Export for Surround Sound

Export for Surround Sound (September 26, 2009 02:47PM) rlinsurf
I have 6 tracks which are my 5.1 surround tracks. But I have no idea how to get them out to Compressor. Can someone tell me how to do this?

Thanks.
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 26, 2009 11:41PM) ronny courtens
In short:

1. Open Compressor
2. Select Job > New Job with surround sound group. The channel assign interface will open.
3. Drag each of your surround tracks into the corresponding channels on the interface
4. Click OK

The group of surround files appears as a single surround source media file job in the Batch window and are also shown in the Inspector window.

Now drag the appropriate audio preset from your Settings window to the source media file. Normally this will be the Dolby Digital Professional 5.1 format.

If your 5.1 tracks have been created in a professional studio or at least by someone who knows how to create 5.1 surround sound for dolby, then you won't have to make too many changes to the default setting to get perfect surround audio. However, there always are some minor changes to make and these take some time to explain. I have created a custom preset for 5.1 dolby surround that includes these little tweaks. We use this preset for all our commercial 5.1 DVD authoring. You can download it here:

[files.me.com]

Just drop the file in your Compressor folder (user > Library > Application Support > Compressor) like you see in the attached pic.

Then open Compressor and you will find the preset in your Custom Settings. Drag the preset to your Batch window and start encoding.

If you wish to know more details about AC3 surround encoding, check p. 139 in the Compressor manual.

Best wishes,

Ronny



Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 27, 2009 09:06AM) rlinsurf
Hi, Ronny--

First, thank you for the detailed explanation.

But I'm still confused over one thing.

You say to

Quote:
3. Drag each of your surround tracks into the corresponding channels on the interface

From where? So far, I have 6 mono .wav's imported in from my Sony 5.1 Handycam in the FCP timeline. They sound exactly as I need them to be. Do I drag them in from FCP? Do I have to export them somehow? If so, the only way I can see that will retain all the audio work I did on them is as .aiff's -- which are stereo, not mono.

So I'm confused.
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 27, 2009 10:10AM) ronny courtens
You say your surround channels sound exactly as you want them to be, so I presume that you have a 5.1 surround system connected to your FCP station, correct ?

The next thing you need to do is to set your sequence so it exports your audio tracks as individual mono tracks. This is how you do this:

Choose Sequence > Settings and select the Audio Outputs tab.
Set Outputs to "6" and set all Groupings to Dual Mono.
Leave Downmix to 0 (zero) for all channels.
Click OK (see attached pic)

Now (and this is the most important step):

Go to your FCP sequence and CTRL+click (Right+click) on each audio track in the area between the track number and the lock icon.
You should see a pop-up menu including an Audio Output option.
Use this to assign the track to one of the 6 audio outputs you just enabled. Assign track 1 to output 1, track 2 to output 2 etc...

Now your sequence is ready for 5.1 audio export.

Just select File > Export > Audio to AIFF(s).
Set a destination and a name for your files
Make sure Rate = 48 KHz, Depth = 16-bit and Config = Channel Grouped
Press Save

Your 5.1 surround audio will be saved as 6 individual mono AIFF files that you can now drag in the Compressor interface.

IMPORTANT:

It is imperative that you know which track belongs to which specific channel within your surround system, otherwise you won't know which track to assign to which channel in the Compressor interface. Normally your 6 mono wavs should clearly indicate in their file name which surround channel they represent (L,R,C, Ls,Rs or Lf)

Best wishes,

Ronny



Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 27, 2009 12:14PM) rlinsurf
Again, thank you for the expert advice.

Ok, does this have to be done along with the video? Or can I do separate video and audio Compressor jobs? If so, how would I do that?

Thanks again.
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 27, 2009 07:54PM) ronny courtens
Yes, of course you can send the video separately from the audio.

I assume you have used Log&Transfer to import your AVCHD files into FCP and you have chosen ProRes as the editing format. This is by far the best solution for working with heavily compressed AVCHD footage.

Once your footage is in the ProRes timeline, do your editing and export a self-contained QT movie of your finished edit.

To make an SD DVD with 5.1 surround sound, drop the exported movie in Compressor and choose the appropriate DVD preset to make your DVD (m2v) file. Finally bring the m2v file in DVDSP, together with the 5.1 surround file you created in Compressor, and author your DVD.

Best wishes,

Ronny
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 28, 2009 10:06AM) rlinsurf
Hi, Ronny--

Well, the export is working great. Unfortunately, I can no longer hear anything when I'm playing the timeline.

I have a Motu 828MKIII as my output. Under Audi/Video Settings-->A/V Devices, it is set as the Playback Device, but I'm still hearing nothing.

What have done wrong?
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 27, 2009 02:29PM) rlinsurf
Hi, Ronny--

Ok, this is how far I've gotten. First I downloaded your settings file -- Thank you :) (BTW, it was downloaded as a .xml file. Once I eliminated the .xml in the file name, it worked great).

I then saved out the resulting .ac3 as audio only, using the settings file.

But now I'm running into the rest of the problem, which is with this Sony Handycam, and issues which it seems many people are having with these cameras and FCP. Sony states that the camera is 1080p, and indeed, when I hooked the camera up to my 1080p set to watch the footage it looked amazing, really.

Anyway, I am now trying to find a way to use the footage straight from the camera, and use the .ac3 I just created as the audio. But I'm very confused at the moment as to how to do this.

So that's why I was hoping there's a way to have Compressor use separate files for the audio and video for this.
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 29, 2009 06:05AM) ronny courtens
Sorry for the late reply, I was away all day.

If you have changed the Audio Outputs in Sequence Settings to be able to export individual mono tracks, you should reset your Audio Outputs to their default 5.1 settings for playback on your Motu.

Best wishes,

Ronny
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 29, 2009 09:53AM) rlinsurf
Hi, Ronny--

np. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your help.

So it doesn't look at the moment that I'm having any success with FCP doing the video portion. Meg over at the Apple forums, tells me she has a similar camera, but isn't having my issues, but for whatever reason, I can't get it to work. So I just re-edited the whole thing (video) in Vegas.

So now to output, what file format's coming from a PC will Compressor accept when using the Add Video option in the surround sound dialog? Right now, I had the Vegas folks suggest MPEG2 for output to Blu-Ray, namely, HDV1080/60i at 25MBPS .m2v. Will this actually work? I notice that often, PC's wont recognize Mac files of the same ext., and vice versa. Can that just be corrected by changing the creator/filetype?

BTW -- why is this so *hard*??? <GRIN>
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 29, 2009 10:01AM) ronny courtens
I'm sorry I won't be able to help you with files coming from Vegas. I have tested this application a few times and I didn't like it, so I have paid no further attention to it. If it is your intention to make a Blu-Ray DVD you may find some third party software that works with Vegas. It is never a good idea to mix applications that work on different plaforms.

Best wishes,

Ronny
Re: Export for Surround Sound (September 29, 2009 11:23AM) rlinsurf
np. Again, my thanks for all your help.

Best,
Jeffrey
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