basic help in surround

Hi,

I have two stereo tracks that I'm trying to arrange so that the first stereo track has it's left side sourced from the Northwest, and the right side from the Southwest. Opposite that, I want the second stereo track to be panned so that its left side is coming from the Southeast and it's right side is coming from the Northeast. I'm having trouble setting up what I think would be a basic surround sound set up. I try disabling the different speakers but still get a weird blend and when I try dividing my stereo tracks into mono, they won't produce any sound when I put them in my preferred surround position. Looking for the angle, diversity, XF, XR and Y values that will produced this effect. Bonus points if I can do this without bouncing the tracks into 4 mono tracks (I have to do this repeatably and accomplishing this effect with the two stereo tracks would save me a lot of time).

Thank you,

Jack

If you're not using a subwoofer or centre speaker for these mixes, only front LR and rear LR, then I'd suggest the following:

Open Logic Preferences -> Audio

Click on I/O the Assignments tab

In the Surround section, click on [show as:] and select Quadraphonic

The speaker selections should be:

Left - Output 1

Right - Output 2

L.Surround - Output 5

R.Surround - Output 6

Now go to File -> Project settings -> Audio

For Surround Format, select Quadraphonic again

Now go to your Environment window.

Make sure that the tracks/channels you are using have their outputs set to Surround.

Doing this will create a new Surround Master fader

if you have a fader labeled Output 1-2 then delete it as it will mess with your mix.

Now you can double-click on the circular surround panner icon on a channel.

This will open a surround panner window.

You can then place your tracks where you want them (as you described), swop L&R etc.

Hope this helps...

Hi thank you for the info but my problem is still not fixed. I've tested my headphones (they support surround sound).

When I turn off the TOP LEFT or TOP RIGHT speaker the entire track goes silent. Meaning the Output 5 and Output 6 aren't getting anything.

Best,

Jack

Ideally, if your Mac has HDMI, you should connect to a surround receiver and speakers.

Also, if outputs 5 & 6 aren't working, maybe your config is different from mine. Try 3 & 4 or 7 & 8 just to be sure.

You could also look in AudioMidiSetup to see what's set there.

PS:

To the topic author:

You should list your Logic and MacOS versions in your Signature - it helps other users to understand your setup.

Ideally, if your Mac has HDMI, you should connect to a surround receiver and speakers.

For this to work, Logic would first have to encode into Dolby Digital, which it does not do. You need to use an audio interface with multiple outputs.

Ideally, if your Mac has HDMI, you should connect to a surround receiver and speakers.

For this to work, Logic would first have to encode into Dolby Digital, which it does not do. You need to use an audio interface with multiple outputs.

HDMI can carry 8 unencoded PCM streams (so up to 7.1), but the receiving end needs to support it.

I've used it like that before

Ah. Ok. So how do you address these from Logic ?

set HDMI as the output in logic, and it behaves as an 8-channel audio interface, do some channel IDing to assign correct HDMI channels to speakers - voíla

Not here. Guess my Macs are too old.

I did that with the 2018 Mini, i think it needs to be HDMI 1.2 to work in PCM?

Generally 10y old macs have HDMI 1.4 and it's new enough to support uncompressed audio - unless it's nerfed by apple, which is also a possibility.

My old Mac Pro 2012 could not send out surround.

My 2018 Mac Mini works great via HDMI to a Yamaha surround receiver. Logic sends out surround and even movies play in surround via VLC.