Surround Sound On A Powermac Options

[danerik]

Hi, I am in the process of getting one of the newly released PowerMacs, and I've started researching the possibilities of surround sound under OS X. I am in doubt as to wether I can continue to use the speaker setup I have now.

I will appreciate any links/suggestions as to what I need to do in order to hook up my setup on my PowerMac. Currently, the setup is a 5.1 System from Cambridge Soundworks, and as far as I can tell it can decode AC-3 digital audio. Is it possible for me to keep this?

What PCI cards/companies exist that can help add surround sound to my PowerMac?

I have tried researching this on the net, but have been frustrated in my attempts.

Dan

[Synthetic]

I was just looking at an Emagic audio interface that works on macs and offers 6 outputs and 2 inputs. It claims that you can use the 6 outputs to setup a surround sound system but I guess it doesn't support OSX just yet. It sounded as though they were working on making OSX drivers though. It is reasonably priced to at $300. For more info... goto www.emagic.de or look it up under Emagic at Samash.com. You will have to decide according to your inputs and outputs whether your current sound system will work with it or not.

[deleted]

I will appreciate any links/suggestions as to what I need to do in order to hook up my setup on my PowerMac.  Currently, the setup is a 5.1 System from Cambridge Soundworks, and as far as I can tell it can decode AC-3 digital audio.  Is it possible for me to keep this?

In my experience, there is two different steps.

Do you want to mix a project in surround (say 5.1) with your sequencer? Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Nuendo, etc. can do this, but you'll need an audio interface with at least 6 analog outputs dedicated to monitoring the surround mix, like Synthetic said.

Do you want to encode a discrete 5.1 channels surround mix to AC-3, and then send the encoded soundtrack to your Digital AC-3 input on your amplifier? I know of a tool included with DVD Studio Pro (previously by Astarte) that can do this, but i have no ideas as how to send the AC-3 stream to the audio interface, then to the amplifier (through s/pdif, am i correct)? Even better in realtime?

IMHE, only Pro Tools has a TDM plugin to encode & send AC-3 to a digital output, IIRC. Dunno if it's realtime, anyone?

Interesting thread, if someone knows more about this, hint, hint :-)

Bye.

[davidatler]

i have also been looking into this. i have the emagic emi 2/6 (usb with the 6 outs for 5.1) i dont currently have it hooked up to 5.1. but i do get standard stereo playback fine under osX. once cubase SX is released i will then run the 6 outs into a receiver with 5.1 in for monitoring the mix. as far as the ac3 i'm not quite sure, but i hope this helps anyway.

[deleted]

Thanks Davidalter, just let us know.

Bye.

[danerik]

Thanks for the help guys... I've been looking at Emagic and M-Audio's products, and it will probably come down to picking one of them... when and if I get the whole thing running, I'll add something here. As far as I can see, I'll receive shipment of my system within 2 weeks time.

I also noticed Emagic had a product that was a total surround solution, but which they discontinued in 2001...

Dan

[gdoubleyou]

I've also been reseaching 5.1 for DVD authoring.

Can you bypass the Dolby encoding?

My Sony home theater amp actually has a set of inputs that bypass the encoding.

Seems like most of the pros are using a bass management system to route low frequencies to their subwoofers.

Check out this site dedicated to DVD creation.
http://www.dvdcreation.com/HTM/HomeSet1.htm

The world wide users group has a forum for DVD
http://www.wwug.com/forums/index.htm

[damann]

the bass management system is simply an issue of whether the bass frequencies should be confined to the sub, or allowed into the other speakers---