Old 11-20-2022, 02:31 PM   #1
wildfoto
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Default Mixing for surround

Hi folks I'm not a muso at all but a wildlife photography/cinematographer - and I've been getting into recording nature audio a bit more serious now. Mainly using a rode NTG4+ with a Zoom FM2 and finding the 32bit float really handy for recording thunder and bird sounds etc...

I put a few recordings together into this stereo mix in reaper

https://youtu.be/QLxmZbzRtKY

But I have some Yamaha surround sound speakers and thought it'd be really cool to mix this in 5.1 to get some cool ambience and directional sounds.
I've watched a few youtube videos on it but a lot of them seem to be for mixing for movies/videos and I'm not really getting some of the basics.

The reasurroundpan effect seems to be working for me ok... but I haven't quite worked out how to put all my recordings or tracks in the mix and control them separately. For example if I want a particular birds call to come from behind.. I thought I'd do a route from its stereo track to the master track i have setup with 6 channels.. and route the stereo channels to the two channels in the master that represent the rear speakers.. but the signal just seems to spread throughout the 5 speakers on the master track..
And I think I get I can "pan" the audio on the master track to the back but that'll do the whole mix not just the part I want.

Also wondering how I'd get the thunder to the LFE speaker...

I also wonder if I don't need any fancy panning and is it possible just to have a 6 channel track and put my audio in where i like? but not sure how to put clips on individual channels except for routing? And whether the output would still work in a 5.1 system not using the reasurroundpan effect.

Cheers for any directions
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Old 11-20-2022, 02:34 PM   #2
vitalker
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Can't answer any of your questions, but I believe this forum is better for such topic: https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53
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Old 11-20-2022, 02:45 PM   #3
wildfoto
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Originally Posted by vitalker View Post
Can't answer any of your questions, but I believe this forum is better for such topic: https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53
Ah thanks for that mate will post there.. i should delete this thread?
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Old 11-20-2022, 02:48 PM   #4
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Ah thanks for that mate will post there.. i should delete this thread?
You can't. Maybe someone will respond here, too.
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Old 11-21-2022, 09:39 AM   #5
serr
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wildfoto View Post
Hi folks I'm not a muso at all but a wildlife photography/cinematographer - and I've been getting into recording nature audio a bit more serious now. Mainly using a rode NTG4+ with a Zoom FM2 and finding the 32bit float really handy for recording thunder and bird sounds etc...

I put a few recordings together into this stereo mix in reaper

https://youtu.be/QLxmZbzRtKY

But I have some Yamaha surround sound speakers and thought it'd be really cool to mix this in 5.1 to get some cool ambience and directional sounds.
I've watched a few youtube videos on it but a lot of them seem to be for mixing for movies/videos and I'm not really getting some of the basics.

The reasurroundpan effect seems to be working for me ok... but I haven't quite worked out how to put all my recordings or tracks in the mix and control them separately. For example if I want a particular birds call to come from behind.. I thought I'd do a route from its stereo track to the master track i have setup with 6 channels.. and route the stereo channels to the two channels in the master that represent the rear speakers.. but the signal just seems to spread throughout the 5 speakers on the master track..
And I think I get I can "pan" the audio on the master track to the back but that'll do the whole mix not just the part I want.

Also wondering how I'd get the thunder to the LFE speaker...

I also wonder if I don't need any fancy panning and is it possible just to have a 6 channel track and put my audio in where i like? but not sure how to put clips on individual channels except for routing? And whether the output would still work in a 5.1 system not using the reasurroundpan effect.

Cheers for any directions
The ReaSurround panner is a little... weird. I use the JS surround panner most often.

You can get your bearings by routing a track (or a track used as a bus) to the rear pair or one of the rear speakers and route a track directly there just to prove to yourself that everything is connected properly and it's only learning curve weirdness for that particular panner plugin.

Lfe content is always done "manually". It's used as an extension of the bass dynamic range. The main 5 channels are still full range all the way down just like in stereo. You choose to place specific sub bass elements in the Lfe as additional bass fx when you need the headroom. (Something that would have forced you to turn down the whole mix level to accommodate if it was mixed to the main channels. This was more critical in analog tape days when turning down a whole mix equaled more hiss!)

Most mix source tracks are still mono or stereo. There's still mono and stereo busing all over a surround mix. You just have 5 main channels to land on instead of just 2 (for 5.1). I usually have a 'fronts' stereo bus, 'rears' stereo bus, 'center' bus, and Lfe bus subgroup tracks to route to for convenience. I'll have a 5.0 bus to rout actual 5.0 submixed parts to where I'm actually dialing up something that pans or whatever across multiple speakers. These bits are almost like special cases. Most stuff is matter of fact routed to front, rear, or center.

Channels 1 - 6 should correspond to: L R C Lfe Ls Rs
7.1 adds side surround channels. 7.1.4 adds a quad system to the ceiling firing down on you (2 front and 2 rear).
FYI, your OS audio will route surround to channels 1-6 of any connected audio interface or HDMI surround receiver.

Maybe that takes some of the mystery out?
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