User Manual

Working with Surround Sound Audio
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Surround sound audio tracks contain an individual channel for each signal in the track (for
example, a 5.1 track has six channels, one each for left, center, right, left surround, right
surround, and LFE). You can add surround sound master clips to your project in different ways:
• You can capture the audio from your source (see “Selecting Source Tracks and Audio
Channels” on page 189).
• You can import the audio using standard import procedures (see “Importing with
Multichannel Audio” on page 289).
• You can modify existing audio clips to create surround sound audio (see “Working with
Multichannel Audio Tracks” on page 762).
Stereo and multichannel tracks consist of multiple audio signals, linked together. The Audio
Mixer tool displays a channel faders for each multichannel track, in addition to solo and mute
buttons. If you need discrete control of signals, you can convert multichannel tracks to individual
mono tracks (see “Splitting Multichannel Tracks to Mono Tracks” on page 837).
You can mix mono, stereo, and surround sound audio tracks in any supported multichannel
format. The Audio Mixer tool indicates the track format by the number of track meters contained
in its fader strip (for example, a single meter for mono tracks, a pair of meters for stereo tracks,
and six meters for 5.1 tracks). Assigning track output determines the format of that output. For
example, a mono track always has a single track meter, even when assigned to a stereo output
path. If you assign a mono track to a 5.1 output path, the output splits among six output channels,
depending on the position of the panner.
Surround Monitoring
In order to monitor your multichannel mix, you must have appropriate hardware connected to
your computer — for example, an audio card that supports surround sound or a Nitris DX
connected to your system. You also need to set up the proper speaker placement and calibrate
your audio system for the surround sound format of your sequence. When your audio system
does not match your surround sound mix — for example, if your workspace includes only stereo
speakers while your sequence uses a 5.1 Film format — you need to understand how your Avid
editing application delivers surround sound tracks to the available output channels.
When your monitoring setup does not support the audio format selected for a sequence, your
Avid editing application downmixes the audio tracks to the desired monitor mix. The following
table describes the speaker arrangements of mono, stereo, and surround mix formats and the
corresponding monitoring structure. Sequence format indicates which format you select for your
sequence, and speaker layout describes how the Avid editing application outputs audio tracks to
a mono speaker, two stereo speakers, and six and eight surround sound speakers. Speaker
placement, alignment, and calibration depend on your specific hardware and audio
configuration. See the documentation that came with your speakers and other monitoring
equipment.