Eek - so many options..where to begin..

Preferences - which device are you set to use for audio?
Project set up for 5.1?
Panned tracks around to other speakers?
Have you got "downmix" selected on preview window?

I have the project set up for 5.1. Zero stero buses. I've tried "Direct Sound Surround Manager" and "Windows Classic Wave Driver". I've treid panning the tracks - the sound always comes out of the two front speakers, and not either of the rear nor the center speaker.

I believe I have downmix selected - it shows the 5.1 icon. Is that right?

Please fill out your system specs.

With out knowing your audio hardware, I am only guessing here:

- Check the hardware routing at the Surround Master bus (not in prefs!). Make sure that each of the speaker route settings at the Surround Master bus is set to the correctly speaker out of your sound card.

Note: Changing the settings in the Audio Device Preference page says "use this for new project defaults". It will not change your currently open project.

- Make sure you tell Windows that you have a 5.1 speaker arrangment. if you plan on using the Direct Sound Mapper

The downmix is so you can hear a 5.1 mixed project as stereo. It is NOT a rendering setting. It will force you output to the stereo front pair of speakers.

Peter

Salamander, really not enough info. You have a source stereo track only ? Presumably you have panned this track all around the place with the surround panner , or have you added extra tracks and panned those.

Sorry if that sounds condescending, but you are pretty scant on specifics here....

geoff

I have a source stereo track only. I'm not sure how the panning works. I've tried moving the diamond around, but while that changes the level of the sound it still only comes out of the front speakers.

This is the first time I've even tried surround sound, so I am a complete newbie on this.

FYI - I've set the audio device as "Windows Classic Wave Driver". I have a Creative XFi sound card and a Logitech 5.1 speaker system.

Basic information here:

Vegas does not encode its output into a 5.1 digital signal. You must route each 5.1 channel to a physcial output of your XFi card. Other models of Creative sound cards expose seperate outputs for Front, Rear, Center/LFE. You must route Vegas' Surround Master bus to these correctly.

In the case of the DirectSound Surround Mapper driver option in Vegas, you must tell Windows that your card is connected to a Surround Speaker system for Windows to properly route through Direct Sound. This is done in the Control Panel's Audio setup.

From what I have read about the XFi card, you should use the ASIO drivers.

Then from the Surround Bus routing controls, set up your Front, Rear, and Center/LFE routings to the appropriate outputs of your card.

What I cannot determine is whether the XFi card will convert the routed outputs of the hardware to a digital 5.1 signal.

How is your Logitech 5.1 speaker system connected to the Creative card?

If you are connected digitally, then the hardware MAY not translate the outputs Vegas' uses. I don't know as I don't have one of these cards. Other Creative SB type cards do not do this - that is they do not do real-time AC3 encoding, only pass through.

Peter