe Boulay]

You don’t need an external mixer for surround work in ProTools. And your wallet really doesn’t want you shopping for a surround desk! You do need the proper monitoring environment and signal chain, though. Surround mixing is really not an easy task. Depending on the means of distribution and target listening environment, there are a lot of parameters to take into account. I can’t even graze the subject here. For any project including a surround mix, you absolutely need a pro mixer. Besides, for most surround formats, you need to encode in either Dolby Digital or DTS and I doubt many video houses have a DMU in their rack. And that also means your mix room should be Dolby-approved and your monitoring system calibrated by the Dolby technician.

So it may work out for temp mixes to do it yourself, but for final product in most surround formats (be it HDTV, DVD, HD-DVD, game cutscenes…) you’re going to want a good sound engineer with a proper facility. Many producers and directors still don’t take that into account in their budgets, but it’s time they get used to it.

JC Boulay
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com

[Andrew Commiskey]

I agree, the software is no big deal, but setting up a mixing a room (which can be difficult with just stereo) for surround may leave you wondering why you are in this business or at least wondering what happened to the hair you had before you started this process. 🙂
Drew

Chaos is the beginning of everything.