Mix 51 Surround Panning and Mixing plug-in for Pro Tools™ Plug-In Users Guide Version 1.1 for Pro Tools HD/LE/M-Powered Systems on Macintosh OS X and Windows XP Created By Neyrinck San Francisco, CA USA www.neyrinck.com info@neyrinck.com Technical Support (USA) www.neyrinck.com support@neyrinck.com Product Information (USA) www.neyrinck.com info@neyrinck.com Copyright This guide is copyrighted ©2007 by Neyrinck with all rights reserved.
Table Of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Welcome System Requirements Important Latency Information Chapter 2 Installation Installing Mix 51 Authorizing Mix 51 Removing Expired Plug-Ins Chapter 3 Quick Start Guide Chapter 4 Surround Mixer Plug-In Overview Connecting the Outputs Description and Use Of Controls Chapter 5 Surround Panner Plug-In Overview Panner Controls Chapter 6 LFE Send Plug-In Overview LFE Send Controls Chapter 7 Pro Logic™ || Movie Mode Monitoring Chapter 8 Automation Chapte
Chapter 1 Introduction • Welcome To Mix 51 Mix 51 is a suite of 5.1 surround panning and mixing plug-ins for Pro Tools LE and M-Powered systems with six or more outputs such as Mbox 2 Pro, 002, 003, and M-Audio interfaces such as the Delta 1010 or FireWire 410 or for use with stereo output systems such as Mbox connected to a 5.1 Pro Logic™ II decoding system. Unlimited Mono and Stereo Panner plug-ins can be placed on track inserts to pan, mix, and send to the Mix 51 Surround Mixer busses.
such as 002, 003, or Mbox 2 Pro or a stereo interface connected to a 5.1 Pro Logic II decoding system. Important Latency Information Mix 51 uses the host CPU to perform the surround panning and mixing. It introduces latency that is equivalent to one buffer of audio based on the Pro Tools H/W Buffer Size. The latency in seconds can be calculated with the formula (Buffer Size)/(Sample Rate). For example, if the Pro Tools H/W Buffer Size is set to 512, the latency is 512/48000 = 10.
Chapter 2 Installation Installing Mix 51 Installers can be downloaded from the Neyrinck website (www.neyrinck.com) Installation steps are essentially the same, regardless of the bundle, package, or system you purchase. Installation To install Mix 51: 1. If Pro Tools is running, Quit Pro Tools. 2. Locate and open (double-click) the plug-in installer. 3. Follow the instructions presented by the installation software. 4. When installation is complete, click Quit.
Chapter 3 Quick Start Guide Overview This section guides you through steps to create a Pro Tools session that will pan one audio track to a 5.1 main bus and a quad reverb effect send which will be monitored out six channels of your Pro Tools system. When finished, your Pro Tools Mixer Window should look similar to this: Right. This picture shows an example I/O Setup using the SMPTE recommended ordering; New Session Create a new session to start using Mix 51.
purpose is to provide outputs that can be routed into other tracks, as we will see. Connect The Outputs Create five stereo auxiliary tracks and change the track names to: Dialog Front, Dialog C LFE, Dialog Rear, Reverb Front, and Reverb Rear, respectively. Then set the track outputs to Front, Center-LFE, Rear, Front, and Rear, respectively.
Chapter 4 Surround Mixer Plug-In Overview The Surround Mixer is implemented as an RTAS plug-in and can be placed on any mono or stereo track. Because a single instance of the Surround Mixer plug-in manages all Mix 51 surround inputs and outputs in a Pro Tools session, it is not necessary to insert more than one Surround Mixer. Because its inputs come from Surround Panner plug-ins and its outputs appear as Pro Tools track inputs, it is not critical where you place the Surround Mixer plugin.
Description and Use Of Controls The Surround Mixer user interface provides master output control of the three 5.1 busses and three quadsend busses. Each bus has volume, mute, and solo controls. Surround Mixer Controls – Default Settings When the Surround Mixer plug-in is opened, the controls default to unity gain with no muting or soloing. You can change the default settings by using Pro Tools ability to save a user preset and set it as the default setting.
Chapter 5 Surround Panner Plug-In Overview The Surround Panner plug-in operates as an RTAS plug-in on mono and stereo tracks. It will simultaneously pan to one of the 5.1 channel main busses and to one of the quad-channel effect send busses. It provides panning, volume, mute, solo, LFE, and divergence controls that are fully automatable using the Pro Tools plug-in automation system. The controls are configured to operate conveniently with control surfaces available to Pro Tools.
The mute buttons will silence the trackʼs contribution to the main bus and/or send bus you have chosen. The solo button will only allow the audio through for this track and any other soloed tracks. If you want other tracks coming through the Mix 51 mixer, then they need to be soloed also. The “PRE” button is used for allowing the level going to the send bus to follow both the main volume fader and the send fader (“postfader”, when the “PRE” button is not selected).
channel only, you should use the LFE panner plug-in. Default/Fine-Tune Opt-click (OS X) or alt-click (WinXP) to reset any control to the default position. Hold down the cmd key (OS X) or the control key (WinXP) to perform fine-tuned adjustments.
Chapter 6 LFE Send Plug-In Overview The LFE Send plug-in operates as an RTAS plug-in in mono or multimono for stereo tracks. Its purpose is to allow you to send a track directly to the LFE channel without having to also mix the signal into the main L/C/R/Ls/Rs outputs. Like the Panner, the Mix 51 LFE Send plug-in does not output any audio to the normal Pro Tools mixer channel. By using the “bypass” button the LFE Send will also pass the signal through to the Pro Tools mixer channel.
Chapter 7 Automation Overview All of the Mix 51 parameters can be automated using standard Pro Tools plug-in automation. Click the “auto” button in the Mix 51 plug-in window header and add the controls you would like to be automated. When the track is in “write” mode (or other modes which write/update automation) you should see a red box drawn around any controls you have chosen to be automated.
Panner with all controls in “write” automation enabled mode Thus, to migrate the Left-Right panning automation of Mix 51, you must copy it into the Front Position and Rear Position pan automation tracks of the Pro Tools panner. To do so, select the track automation for the Mix 51 Left-Right pan control and copy it. On the track you wish to copy this automation to (a track routed to a 5.
Chapter 8 Pro Logic™ II Movie Mode Monitoring Overview Mix 51 provides a stereo, matrix encoded, LtRt output that is compatible with Dolby Pro Logic II decoding systems. This allows you to use a stereo Pro Tools LE system with a 5.1 home theater system for monitoring. Pro Logic II decoders will expand the stereo signal out to 5.1. Because Pro Logic II is not a discrete encoding system, the 5.1 decode will not be precisely the same 5.1 mix that Mix 51 creates.
menu which shows the various Mix 51 outputs available (from each of the Main Bus outputs and Send Bus outputs). Panner or Mixer Not Getting any Signal The track must not be set to “no output”, or else the Mix 51 plug-ins will not receive any input signal (even if you donʼt want the main track to be routed anywhere, you need to have it go to an unused bus or perhaps a separate stereo output).
