Panning music in 5.1 for telvision guidelines

[sharkfin]

Hi there
I'm also plunging into a 5.1 mix for a doccie... first time.
Will let you know if I discover anything, but yes after watching a few surround DVD's, the standard seems to be as you say, and keeping the music in the front L and R with a bit of spread in the rear. Seems quite boring and subtle, when so much fun could be had especially if you have stems to work with(I don't!)

[Neole]

The main problem with playing with too much surround seems to me that in a home situation, the viewer tends to sit near the surround speakers, with the center and front left right speakers a fair bit away. So with the dialogs coming from the center, if we put too much in the surround the dialogs would be inaudible. Let me know how your mix goes!

[sharkfin]

Originally Posted by Neole

The main problem with playing with too much surround seems to me that in a home situation, the viewer tends to sit near the surround speakers, with the center and front left right speakers a fair bit away. So with the dialogs coming from the center, if we put too much in the surround the dialogs would be inaudible. Let me know how your mix goes!

that's a good point! cos the surround speakers are usually close to or just behind the couch. That's true.

Man I'm actually having a nightmare with this mix.
I started in PT but I don't have the Complete Production Toolkit... so cant do surround.
Been fighting to get everything up and running in Logic and keep as much of the work I've done intact. Hoped that AAF might work but no... bizzare results. AAF seemed to work into Soundtrack Pro, seemed to keep the volume automation, but working in that program felt like trudging through the mud... So then tried to export files into Logic... after more bizarre errors I eventually resorted to OMF straight into Logic from PT.

THEN after all of that, Logic seemed to be doing it, surround sound shaping up, but I realized that somehow the master bus is in Stereo!!! despite playing out surround. So no possibility of bouncing out surround files. Grrr.
Very weird, it's not behaving as the Help files say.

So I'm just going back into PT, and i'll have to do the surround in someone's studio, where they have HD. Gonna cost me

Will have to look into buying the upgrade eventually, would love to have it as i'm getting fond of PT, would like to do music in it also.

Ben

[6strings]

Originally Posted by sharkfin

THEN after all of that, Logic seemed to be doing it, surround sound shaping up, but I realized that somehow the master bus is in Stereo!!! despite playing out surround. So no possibility of bouncing out surround files. Grrr.
Very weird, it's not behaving as the Help files say.

Logic is a certifiable mess for mixing surround.

I love Cubase's abilities to create child busses for this type of workflow! No fuss, no muss! The v6 panning plug is awesome, too.

[Henchman]

I wouldn't pan ambiences 50%, but that's just me.

[pethenis]

Originally Posted by Henchman

I wouldn't pan ambiences 50%, but that's just me.

+1, sounds horrible. Try cutting up a longer ambience track in two and divide LR/LsRs.