Live simulated surround sound

[XNU8D]

I been trying to figure a way to create a 5.1, maybe 4.1?? simulated surround sound, for performing live. I want to put the audience inside that sound. I have a 8-Bus mixer that I'm trying to put my head around to do this. Here's my plan so far, tell me the theories that need to be re-thought. I want to do this with 4 powered speakers and a Sub. Is it ok to combine 2 signals on the same speaker? Am I in for phase hell? Bus 1&2 = Front Left Right Bus 3&4 = Back Left Right Bus 5&6 = Left Front to Back Bus 7&8 = Right Front to Back Aux Out = Total mix through EQ to a Sub Discuss amongst yourselves... ------------------ _/)_/) RANJ _/)_/) [url=http://www.mp3.com/critter]elusive critter[/url]

[Joe McDonough]

This isn't my area of expertize (don't really know what is just yet) but I wanted to let you know that MusicPlayer.com does have a Surround Professional forum on this board where Frank Wells, the editor of Pro Sound News and Surround Professional would be able to give some good input if you posted this topic there. This is just in case you don't get the response here that you were looking for. Joe McDonough MusicPlayer.com

[Uh Clem]

[quote]Originally posted by audio-idiot: [b]I been trying to figure a way to create a 5.1, maybe 4.1?? simulated surround sound, for performing live. I want to put the audience inside that sound. I have a 8-Bus mixer that I'm trying to put my head around to do this. Here's my plan so far, tell me the theories that need to be re-thought. I want to do this with 4 powered speakers and a Sub. Is it ok to combine 2 signals on the same speaker? Am I in for phase hell? Bus 1&2 = Front Left Right Bus 3&4 = Back Left Right Bus 5&6 = Left Front to Back Bus 7&8 = Right Front to Back Aux Out = Total mix through EQ to a Sub Discuss amongst yourselves... [/b][/quote] I have done this using an A&H Mixer using 5 AUXes to feed the surround mix - it had only one 2-Bus, so I could not do it your way. The advantage to your approach is being able to use the PAN pots across the stereo busses. The disadvantage would be that anything assigned to multiple busses (e.g., Front and Rear) would get the same panning and level for each buss. Using auxes, you can control exactly what gets sent to each speaker - panning is manual though, but you can control front to back, L to R, or anywhere in between. We used four Mackie SRM-450s for the mains, a Galaxy Audio for the Center (just to anchor the voice), and some EVs for subs (one on each pair of SRM-450s with DBX crossovers summing the lows). The advantage to using the crossovers was that we didn't need to worry about mixing the .1 since the crossovers took car of that as well as the high/low filtering. The sound was excellent and not subtle - the audience liked it and commented on it without us bringing it up. I'd say it was a complicated setup and unless the material really benefits from all that work, that it may not be worth it. As far as combining two signals on the same speaker goes, isn't than what a mixer normally does? I must have misunderstood that part of the question.