Setting up a Home 5.1 mixing system on Mac suggestions please.

Clint Nitkiewiz Hernandez said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Id love to chat some more but I am off on my journey now to mix 5.1 in my custom built studio once the film is shot. Hope you all come to see it, and yes, in 5.1, not stereo, sorry. I paid my dues indeed, research was a real ***** but well worth it. Was it so hard for anyone to mention the word Waves? Ciao.

Oh, and I found the dusty unopened STP in the box a few days ago, and will be sending it to Noiz2 for christmas next year, if he's good that is.

Just Kidding Noiz2, your feedback on the sky speakers, digi forum, and comment of
"you can sort of in a wanky way" were priceless and kept me moving forward.

I didn't mean to offend anyone by asking to do the impossible, it's just I dont take impossible as an answer, never. This is how I got going in the film world, having people try to tell me no, no no, and I kept saying yes yes yes, and it worked, as it had worked here as well.

But enough talking for me, I got lots of work and art to do.

Once again thanks, sorry if the newbie questions offended some, and perhaps next time I will return to offer a .ac3 to download of my effort of the impossible.

Ciaoo.
Click to expand...

No one said it was impossible, only that you're upscaling by several orders of magnititude in regards to the level of technical skills, artistic judgement, and hardware, especially monitoring and the room setup, that is required when you move from basic editing on computer speakers to full 5.1 surround mixing and you need to be realistic about what you're biting off and what will be required in order to deliver the project to an acceptable professional level.

You also seem to be emotionally hung up on using Pro-tools and your m-Box. That's putting the cart before the horse, IMHO. Dispassionately choose the tools based on the requirements of the job, not the other way around. I have to take other poster's word on it since I'm not a PT user myself but if they say it doesn't natively handle surround well or at all, why not take their advice at face value and look at other tools instead of trying to kludge together workarounds - Sony Vegas and Soundforge, Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition, and especially Steinberg Nuendo and Wavelab are all viable alternatives that handle surround mixing and panning out of the box. In fact, Nuendo is making signifigant dents into ProTools' market share in the feature film and network production markets, especially in Europe. Get yourself a multichannel audio interface - I have an Echo AudioFire8 that would handle the job hands-down. Get proper monitors such as the Blue Sky's recommended (I happen to like the JBL LSR4300 series for their accurate sound and their room mode correction abilities - a 5.1 setup using them would run you about 6000), acoustically condition the space you put them in, calibrate them with test tones and a Radio Shack sound pressure meter and have at it.
 
Clint,

I'm almost sorry I bothered responding to your post. Nobody said 5.1 was impossible, just that it was not recommended for someone that was well, as clueless as you appear to be. If you think that "paying your dues" consists of doing research then I think you have failed to grasp the concept of creating audio entirely. If you needed a bunch of people telling you it was a bad idea to motivate you, then great. Good luck and I hope it turns out well for you.

I can't remember EVER watching a film and thinking "Wow, the 5.1 sound is really what pushed this thing over the top" or "Man its too bad they only mixed this in stereo, if it just would have been 5.1 I would have enjoyed it." but I have heard countless films where bad or poorly mixed sound was a huge distraction. Something to think about :)
 
A few short points. As others have said nobody said it was impossible to do 5.1 in Le, just that it was a very bad idea. You don't have to send me any software I worked with FCS 2 and know it quite well.

As to the need for 5.1, all I can say is Woody Allen. His films are all in mono. Not that all films are better in mono but it certainly hasn't hurt his success. Surround can be a good thing but it's frosting on the cake. Firts though, you need to have a cake to frost.
 
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Can I just say, I just mixed my feature. I had the film split up into 14 reels, each from about 6 to ten minutes each. I had mixed shorts before. I had mixed music before. I knew my software inside and out. I decided I wanted to do the feature in surround. I had the speakers, I had the hardware already, and I had Soundtrack Pro 2. I spent a week banging my head against the wall trying to mix in surround, and eventually I just gave up and did it in stereo, which was still rediculously difficult. Now, I am going to go back and transform the stereo mix to surround, but it is not for the feint of heart. The time a surround mix takes compared to a stereo mix is immense, and the problems you face when mixing any project just multiply.

THat said, if you want to mix in surround, go buy 5 speakers and a sub, preferably studio quality monitors. Get yourself a presonus firepod or firestudio. They have 8 balanced outs on the back, plug em in , fire up soundtrack pro 2, and let your frustration begin.

-Steve
 
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