Apple Soundtrack Pro 2 - Manual (Page 294)

294 Chapter 9 Mixing Surround Sound
Creating a Surround Project
The following steps outline a general workflow used for editing and mixing surround
sound files.
Step 1: Acquiring the sound
As with any audio track, the first step is finding and recording the sound that you want.
Soundtrack Pro is flexible in terms of what kinds of files you can use in the surround
mix. Input files can be mono, stereo, or surround. While Soundtrack Pro also includes
numerous surround clips for music and sound effects, the production audio for most
film and video projects is typically either mono or stereo files.
Step 2: Editing and arranging a multitrack project
The workflow for editing audio files and arranging them in the multitrack Timeline is
very similar for stereo and surround projects. For more information, see Chapter 4,
“
Working with Multitrack Projects ,” on page 105, Chapter 5, “ Working in the Timeline ,”
on page 127, and Chapter 6, “ Editing Audio Files ,” on page 191.
Step 3: Mixing surround
Soundtrack Pro provides a flexible toolset for creating and adjusting a surround mix.
For more information, see “
Surround Mixing Strategies ” on page 306.
Step 4: Exporting and delivering surround projects
Soundtrack Pro supports a variety of workflows and formats for delivering your final
surround mix. These include separate audio files for each channel or single
multichannel sound files for the entire mix.
Setting Up for Surround
In order to hear your surround project through a surround speaker system, you need to
adjust settings in Soundtrack Pro and set up the related hardware.
Setting Up Soundtrack Pro for Surround
In Soundtrack Pro, the difference between mixing in stereo and mixing in surround
hinges on three different elements: the panner type, the submix output, and the
number of physical output channels. All three of these items must be configured
correctly to achieve surround playback. If one of these three conditions is not met,
playback will be in stereo. (For more information about stereo mixdown, see “
Stereo
Mixdown ” on page 297.) Use the instructions that follow to start using the surround
mixing tools in Soundtrack Pro.