Down mixer plug-in - Questions for the pros

[shilshoolon1]

Hi all I would like to mix a film to dolby 5.1 but i don't have an encoder plug-in to listen to the down mix in real time. How would you suggest that i should set the down mixer plug-in settings to work as closely to the the way the encoder will downmix?

 

Thanks,

 

Shil

[fader8]

shil,

I'd love to be able to say that there's one hard standard for this. Unfortunately, there's a few. Adding to that, people jerk around with their home systems anyway and tweak these things. But with that said, here are the "safe" settings/method:

 

Drop the center by 4.5dB and feed to both the L & R.

Drop the LS & RS by 3dB and feed them to L & R respectively.

Drop the LFE by 6db and feed to both the L & R.

 

If you want a really warm cozy feeling about the mix, then try adding 3dB and subtracting 3dB from the above numbers and see if it still sounds acceptable. That will cover most eventualities.

 

I have a surround monitor controller that has a handy one-button downmix feature, but I can set up the defaults for it. Very useful thing.

[shilshoolon1]

Hi fader8

 

Thank you so much for your help:-) sorry for the delayed post i've been having some really bad crushes this week and needed to sort out my computer.

 

I have some questions for you regarding to what you mean when you say" feed them to L & R respectively" .

 

I also set the down mixer like this (see pic), is that what you meant? P.S. it will not go to -4.5 only 4.6 which i guess isn't such a big issue

Cheers,

Shil

[fader8]

I have some questions for you regarding to what you mean when you say" feed them to L & R respectively" .

Sorry, I'm used to handcranking this. The plug-in handles the routing for you, so you're OK.

I also set the down mixer like this (see pic), is that what you meant?

Yes, you got it.

[shilshoolon1]

Thanks fader8 you're a star