210

Setting up surround hardware

Before you create surround projects, you should set up your system to provide 5.1 surround playback. To play a 5.1 surround project, you must have an appropriate speaker setup such as:

•Six powered speakers

•Six passive speakers with a six-channel amplifier

Your system must also have an appropriate sound card setup such as:

•5.1-compatible sound card

•Sound card with three stereo outputs

•Three stereo sound cards

There are several ways to set up your system, depending on the sound card and speaker setup you are using.

 

Six powered speakers

Six passive speakers with a six-channel amplifier

5.1-compatible

Connect powered speakers to your sound card’s

Connect your sound card’s front, rear, and center/subwoofer

sound card

outputs as indicated by your sound card’s

outputs to the appropriate inputs on a six-channel amplifier/

 

documentation.

home theater receiver. Connect front, rear, center, and LFE

 

 

speakers to the amplifier.

 

 

 

Sound card with three stereo outputs

Connect powered speakers to your sound card’s

Connect your sound card’s outputs to the appropriate inputs on

outputs where you have routed each of the pairs of

a six-channel amplifier/home theater receiver. Connect front,

channels. The left channel of the Center/LFE pair is the

rear, center, and LFE speakers to the amplifier.

center channel; the right channel is the LFE channel.

 

Three stereo

Connect powered speakers to your sound cards’

Connect your sound card’s outputs to the appropriate inputs on

sound cards

outputs where you have routed each of the pairs of

a six-channel amplifier/home theater receiver. Connect front,

 

channels. The left channel of the Center/LFE pair is the

rear, center, and LFE speakers to the amplifier.

 

center channel; the right channel is the LFE channel.

 

 

 

 

Setting up surround projects

You can configure a Vegas project to use 5.1 surround in the Project Properties dialog. You can also choose to apply a low-pass filter for the LFE channel. Applying a low-pass filter approximates the bass-management system in a 5.1 decoder and ensures that you’re sending only low-frequency audio to the LFE channel.

1.From the File menu, choose Properties.

2.Click the Audio tab.

3.From the Master bus mode drop-down list, choose 5.1 surround.

4.To limit the audio sent to the LFE channel, do the following:

•Select the Enable low-pass filter on LFE check box and enter a value in the Cutoff frequency for low-pass filter

box. The low-pass filter isolates the audio sent to the LFE channel by limiting it to frequencies lower

than the value entered in the Cutoff frequency for low-pass filter box.

•Choose a setting from the Low-pass filter quality drop-down list to determine the sharpness of the filter’s rolloff curve. Best produces the sharpest curve.

Note: Before rendering your surround project, check your surround authoring application’s documentation to determine its required audio format. Some encoders require a specific cutoff frequency and rolloff, while other encoders require that no filter be applied before encoding.

WORKING WITH 5.1 SURROUND

CHP. 12