Order of channels in 7.1 setup?

Nuendo
1

Hi all.

I got myself a new interface recently and am trying to set this all up.

It’s a Scarlett 18i20 (don’t judge, I’m on a tight budget) and want to set up 7.1 system.
When I follow Windows sound panel configuration it gives me the speaker order as follows:

  1. Left
  2. Right
  3. Centre
  4. LFE
  5. Left Surround
  6. Right Surround
  7. Side Left
  8. Side Right

And everything seems to be right. But when I start to watch a film or play a game the side and surround channels seems to switch places.

So what is really the “correct” set up?
Surround and the Side speakers or Side speakers and then Surround?

Thanks

2

Search the forum. It’s been covered at least a few times.

3

Long story short: The great thing about standards is that there are so many of them.

¯\_ (ツ) _/¯

4

In Nuendo, the Surrounds are swapped.

Thus why the playback from an official decoder is different.

Swap your two side surround speaker outputs inside Nuendo, then you’ll be fine.

Screenshot 2026-08-15 at 20.29.21
Screenshot 2026-08-15 at 20.29.213680×2392 716 KB

5

It’s just a pitty Nuendo doesn’t offer alternatives/ left the user define the routing. I’m working in a 9.1.6 system and use Supervision as my favorite analyzer. It is just disturbing to see or instance the Wides totally at the right side/at the bottom. For a 9.1.6 workflow Steinbergs channel order is just not logical. As a big fan of Nuendo and a strong advocate for this DAW I hope one day Steinberg will offfer a sollution. Wouldn’t that be great?