Another 5.1 Surround Question:

amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 9:34 AM
I was trying to pan a single track from left to right. When I am all left in the surround panner the sound is all left. When I am all right in the panner the sound seems to be more center. Even if I drop the center to nothing it still seams to be center when all right.

I am though using 2.1 speakers only and they are connected in one jack in the back of my Audigy 2ZS. Do I need a 5.1 setup? How come when I play the Chant song off of Vasst it works perfect, in the two speakers anyway?

I have checked my overall balance and it is centered, music also plays the way it should.

Thanks in Advance.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/17/2004, 9:52 AM
You need a 5.1 surround system to monitor surround. If you are listening to a 5.1 mix on a 2 channel system, you are hearing audio muxed to the stereo mix. There is no way to author nor monitor 5.1 without a 5.1 system.
amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 9:54 AM
Thanks Spot, time to go out shopping. :-)
MyST wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:09 AM
Why would you pan a stereo track using the surround panner?
Insert a pan envelope to the stero track and then add points to tell Vegas where you want the sound to be, and when.

Mario
amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:31 AM
"Why would you pan a stereo track using the surround panner?"

Mario, I'm a newcomer to Vegas and video editing so the majority of my reason was to play and learn about the 5.1 capabilities of Vegas. That’s why I wanted to pan left to right only knowing that I don’t have a 5.1 system. Obviously this doesn’t work. I did revisit Vegas after Spot's post and already did what you mentioned.

I can see to an experienced user like yourself what I tried may have been stupid or illogical but to me it was just simple learning.
riredale wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:37 AM
You certainly need a 4+ channel speaker setup to hear surround sound, but I am mystified as to why you cannot locate a single audio channel exclusively to your right speaker.

I have a surround-sound speaker setup here at my workstation, driven by a Turtle Beach surround card. When I tell the card to revert to just the 2 front channels, it shuts the rears off completely. I can put any audio track on the Vegas timeline, go into Properties and specify surround audio, and move the panner back and forth to move the audio from full left to full right. You don't need a surround-sound speaker setup to move the audio correctly from front left to front right.

I tried several stereo and mono audio files on the Vegas timeline, and every time I had full control of speaker placement. So while Spot's right that you'll need surround-sound speakers to get the surround-sound effect, I don't think that's the issue you're having.

Or am I missing something?

In the Options/Preferences/Audio Device tab, what Audio Device Type are you using?
Spot|DSE wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:48 AM
How the surround is muxed is card-dependent. Some cards will isolate the 5.1 signal and others will mux them.
No matter what, even in a 5.1 mix, moving the location target to a right front speaker should indeed give it the exclusive use of the right front speaker. Could well be a bus or something else is in the process that is affecting the monitoring location.
amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:51 AM
riredale, I was thinking the same thing. I also was curious why I couldn't go left to right using the panner. It does after all go full left but not just right.

I am using the Microsoft Sound Mapper I also have "Audigy2ZS ASIO [A400]" as well as "Creative ASIO" when I try both of these Vegas says "device does not support current sample rate or bit depth"
MyST wrote on 10/17/2004, 10:59 AM
"I can see to an experienced user like yourself what I tried may have been stupid or illogical but to me it was just simple learning."

It didn't seem stupid or illogical at all, really.
What seemed like maybe a sarcastic remark to you really wan't intended that way at all.
Heck, I'm still learning all the time.
I myself just got a surround set-up this summer and I'm learning basic stuff all the time. I just learned this morning about keyframing for surround thanks to Spot (again).
So really, no "put-down" was intended at all.

Back to your panning problem...

Did you try disabling the other channels? Clic on the little speakers that you DON'T want the sound coming out of. They should turn grey, that means they're disabled.
Leave just your right-front speaker active (blue) and make sure the volume level for it is loud enough.
Try that...getting anything out of your front-right speaker?

Mario

PS: In the Surround meter (Mixer View, bottom right) do you see the front-right meter reacting?

amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 11:14 AM
"What seemed like maybe a sarcastic remark to you really wan't intended that way at all."

No worries Mario, communication sometimes gets mixed up especially in the morning without coffee. :-)

I did what you suggested and what I found was kinda wierd. If I disable all but right the sound is right, when I move the "thingy" (for lack of a better term) to the left the sound fades out just before center on the right side.

When I have just the left speaker activated and pan that it goes all the way to the right side and doesnt fade out completely. Seems as though the left speaker is way over power compaired to the right.


** And when watching the mixer only the right channel fades in and out the left stays where ever I set it even though I have panned all right.
MyST wrote on 10/17/2004, 11:25 AM
My coffee mug says "Don't talk to me til this is empty!" :-)

Did you look at the meters? Did you notice if the left side was showing hotter than the right side?
There are two sliders just left of the RIGHT-LEFT meter, are they together or is the left slider higher than the right?
There's a little lock at the bottom of the slider, is it unlocked or locked?

Mario
amemain wrote on 10/17/2004, 11:31 AM
Yep I did look at them even unlocked them and lowered the left a little but it just stayed, didnt fade at all.

If I turn the Automation controls off and move the "thingy" the speaker behave correctly. If I turn it on the original problem reverts back.

Also if I shut it all down and rebuild it the problem switched sides. Now the right side is not fading but becuase the left has more power the left to right pan sounds ok. Something is "funny" thats my conclusion. :-) I will get some speakers and do it right (properly) and see what happens.

Thank you all for your support. Even though the problem (if there really is one) isn't fixed I have learnt LOTS! Which is good.