User manual

185
Surround sound (Cubase only)
Mode – Standard/Position/Angle
The Standard Mode/Position Mode/Angle Mode switch
allows you to work in three modes:
• In both Standard and Position mode, the speakers in the front
are aligned, as they would normally be in a cinema-type situa-
tion. This means that the front speakers are at a varying dis-
tance from the center. Standard mode (default) is the best
mode for moving sources between speakers without level at-
tenuation.
• Angle Mode is the traditional surround sound mixing definition.
Note that here the speakers are defined as being at equal dis-
tance from the center. This is not really a true representation of
for example a cinema, but has still proven to work well in many
situations.
Speakers
The speakers in the panel represent the chosen surround
configuration.
You can turn speakers on and off by clicking them with
[Alt]/[Option] pressed. When a speaker is turned off, no
audio will be routed to that surround channel.
Positioning and levels
A sound source is positioned either by clicking or by drag-
ging the gray “ball” around in the panel (or by using key
commands, see below). By dragging during playback you
can record automation, see “Enabling and disabling the
writing of automation data” on page 189.
• In Standard Mode, the signal levels from the individual
speakers are indicated by colored lines from the speakers
to the center of the display.
Exactly how levels are handled may require some explana-
tion:
• When you move a source around, a number will indicate
the loudness in each speaker.
This is a value in dB (decibel) and is relative to the nominal level of the
source. In other words, 0.0 (dB) represents full level.
• If you position the source far enough away from a spea-
ker, its level will drop to zero (indicated by a negative infinity
symbol).
• In Standard Mode, the signal levels from the individual
speakers are indicated by colored lines from the speakers
to the center of the display.
• In Position Mode, the concentric circles will help you
determine the level of the signal at a certain position.
The yellow circle represents -3dB below nominal level, the red circle is at
-6dB and the blue is located at -12dB. These are affected by attenua-
tion, see below.
• In Angle Mode, a white arc helps you determine the per-
ceived “range” of a source (white and blue for stereo
tracks). The sound will be at its loudest in the middle of
the arc and will have dropped in level towards the ends.
• You can use modifier keys to restrict movement in vari-
ous ways:
In Standard and Position Mode:
In Angle Mode:
There is also a special set of key commands for working in
the SurroundPanner window.
!
The text below assumes that the Mono/Stereo pop-
up is set to “Mono Mix”. For information on the other
modes, see below.
Key Movement restriction
[Ctrl]/[Command] Vertically only
[Ctrl]/[Command]-
[Shift]
Horizontally only
[Alt]/[Option] Diagonally (up left, down right)
[Ctrl]/[Command]-
[Alt]/[Option]
Diagonally (up right, down left)
[Shift] Mouse movements are scaled to allow very fine
movements
Key Movement restriction
[Shift] From center to perimeter only
[Ctrl]/[Command] Along the perimeter only (at current distance from
center)
!
For a complete list of the available key commands,
click on the SurroundPanner logo and then click
again!