5.1 Mixing EXPLAINED

[@christiankjrbl8397]

The Spitfire crew are all amazing, but I can't wait for Christian's return - he has so much knowledge, and is so great at sharing it.

[@HayDigital]

Here, here. This guy is a genius.. His teaching and knowledge and shear brute truth. I’ll drink to that

[@PROJECT-de9pd]

Isn't he a bit of a smug tit though?

[@davidsinclair699]

Priceless. Thanks Christian.

[@nathandrube3097]

Great and informative video Christian! Loads of good information here. I recently went 5.1 to eventually get into Atmos and writing with immersive playback in mind has been extremely fun. If the idea is to use 5.1 as a stepping stone to Atmos then I do think it would be a good to point out here that Dolby follows the SMPTE standard for surround routing which is: L=1, R=2, C=3, Lfe=4, Ls=5, Rs=6. It’s important to check how your channel routing works in your DAW. For example, Cubase/Nuendo follows SMPTE Ordering while Pro Tools follows the Film Ordering (which is completely different). So if you deliver your 5.1 stems in a different order from the SMPTE standard your stems wont be routed correctly for Atmos beds.

[@spadogs]

Great video. Thanks so much for this topic. Just a quick note on KZbin. You can upload encoded surround sound files. These can also be played in stereo and also be played through a surround sound decoder. KZbin does not support interleaved multitrack files. On another topic, I do not see a link to your test file. At your request, I use a quad setup. 1,2,5,6. Each speaker is of equal quality. I think this is important to mention as many home systems use smaller rear speakers. You did not touch on speaker placement, so would love to hear your take on this. I am using an immersive setup,

[@birdlingbrains]

A fun thing I was able to do on a short film 20 years ago, since I was the composer, the sound mixer, AND the director (Haha! Ultimate Power!) - at the film's climax, the only sound was the music, which was a series of big piano hits followed by trailing notes that got progressively quieter. So I put the big piano hit in all the speakers, then had the trailing notes progressively fade out of the surrounds, then the left & right, leaving the ending bits just in the center; then the next big hit back to all the speakers, etc. It was unusual but created a great effect in the theater.

[@mattvdh]

Oh man your voice recording sounds so amazing, really nice sound.

[@tyerac]

Great video Christian! QQ, can you show us how to bounce these surround files out of Logic, ready for the mix engineer? It's an incredibly confusing topic for me and i'm sure others, given the different options available.

[@RobbinGun]

I think I discovered a new gem on KZbin.

[@MichaelForbes-d4p]

All major mix engineers use the C channel for instruments and effects. It's good to differentiate 5.1 for film and 5.1 for music. For example, Bob Clearmountain puts the main vocals in the C channel and the adds in just a little L and R.

[@AlexanderAndresen]

Can you do a video on how you deliver this to the dub stage? How do you export Logic via pro tools?

[@zootook3422]

Am I blind, or where is that link to the download? All DVD surround audio I have are L, R, C, LFE, Ls and Rs in that order - so I've never questioned that.

[@yashark1893]

Hello and thank you for these incredible techniques you shared with us.

[@tianroba]

Great video, great tips! Maybe you should make the videos with a binaural representation of 5.1 so that when watching the video on youtube we can actually hear what you are doing. Cheers!

[@radiodrew]

Great Video thanks for sharing

[@alnesbitt6822]

This video, like everything else that comes from you AND Spitfire, is top notch. I can’t thank you enough for the videos as well as your products. You’ve been completely inspiring and wonderfully helpful. ✨🙏✨

[@rookproductions6031]

Thank you for this, Christian. I have been hoping for some insight on this topic from you :-)

[@wsimpson53]

Love the content! Is there a 5.1 version of the video available? Would love to hear what you did.

[@OrKestrAlan]

Excellent 👌, good tips thanks a lot

[@gregoryivesdolbyatmosmusic]

We are doing Dolby Atmos here for labels and film. Left 5.1 behind back in the last decade. Got into that in 2000. Room needs to be accurate however either way. We are.

[@bradmodd7856]

What do you put in the 4 ceiling speakers? An even darker, wetter version of the surround 4?

[@JonRobMusic]

Great video, lots to take away and play with. Although I'm not using surround (yet), as most music is written and recorded in a stereo or quad setup, personally I would go with L, R, LS, RS, C, LFE. The centre speaker and the LFE are only there for minimal usage but each to their own. I wonder if anyone goes L, C, R, LS LFE, RS?? More videos like this please!

[@hds3]

How are you getting all of those output channels at 06:42??

[@spadogs]

Christian, this may be more of a Spitfire question, but as you have opened the door to surround sound considerations, I want to ask if there has been any thought to making the Spitfire plugin more aware of surround sound settings, across your product line? For example, when I load up Spitfire libraries in Kontakt, I get several multichannel options, including my DAW setting, which in this case is Quad in Logic. There are very few Spitfire instruments, using the Spitfire plugin, that give me multichannel options. Due to this, in many cases, I find myself using multiple player instances if I want to put alternative mic samples on my rear channels. This creates more overhead and is time consuming. Thanks again for bringing this up. Great surround sound design suggestions.

[@ethnicalbert]

i don't know anyone in film that sets up like that nowadays. Everyone I know does 1L 2C 3R 4Ls 5Rs 6LFE like you said is intuitive

[@semilumi]

Couldn't find the downloadables... Where should I look?

[@tenesinsixtiliev]

“check in the description” - theres nothing IN the description smh

[@gregmulyk]

Thanks so much for this Christian! When you were setting up the little bit of "splosh" for the C channel, any reason you created a stereo output hard panned to channel 3, instead of a mono output to channel 3?

