A college surround studio rebuild questions..

[Hauista]

I was asked by an old professor for product ideas to create a digital recording room with surround.

Backlog: This room would be for a radio production class at Oswego State University in Oswego, NY. The room currently holds a analogue 24 track, nothing great. This currently runs 2-track into a G4 mac running pro tools le.

The idea is to start teaching multitracking with surround sound. The professor still wants to run it all into Pro Tools, but everything else can be changed.
I'm looking for some good ways to accomplish this besides going with a complete Digi Icon or Pro Control setup.. Analogue desk or digital doesn't matter as long as the final output is surround.

Any ideas what would be best?

I don't know the budget, but presume its decent.

James C.

[nathanvacha]

well, keep in mind only tdm systems do surround... the LE version doesn't do surround sound. And you'll probably want one of their desks to work on... unless you have an analog surround console...

[Jonboy79]

Yeah accomplishing surround in pro tools is going to be a hefty investment. Many more options available at a much lower cost.

[max cooper]

I guess you could get surround out of PTLE.

You'd have to terminate the mix in two stereo pairs (front and rear) and two monos (center and LFE)

Then each of those sends would have to end in it's own Aux track; and then each Aux mix would have to go from an output on the 002 to the appropriate speaker.

And each of those sends would have to be on each track.

Then you could send those aux's out to the appropriate speakers.

It'd be a pain in the arse, and not too intuitive.

But you could do it.

Then you still need a way to encode the surround mix for a surround decoder.

[Hauista]

Originally Posted by Jonboy79

Yeah accomplishing surround in pro tools is going to be a hefty investment. Many more options available at a much lower cost.

What would you and other suggest other than Pro Tools?


I know I will need TDM and I already mentioned that to the professor. LE as said could be done, but why all the hassle and class would be over before the college kid set-up the surround.

[nathanvacha]

I'm pretty sure logic and I know cubase can do surround, though if you need video options you'll have to spring for the nuendo software...

[djui5]

You could do it with a TDM/HD rig and a surround monitor controller like this:

http://www.dangerousmusic.com/stsr.html

or this:

http://www.gracedesign.com/products/m906/m906.htm

Then all you'll need are speakers

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by nathanvacha

I'm pretty sure logic and I know cubase can do surround, though if you need video options you'll have to spring for the nuendo software...

Go for this. I think it's a banner idea.

[rodrigo]

Hi James,

Digital Performer is a great option(www.motu.com). Comes with surround capabilities plus sound for picture features. It's great for film/tv scoring as well as video post work. It's less expensive than Nuendo and much more flexible than Pro Tools LE.

You don't actually need a surround controller if you don't have enough money. You can get by with a great audio interface like Metric Halo Mobile I/O 2882 (www.mhlabs.com) and an affordable control surface. It has great converters, very decent pre's, a very flexible routing matrix, rock solid drivers and a nice user interface. You can get a cheap midi controller to ride the output faders and you've got a great affordable rig. thumbsup

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[tamasdragon]

You should also take a look at Steinberg products, cubase and nuendo, both are very good choices.
Regards Tamas Dragon

[mrhappyballoon]

I was talking to a digidesign representative not too long ago about where he thought protools LE was going. He is in a very high position at Digi and knows exactly what is going on. He couldn't tell me directly where it's headed (it's a big secret...Shhhh) but said that the most likely addition would be surround sound. I would wait and see if they announce anything new at AES on October 5th-8th. During that time Digidesign is having there own little conference thing, I wouldn't be supprised if there are new product announcements there.

[Hauista]

Originally Posted by mrhappyballoon

I was talking to a digidesign representative not too long ago about where he thought protools LE was going. He is in a very high position at Digi and knows exactly what is going on. He couldn't tell me directly where it's headed (it's a big secret...Shhhh) but said that the most likely addition would be surround sound. I would wait and see if they announce anything new at AES on October 5th-8th. During that time Digidesign is having there own little conference thing, I wouldn't be supprised if there are new product announcements there.

That sounds very interesting. Thanks for the heads up.


Thank you for all the suggestions. I will look into the gear that would need to be involved with each program.
It's basically a interface, control surface and speakers. But oh the possibilites.

[jtienhaara]

Another software option on a PC platform would be a CreamWare Project PCI card + software of your choice (Nuendo, Cubase, Samplitude, etc). The CreamWare cards come with DSP-based software including a 5.1 to 7.1 surround mixer (48S) which is much more flexible and powerful than any other software surround mixers I've tried out. The mixer works very nicely, sounds good and is highly tweakable, but the biggest advantage IMHO is the routing flexibility -- the CreamWare interface actually looks like a physical studio with cables etc.

$0.02 & good luck James,

Johann