Mike Watkins
Level 1 (90 points)

Q: Order of 5.1 surround channels

I will preface this by saying I'm aware that I should have known better and done my own testing beforehand instead of assuming an untested process would just work.

 

I am a regular competitor in the DC 48 Hour Film Project. Last year, I had placed sounds in FCPX (currently patched to v10.1.3) where I wanted them, using ambience and music presets to make a surround mix. I lost all of that placement when I ran it through Compressor (currently patched to v4.1.3) using the default stereo mix. I vowed not to make that same mistake again.

 

So this year (our fifth annual entry into the competition), I made another surround mix that I was pleased with, ran it through Compressor with the 5.1 audio selected and figured the mix would be preserved as it was in FCPX. We cut things close as usual so that after rendering and writing to a flash drive, there was no time for QC - it was straight into the car for the drive to DC.

 

After dropping off the film, I decided to watch the compressed file as submitted. The dialogue (C) channel came out of the right (R) speaker, the right (R) channel came out of the center (C), the left and right surrounds (Ls, Rs) came out of the right surround and low frequency speakers (Rs, LFE) and so on ... everything was jumbled. I'm glad that the dialogue channel will at least be represented in one of the frontal speakers, but I know it will be a distraction. In the end, I would have been better off doing another stereo mix like last year.

 

I have always been an fan of Apple and their products. I always will be, too - I'm hooked. But I'm surprised that two applications that are as tightly integrated as FCPX and Compressor are wouldn't have passed the channels from one to the other in the same order.

 

My question to you guys: is there a way to alter the order of channels that Compressor expects for a 5.1 mix? If there was, I could just change it to match the output of FCPX. I have seen the "Modify a surround sound source file", but this seems to be for if you have replacement sound files, not if you just want to reposition audio from an existing surround sound source file.

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you might be able to lend.

Posted on May 7, 2015 11:09 AM

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Mike Watkins

Q: Order of 5.1 surround channels

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  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB May 10, 2015 12:55 PM in response to Mike Watkins
    Level 6 (10,041 points)
    Audio
    May 10, 2015 12:55 PM in response to Mike Watkins

    I've competed in the 48HFP in three different cities, and none of them accepted 5.1 surround sound.  Even if they did, I'd never waste time with it on a competition like that.  Also, "...I would have been better off doing another stereo mix like last year."  But you said last year you did surround sound.

     

    Exactly which preset are you using in Compressor?

     

    I think you'll find this works fine now in the latest version, 10.2 along with 10.10.3 of OS X.

     

    I've not done many 5.1 mixes, but the few I've done went from FCPX to Compressor just fine.  Mostly I create a custom of the preset I need, and use that directly inside of FCPX.

  • by Mike Watkins,

    Mike Watkins Mike Watkins May 10, 2015 7:55 PM in response to BenB
    Level 1 (90 points)
    May 10, 2015 7:55 PM in response to BenB

    Hey, BenB, I appreciate you writing back. Always like meeting fellow 48HFPers, as well.

     

    You said "Even if they did [accept 5.1 surround sound], I'd never waste time with it on a competition like that". You make it sound like it's a time suck. I will admit that I didn't have any planes buzzing overhead from Ls to R ... my mix was dead simple: using the Dialogue preset for the dialogue (maybe panning slightly left and right if there's a two-shot convo), using Music for the music and Ambient for the ambience and so on. About as simple a surround mix as possible, but it really makes a difference to me. Plus, we make a DVD for our team members and Kickstarter backers, so I want that to have 5.1.

     

    Regarding last year doing surround sound - I may not have been clear in my OP: I did a 5.1 in FCPX, but I passed it to a contest-specific Compressor setting I made that still mistakenly had the audio type set to Stereo. So I lost all of my placement.

     

    As I just mentioned, the preset I am using is a custom preset with settings specified by the person who masters the entries here in DC.

     

    I will also say when I "shared" the 5.1 mix straight from FCPX to YouTube and then played that file using my TiVo box, the surround was where it needed to be. I should definitely try your suggestion and add the custom preset to my sharing options in FCPX to see if there is any difference between a direct share out of FCPX and a "Send To Compressor" type job.

     

    You've also opened my eyes that I missed last month's update to the pro apps. I want to go to there and will soon.