A Couple of Simple Dolby 5.1 Questions.

[lemniscate]

Hello all.

First off, I am new to surround mixing, but I've been producing music for fifteen years. Recently I decided to remix some music I've made to take advantage of the surround features of DVD. My first question: is there a simple way to start off with a stereo mix and improve upon the surround experience? Ultimately, I'd like to keep the existing left and right channels as my front left and front right, and then use those channels as the rear channels with added effects, but I am concerned about how to get a central channel that won't sound terribly phase-y. The reason I say this is that on some of my songs, the stereo spread is minimal, and if I attempt to make it mono, it ends up sounding like it's been thrown through a flanger.

Another question, if I may. Let's say I want to start rotating the five channels clockwise, so that each one gradually moves to the speaker next to it, and then the next one, and so forth. Is there an easy way to pan all of the channels together, and then add some minor differences by automating each channel independently? In other words, if I want for the audio to warp around the listener evenly, but with subtle differences in the way each fade occurs (such as a slow curve from the front right to center channel, while the audio in the center channel moves to the front right on a fast or linear curve, and so forth concerning the other channels), os this easily achievable with Vegas video, or any similar program?

I know that these questions must seem terribly sophomoric, so many apologies for my inexperience and lack of appropriate terminology. Another way to illustrate what I'm asking would be to mention that in most audio programs, you can pan two channels so that they are always inversely proportionate, or else you can set them up so that when one channel is at 35% left, the other is at 37% right. If there is a way to automate so that there are slight differences, this would make a world of difference for what I'm trying to achieve.

Thank you to everyone, and any help is greatly appreciated.

[guns1inger]

Audition claims to be able to do stereo to 5.1 automatically. I don't use it, so I cannot vouch for the results.

Vegas is a greater 5.1 mixer and can probably do most of what you are after for panning etc.

I don't know if this will do all that you want, but it might get you started.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1457678#1457678

[lemniscate]

Wow... thanks for that. I'm not really looking for any kind of automatic transformation, as I understand that pseudo is nowhere near as cool as the real deal, so I'll probably stay away from Audition. I'll definitely have no trouble introducing new tracks to make it spread out a bit more, but perhaps I will split my effort between actual 5.1 mixing and some pseudo alternatives.

I'll be sure to look over your tutorial. If the plugin has some nice features, it might be useful for certain tracks, while others can have some original seperates mixed in for true 5. depth. I would imagine that there are some neat tricks that could be pulled off in pseudo, but it might take as much effort as bringing in new material to mix with the existing stereo mix. The center channel is what I'm most worried about. Eliminating any nastiness that may occur from blending the two tracks together.

Anyway, I have the new Vegas, so I'll give the documentation the full once over. I expect that it won't be as thorough in covering the Dolby possibilities as it might be for its video features, but I wouldn't necessarily be the best judge of that, either.