Surround panning + Audigy 2 disaster

Cill wrote on 9/19/2003, 9:15 AM
Hi, first posting, hope someone out there can help.

Two problems; first off, panning with the surround window in Vegas 4, and monitoring it through the speakers. I have Win XP, with a Creative Audigy 2 Platinum card, and as far as i can tell, all speakers are hooked up properly. I've actually disconected everything 3 times, reconected, tried to pan, but nothing. I've also changed the audio device settings in Vegas to all the options it offers, but still no joy. What is happening is that when i isolate the centre channel, i only get sound out of the front left speaker. The Vegas file is set up with 5.1 sound, the panner is there, but it doesn't seem to want to pan properly. Anybody any ideas???

Second problem could quite easily be related to the first. Or vice versa. Half the time I play audio files, in Vegas, or explorer, or whatever, the system suddenly locks up, and a very load beep comes from all six speakers. I have to turn the machine off at the mains, risking losing files. The same thing happens when I try to set up, or calibrate the speakers using creatives control panel. I have even swapped my pci cards around, but that had no effect. Also tried unistalling and reinstalling the drivers for the Audigy, but, again, nothing. The card was installled before Vegas, so I've a feeling that the panning problem is card related. I'm desparate to get this fixed, as I'm trying to edit a film together for a mid November premiere. Any help or ideas anyone has would be greatly appreciated.
And i know the Audigy 2 is temprmental at best. Bad choice, i admit!!!

Comments

mcgeedo wrote on 9/24/2003, 11:55 AM
My Audio was a bit flaky when I first installed it, and I had to update the drivers, as well.

Double-click on the surround panner on your audio track. Check to see the individual levels for each channel (speaker). The default for an empty track is -infinity for the center speaker. You can move it up with the slider.

Good luck,
-Don
JohanAlthoff wrote on 9/24/2003, 2:36 PM
Welcome to the wonderful world of Creative!

Well, if you say you have connected everything correctly, I'm sure you have. Have you, however, told Vegas which channels go to what speaker? That's configurable in Vegas, under Options >> Preferences >> Audio Device. Make sure everything is routed correctly - I suspect you have your center / sub channel routed to the front left / right speakers.
Tampa wrote on 9/24/2003, 3:07 PM
Are you using a stereo soundtrack to begin with? If so try combining the stereo into mono. Then duplicate the mono sound once for each channel. The stereo might be confusing your Audigy when you try to go to 5.1 channels? I had a similar problem to yours with my SB Live gamer card. It isn't 5.1 capable to begin with, but I was able to pan front to rear with it. Good Luck!
Cill wrote on 9/29/2003, 8:37 AM
Thats a point. I'm only checking the forums now, i don't have the luxury of an internet connection in my apartment, so i'm sitting away from my machine in an internet cafe. If i'm remembering correctly, on the preferences audio device tab, i was getting different devices for the channels before and after i reinstalled the audigy card. when i saw this i thought the problem could have been fixed, as the original devices listed didn't seem to refer to anything on my system. After the reinstall, the devices seemed to be the audigy card, but i couldn't change them; the drop down menu only listed the new devices, ie the same in all 3 places. i'll have to check the settings again when i get home. thanks for your help, will let you know if it fixes anything!!!
theo wrote on 10/23/2003, 12:41 PM
Try this; options > preferences > audio device - change the "audio device type" to "Creative ASIO" From there you should be able to set each of the three defaults to the correct channels. no depending on you card you will have to change the sample rate - file> properties> audio - A "sample rate (Hz)" of 48 000 worked with my "audigy 2" card
good luck
Rogueone wrote on 10/23/2003, 9:23 PM
I would definitely try updating the drivers. I've got an Auidgy 2 Platinum card & Vegas, and they are working fine. Updating drivers usually solves a lot of headaches. Do you get the buzzing/distortion in anything else other than Vegas?

Rogue One
alphaproject wrote on 10/27/2003, 10:55 AM
My advice to you is this. Vegas isn't nearly as good as Cubase SX when it comes to mixing sound or panning it into 5.1.

I export the video into Cubase SX and do the sound there. This way I get crisp 5.1 mix, with way more plug-ins than I'll ever need. Then I export the 5.1 audio files back into Vegas and put them into there respective place.

Meaning this. Left/Right/Center and so forth muting the rest of the channels that they don't need. Panning in Vegas sucks. You need to make keyframes everytime you want something to pan???? There simple should be a write/read button like in Cubase or even Adobe Premier. If there's a technique I'm not using to pan in Vegas let me know, but keyframing a pan is probably the single worst idea I've ever seen in a program dealing with audio.

With Cubase you hit WRITE and move the dot around the panning area, done. If you screw up, just delete the automation and try again.

I'll say that my Audigy 1 didn't give me any troublesin Vegas but now I do have this problem. If my computer is already on and I plug my camcorder in to it and hit capture, I get that buzzing you are talking about and my sound locks up. In order to capture DV I have to have the camcorder plugged in, then start up the computer. Works fine then, but makes no sense to me.