5.1 multitrack template - new and 'improved' or worse?

[treehorne]

I've not been happy with the 5.1 Multitrack template in the latest update of Audition versus the previous version. I'm not sure if it's because something needs to be done differently in either mindset or settings, or if the changes just are detrimental overall and I should just go back to the old template.

One thing is that  the new template doesn't automatically create a Track Panner setup and I have to do it all manually for each track. And when doing so, I've noticed a change - in the old template, if one looks at the Track Panner window, you would see a single line or spoke going from the center to wherever you chose (C, L, R, etc).  In the new template, you get a 'stereo' cone that has the L, C, R, etc as the center but a stereo spread of 30 degrees (so center is going from L to R with C as the center 'point'). And when bounced to Premiere Pro, the tracks are bounced as stereo channels not Mono.

When exporting a multichannel Dolby track for DVD or Bluray using these newer stereo tracks it just sounds...weaker and muddier than doing it the old way. So I'm not sure if there's something I need to be considering to optimize things with the new format, or just open the old template and use that.

[ryclark]

Which particular Audition template are you referring to? Is it the Film Sequence Surround one? If so I my version of Audition the Track Panner in that template shows a Stereo Spread of 0 deg. for any of the mono tracks but, yes, does show a default 30 deg spread for stereo tracks. Which version of Audition are you running now and which version were you using where the Surround Panner was different. Does the same apply if you don't use the Template but create a surround session of your own from scratch?

I don't believe that the template has changed. Just the Track panning. The operation of the Surround Panner did change a few versions ago as the original one didn't properly differentiate between a mono signal sent to a single channel and that panned somewhere in between, causing some people surround panning problems.

[treehorne]

It was the "Surround stem for video master" in trying to create a new 5.1 multichannel. Seems that it got fixed with an upgrade (so that it now is back to having Left Front, Center, LFE, etc and mono tracks...vs. creating a stereo track for each channel...and not pre-assigned to a panning quadrant either)