5.1 Mixing On The Mac Options

[red_books]

Hey guys. I'm wondering, whats some good software out there to do some 5.1 mixing with? I use ableton live 6 but it does not have any 5.1 mixing in it.

[Arnolfo]

you can use the return tracks in Live for that.
I wish it was more simple though, maybe in a future version...

[red_books]

are you telling me theres no way to 5.1 mix properly on the mac?

[jeffcloke]

I really hope someone can reply more positively one day on this. After trying everything last year I gave up trying to find a 5.1 mixing solution on the MAC that was affordable.

Here's what I do:

1. Mix in Live 6 and use Soundflower as the output to send all 6 tracks to Plogue Bidule.
2. Record in Bidule using the multichannel recorder set to one file per channel.
3. Copy the files to my PC !!!
4. Use Magix Music Maker 12 to tweak everything and make a 5.1 mix.
5. Export the mix as a 6 channel .wav file.
6. You can play this file on MAC or PC using VLC, OR....
7. I use Surcode DTS CD (on the PC) to produce a true 5.1 DTS file. Note this file is ONLY usable as a stand-alone music track: it's mixed at too high a data rate to add to a video track.

Hope this helps.

What's needed to do all this (and more) in an AFFORDABLE way on the MAC is
a. True 6 channel recording in Live: the best solution but not necessarily cheap.
b. A 5.1 encoder for the MAC that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

One more thing I use is the set of MP3 surround encoders from Fraunhofer. They take 6 channel .wav and make a very good MP3 version that plays on their player. One day perhaps this will be the audio standard for video; one day perhaps this will be in Logic and iMovie; one day perhaps.......

Anyone out there with a current solution?

Best wishes

Jeff

[Jim Hoyland]

Logic has native support for 5.1 (actually 7.1) mixing, but no encoding.

ProTools HD supports almost all surround formats, however PTLE has no surround support.

Compressor (part of Final Cut Pro - but it may be available as a stand-alone application) does Dolby Digital surround encoding very well but doesn't do DTS.

The new version of Soundtrack Pro has awesome surround mixing capabilities and integrates seamlessly with Compressor.

You may be able to find a version of A-Pack which was Apple's pre-Compressor Dolby encoding software.

My understanding is that the scarcity of decent DTS encoders is a licencing issue with DTS themselves. The only options I have seen are expensive plug-ins for ProTools HD and Nuendo (PC only I think), hardware encoders, or the standalone software from Surcode which isn't cheap either.

[gdoubleyou]

Also Digital Performer, and strangely the 16bit only Bias Deck .

Cubase, Nuendo if you have a mac Pro.

[kcosimo]

Soundtrack Pro 2.0 works good as a 5.1 mixer but no midi (so far)

[red_books]

thats strange its such a pain in the ass. i may just have to get pro tools hd. nuendo is out for mac os x now