[@dafingaz]

Nice!

[@SeriousTipStudio]

Hello, I have a question for you. You had a big screen tv in your studio before. But now it looks like you have a 27" screen now. I was thinking about getting a big screen but wanted to know why you change to a smaller screen. Hope you can share that information. Thanks 😁

[@ML-yw4hv]

Hes in another studio

[@DeadWhiteButterflies]

You were involved in Alien Isolation? Hell yeah. I'm still begging for a sequel to this day.

[@dpereiramusic]

Hi, i guess its a stupid question but here it goes. When using surround, example using Polaris coming from the LS speaker ONLY, do you need to Pan the sound all to way to the left to prevent some reverb stuff coming from the RS or automatically does that for you, saying that without anything, that source(Polaris) will come just from the LS (using that configuration)?? Sorry this messed up question and english 😁

[@lockinatti]

How are you going from your Mac to all the speakers, is each speaker powered or are you using a receiver

[@loloderxd]

Where can I download the 5.1 mix? By the way, a Dolby atmos compatible plug in would be awesome!

[@loloderxd]

@Christian Henson I will stay tuned! Even if they are not high enough, it’s a great way to experience music. Work with a 7.1.4 set up and I can tell you, it‘s just wonderful. However, thanks for all your great content! I had a lot of great times with abbey road or other plug ins :)

[@bharathj63]

What's the equivalent of ambient mics for other libraries? Room?.

[@jozdundar]

FYI, YT does support 5.1 sound if prepped and uploaded properly 👍🏻

[@rothouse]

Great Video ! I also would like to know, where you position your Ls and Rs monitors and what level they have in relation to the front monitors. Do they need to have a certain distance, angle etc ? Any tips are mighty helpful :)

[@SOUNTH11composingdesign]

They got the same level.

[@JonAnderhub]

Thanks for the video on surround sound. Could you share the hardware and routing you use? How are you coming out of your computer, what outboard processing is used and what amp(s) are you using to get signal to your speakers? Thanks!

[@SOUNTH11composingdesign]

Just use a audio interface. If you want you can put a control monitor between interface and speaker.

[@LBJedi]

Very very helpful; Thabk you! Sort of an unrelated question-are the mics you all use for demos RE20s? I’m visually impaired, and having trouble figuring it out. Just curious😊

[@twizshiz]

KZbin is capable of 5.1 surround sound only through a Smart TV app, like Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV. The limit is 5.1, not 7.1 or Atmos. On computers, it is only Stereo. It would be nice if there was a KZbin app for Mac or PC that will work with 5.1 speakers, like how the Netflix app for PC does playback with 5.1 surround. YiuTube has come a long way from mono to stereo to 5.1 surround. Maybe in the future, they will support Atmos for TV apps.

[@darrenmorley2814]

I wonder how to do this on ableton.

[@HDSTUDIOSp2]

Please someone tell me where i can get 5.1 demo wave audios

[@RazertoesMusic]

How are you Christian, heard you got covid. Get well!

[@cherrysound]

Christian, did I understand you correctly: you recommend to put dry rhythmic sounds in the surround (LSUR and RSUR speakers)? Isn’t it dangerous in case of affecting people sitting on first chairs in cinema with sound delays?

[@duncanthompson957]

I believe Christian was saying quite the opposite for the very you state!

[@cherrysound]

@@duncanthompson957 Kk

[@Wipperevipp]

Great video, but - why didn't you used Dolby Atmos / Surround and using the binuarl render in Logic Pro? You guys reading this and using Logic Pro - just choose 5.1 and Dolby Atmos while you create a new project, then you don't need to do all this hassle.

[@dobyblue73]

I loathe how many of today's Atmos mixes ignore one of the most important channels, the centre channel! So many Atmos mixes have completely quiet centre channel, or something absurd like the occasional triangle or tambourine hit. Please people, at least isolate the lead vocal in the centre, it has wonderful effect (Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, The Stranger [SACD], Billy Joel)

[@KMantle]

I notice in movies, whenever they play music, it's panned a bit to the right. Usually never in the center.

[@duncanthompson957]

Sorry to say this but it might be your hearing. Certain discrepancies arise in our neurological processing when “amplified” spatially. For example, for that very reason I have to sit to the left of centre in a large cinema to feel the visual image is centred. Maybe not. It might be because your left ear (or both) aren’t as sensitive to high frequencies so hear the conventional orchestra’s sound weighted towards where the more bassy instruments are placed. On the right. It could also be that your local cinema’s speakers are poorly set up!

[@KMantle]

Go listen to movies in headphones, and see if I'm wrong. Not all is mixed that way, but alot of them are.

[@cirrus393]

Lots of things could be happening here. Most likely, you've tended to sit to the right side of the cinema, making the R channel more dominant to you. Most mixers firmly place 99% of music in L and R channels, not to the centre (maybe if we have stems).

[@simonpyke_studio]

Interesting that he using buses exclusively rather than panners. I’d be curious to hear anyone else who’s mixing in 5.1 ideas about this?

[@AmericanMe]

NON-PRO TIP: if you scoot your bottom all the way back in the chair your back wont kill you because it'll have support. my back hurts just watching you sit on the edge of your seat HAHA

[@Ag89q43G0HyA]

well im used to 1L 2R 3C 4SUBW 5SL 6SR .... just saying...

[@johansugarev]

L R C LFE Ls Rs = SMPTE order is the only layout that makes any sense.

[@infinaneek]

Ahem, “rather *good reverb” I think you meant!

[@joelmathew8833]

Great, but really messy tutorial😂

[@music_creator_capable]

I' m a composer myself, hi! ^^