5 channels per cue?

[jkowtko]

I have a theater configuration with Center cluster, Right and Left wings, and Right and Left rears -- 5 speaker groups in all.

In playing with SCS it looks like I should be able to run a single cue on all five speakers by assigning the wings as a stereo pair on the "default" speaker assignment channel, and assigning the Center, LR and RR as separates. To move sound around I can use the Pan control on the stereo pair and the faders on the other channels.

Does anyone see any issues with this? I just tried a simple version of this successfully at home -- will be setting up the equipment at the theater later this week, and it will require a bit of PA rewiring so any warnings up front may save me time

Fyi, I have the M-Audio Rev 5.1 ....

Thanks. John

[jkowtko]

Okay, it looks like it's working. I have an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 card installed with the following output devices defined:
* LF/RF-stereo (Default assignment)
* LF (Left-Front mono)
* RF (Right-Front mono)
* LR (Left-Rear mono)
* RR (Right-Rear mono)
* C (5.1 Center mono)
* FX (5.1 LFE subwoofer mono)

My default device assignment is defined as:
* LF/RF-stereo -10db
* C -10db
* LR -20db
* RR -20db

So far so good. Fortunately, most of my sound tracks have no movement, so I can use the default device assignment for these tracks. And the few that do move do not have to be assigned to the stereo pair so I don't have to worry too much about juggling the pan controls with the level.

I am having one problem getting the FX channel to sound out at the proper level -- currently it is attentuated and I can't figure out how to fix it (have been playing with the sound settings to no avail) but I will post this issue separately.

And, if anyone has any cautions on mixing stereo and mono devices on a single cue, please let me know! I have two weeks until tech to get all this ironed out.

Thanks. John

PS: By the way, the M-Audio card sounds really good. I have some of these sound tracks up pretty loud with no detectable noise.

[jkowtko]

Update ... We're through tech week, preview night tonight --

Bottom line -- it works!

* I am able to play the main house music on five speaker channels for all of my music tracks, using a single cue for each.

* I am able to pan the effects (ghost voices) around the room in a circular motion or jumping across the room in a five pointed star pattern, through level change cues that use both fade and pan on the default stereo pair. In most cases this is overlaid on top of a music track that plays the entire house. There is a slight trick to this ... make sure your stereo pair is panned in the right direction and that the pan remains unchanged during a fade up or down ... otherwise the sound moves with the pan change as the fade occurs. If you need to fade out on the right channel and fade up soon after on the left channel, then add a level change cue in the middle (or piggyback off of another one) that just moves the pan from right to left with the volume remaining down, to get it into position for the fade up.

* I am able to use six speakers if I run a parallel cue with the same audio track, starting out at zero volume, then do a cross fade with a pair of level change cues with the same timing. I do this to pan a victrola music track from the house to a point source on the stage (FX speaker #6).

This is all done with a virtually untouched set of CD tracks that was handed to me by the director.

But overall, it sounds really good and this is something I definitely could not have done through conventional means without a whole lot of effort and extra manpower.

My next step will be to move up to a Rev 7.1 card (unless I find a good deal on the Delta 1010, in which I will get that) so I can run 3 FX speakers on stage in addition to the 5 house speakers.