LFE Track Routing consistency with Settings | More Freedom when Bouncing

javierbelmer · February 11

I wanted to bring up a concern I've been having over the past weeks while working on my music for a documentary series.

5.1 Surround

It's technically available to use, and granted Logic Pro has some advanced tools with facilitated usage, but something doesn't add up when it comes to 5.1, or at least doesn't function the way one would assume it would from an industry standard and user friendly audio software like Logic Pro.

I'll explain my case.

Let's look at what you can currently do, which are positives.

For the most part, the routing is well done.
Audio Midi Setup already lets you see and adjust the assignment of the monitors with the channel outputs of your audio interface (as well as select alternative routing configurations).
You also get to later make sure that the channels assigned from Audio Midi Setup match with those in Logic Pro Preference, under the I/O tab. Like before, you can select and make alternative and custom routing configurations.
You can Select your input tracks to be Mono/Stereo/Surround, as well as your Output from Mono, to Stereo, Binaural, to Surround (etc.)
You also have the ability to select plugins that not only allow you to monitor with the levels of each individual channel of that track, but that of the Surround track as a whole, in accordance to the Surround Option selected in Project Settings. Cool
You're also allowed Downmix to other formats as well, and make the same individual and group adjustments.
You're allowed to select Dolby Atmos option, which gives access to a plugin that lets you select Again different monitoring options.

There may be plenty more details that I'm missing, but I'm highlighting the ones are most relevant to my point.

Questions worth pondering over and New Feature Suggestions:

Why isn't the LFE automatically present in the 5.1 Output? Why does it need me to create another track, send the signal of the original 5.1 through it, and output it in Mono for it to go in the LFE? Doesn't the .1 in 5.1 equate to 5 Channels + 1 Subwoofer? Why is there an extra step for the LFE channel, when in the Same track where you can select the Ins and Outs in Surround, there are plugins in 5.1??? In my attempts at writing music for the documentary, I had to essentially Forget about using the LFE because it wasn't really accessible. The Export would be in 5.1, but there was nothing going to the LFE channel.

How are we still only allowed to Export in Surround by ticking a box in the Bounce Window, without being able to choose what channels we wish to Enable or Disable? Sure! We can mute tracks and channels from the Master window, but the channel still exists. I say this because despite my issues with the LFE channel mentioned before, I decided to work as if I were in 5.0, and yet the file still exported in 5.1

And I know what a lot of people who don't have Logic say, "Why not just select the option of 5.0 from the project settings", which Would make sense, if there even was such an option to begin with

So just give us more options and more accessibility to export how we wish, and make whatever channels we have automatically Active on the tracks, when we've already selected Surround as the options for I/O. We already have Multichannel plugins to adjust it however we wish, why is this particular detail not somehow the case?

I hope this helps, and enough people can either explain it better, or explain to me how it actually works, or Back Me Up on this, because it's a minor detail that I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been brought up before in this forum!