Plug-in Reference

108
The Included Effect Plug-ins
Surround Plug-ins
3. Activate the MatrixDecoder, open the control panel and click the Steering Mode
button.
Now you can hear how the mix is reproduced in surround on a Pro Logic
compatible system.
• The Steering display shows an x within the surround field. The position of this x
sign indicates the dominant direction of the mix, sometimes referred to as the
dominance vector. Part of the processing that is applied for various technical
reasons results in the dominant channel being enhanced and the non-dominant
channels being reduced in gain.
4. By activating and deactivating the Bypass button in the MatrixDecoder, you can
compare the decoded mix with the encoded stereo mix, and make adjustments in
the MixConsole as necessary.
The main goal is to produce a mix that sounds good in both the encoded and the
decoded version. To compare the encoded or decoded mix with the unprocessed
mix, switch off both the MatrixEncoder and the Decoder.
5. When you are satisfied with the result, bypass the MatrixDecoder, or remove it
from its effect slot.
6. Connect a master recording device to the stereo mix output and perform a
mixdown as usual.
The resulting encoded stereo mix is compatible with common home systems that
use the Pro Logic standard.
Using the MatrixEncoder with the 5.0 Surround Format
There are situations when you may want to mix for several surround formats. For
example, you might need to mix the same material for 5.1 and LRCS.
5.1 is similar to LRCS. Omitting the LFE channel is easy, but more of a problem is that
LRCS only has one surround channel whereas 5.1 has two.
For this reason the MatrixEncoder sums up the surround channels to a mono signal.
Proceed as follows:
1. Create your mix for 5.1.
2. In the VST Connections window, create an output bus with a 5.0 channel
configuration and route it to the physical outputs of your audio hardware.
3. Run the mix through the MatrixEncoder.
!
The encoding/decoding process produces significant signal loss compared to the
unprocessed mix. This is normal, and does not indicate that something is not working
properly. However, with careful tweaking of the mix you can decrease the signal
degradation to a much more acceptable level. You have to adjust levels and other
settings before the signal runs through the MatrixEncoder, since neither the encoder
or decoder can control the mix in any way.