Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[Nico_Noyau]

Hm you have got a point here.
Indeed, it can be boring for the listener to have a drum moving around him all the time, so some tracks have to stay in one channel.
But for example, sound effects from back to front and leads turning around you, that can be a good idea, and there are at least only 2 tracks remaining to mix !
Does it change something ?

[Equinoxe]

Okay, but you are saying that SPDIF has only 2 channels ?!
Does that mean that my DVD player connected to my amp with an SPDIF cable (optical) only has 2 channel ?!

when I say only 2 channels,as Opposed to 8 on ADAT,what it means is a master stereo pair(2 CHANNELS Left/right)

basically ADAT allows 8 seperate Audio channels sent down the single cable lets say that the ADAT is on a Mixing desk,so I want to route 8 channels of audio on my desk to record on my DAW,so I can assign the outputs to any of those input channels to any of those 8 channels on the adat device as i wish,you can't use a device fitted with ADAT connections to input into a S/PDIF connections ,even though they use the same method of transferring,the audio is streamed in a different format

Now if I have S/pdif,Then I can only send 2 channels,which is normally a replication of what my mixing desk would be outputting via the master Stereo outs



SPDIF only allows 2 tracks which is almost always a stereo Pair,you can connect your DVD player into spdif(As long as your DVD player has S/pdif connectors) as it'll be the same signal sent as the main master output(Main L and Main R)you cant however use it to seperate the 5:1 Channels,because it'll still be streamed as an audio pair(L/R)

[Nico_Noyau]

Oh, ok, so when I plug my DVD player into my amp with the optical cable, it can't be in DTS/5.1 ?

[GeeJee]

He's answered that question twice now

[Nico_Noyau]

And it is "no", but I still can't believe it...
So why did I see "optical = 5.1" so ?

[radek tymecki]

Thanks for your reviews, but what if I want to have more than one track in one channel and a track going from one channel to an other ?
An evolving sound so !

You can make it

Track travelling in all speakers Acid pro

[Nico_Noyau]

Acid pro 5 seems to be nice, a friend gave me it and it's quite fun to use.
But a bit hard, I have to read the manual

[Analog-Umph]

Umm, why don't you use Nuendo, it has everything you need for surround, built in to the DAW!

That is if you have it!

[Nico_Noyau]

Damn, I'm gonna have plenty of softwares on my computer
But what is the easiest to use ?

[AMR]

I really can't record in SPDIF as my synths don't have that.
Okay, but you are saying that SPDIF has only 2 channels ?!
Does that mean that my DVD player connected to my amp with an SPDIF cable (optical) only has 2 channel ?!

Nope, it transmits digital data, which means also, it can transmit a data stream with 5.1 (dolby digital, dts, etc.), but you need to encode material first.

When you mix in surround you mix more than two channels, let's say 5.1, means: 6 channels, all uncompressed. You need 6 outputs (and speackers) to hear what you mix, eventually you CAN encode prior to listening and output trough the SP/DIF to a DD or DTS decoder plugged to 5.1 speakers but it will sound worse (compression, dialog normalization in DD, etc.).

On the soundcard front,I'm not sure of the availibilty of 5:1 capable cards for laptops,I would imagine there gonna be pretty expensive for a decent sounding one given the commodity of it,plus I doubt you could just get away with buying a set of surround H/Phones and using your standard Card,as surely there needs to be some conversion to the 5:1 mode..Hmm..not quite sure on that.

Creative's Audigy2 Platinum Notebook PCCard is quite cheap, and 24bit 96khz ASIO2 low latency, and it HAS 6 dedicated outputs and internal DTS/DD decoding. It only records in stereo, but usually one never or rarely records in "5.1" to begin with (to much phase cancelling/comb filter effects), one records something in stereo or mono and then spread it in the mix to occupy the 5.1 space... or uses native 5.1 sources (synths or something) that are already "in" the laptop (virtual instruments) and output 5.1 data.

If I really can't with my laptop, I have a desktop computer which has a M-Audio 24/96 which has SPDIF in/out, but my 5.1 system is not in this room, so I need to move it or to find a cheap 5.1 amp' (as I already have speakers)
But I can't buy expensive things now, I have to find a cheap way to do that...

You need an amp with 6 inputs (one of sub bass) and 7 (or 6) speakers.
Creative Inspire is not that hot, but it's an example, they do have THX certified similar amps/speakers, but expensive.

At my place (flat) I use three pairs of monitors (Edirol MD-20), each conected to a card output (the left+right front, left+right back, center front and center back) and a dedicated subwoofer. I calibrated all with a mic and osciloscope in order to listen properly, with flat response, to the surround data when mixing.

I can mix my channel separately and then, to test it, burn it on DVD to try on my DVD player, it'll be longer but cheaper ! Nops ?

Advice: forget surround, focus on the music, not so much on the engineering (unless you want to be an audio wizz to begin with - AND YOU NEED GEAR FOR THAT ) - so do music, the tracks, later on, when you have the gear, you can easily upgrade the tracks to 5.1, the same audio, you don't even have to add up anything. And then you make sure you buy and use Waves 360 Surround plugins - these babes make AERO 5.1 look cheap.

It's all about making it sound great and moving on an old bagdad transistor mono radio, get my meaning?

Surround "add's" something, it's "not" the thing, and as you can see with what I did with Beijing 1981 - Jarre in Concert ( http://www.alvaromrocha.com/folder.2005-09-09.0299810414/jean-michel-jarre-beijing-china-1981-unreleased/ ) I did it from crappy mono files (there too)... added space, stereo and spice... and guess what, I also did a 6.1 version...

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

[Nico_Noyau]

Thanks for your answer.
You are right, before all, I have to concentrate on the music before, not on the mixing way.

I keep your post in a corner of my mind for after the composing part