Reference Guide

944 Surround Mixing (Producer and Studio only)
Configuring SONAR for surround mixing
Choosing a surround format
Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Surround to select a surround format. Choosing a surround
format sets the number of speakers your project is using, and lets you choose a specific sound card
output for each speaker. Here you can also choose parameters for bass management, and for
downmixing, which means converting a surround mix into a stereo mix.
The group of sound card outputs that you choose in Edit > Preferences > Project - Surround
make up the “Surround Main.” The Surround Main becomes a choice on the Outputs menus of
tracks and buses as soon as you insert a surround bus into your project. You won’t see a “Surround
Main” output module in the output modules section of the Console view, because it’s just a term for
the group of sound card outputs you choose for surround mixing. The pan control on any track or
bus that outputs to the “Surround Main” controls which hardware outputs receive the signal that the
track or bus sends to the “Surround Main.”
SONAR saves the surround settings you choose in Edit > Preferences > Project - Surround with
your project, including your downmixing parameters. If you have some particular settings you might
use again, you can save a group of settings as a preset (except for downmixing parameters—you
can change these, but they aren’t saved in presets). To save a group of settings as a preset, type a
name in the Presets field and then click the Disk icon that’s to the right of the field. When you want
to use this preset in a project, just choose it from the Presets drop-down menu.
To choose a surround format and set sound sard outputs
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Surround.
2. Select a format from the Surround Format drop-down.
The diagram to the right of the Surround Format menu changes to illustrate the speaker
placement of the format that you chose.
3. In the Output column, assign each channel to a sound card output.
4. Click OK.
See:
“Surround buses” on page 945
Note: Consumer-grade sound cards, such as Audigy or SoundBlaster, typically reserve output
4 for the LFE channel. Check your sound card manual for details.
Note: Take a moment to make sure your speakers are correctly hooked up to the corresponding
outputs before you attempt any playback. See the diagram in Edit > Preferences > Project -
Surround for the speaker setup. If you are not sure what the abbreviations for the speaker
names are, see “Surround basics” on page 940.