I am such a Klutz at this stuff.
Suppose one has a large Template in stereo, but you now want to work with it all in 5.1 Surround? What’s the best way of doing this?
With a struggle, I got Cubase working in Surround. What is the best way to work with stereo tracks in the same project? Do I also need a stereo bus in Audio Connections?
Thank you Z
Are you asking a purely technical question about routing or are you asking about workflow and aesthetics?
I have two templates; one that is mainly stereo and allows for a quick and dirty upmix to surround, and one that is a surround-first template that downmixes to stereo. In both cases the main bus it 5.1 surround since it’s the widest format and Steinberg recommends that that’s set to the main output bus for proper automatic fold-downs.
In the stereo-up template there’s a separate “Stereo Mix” output that I monitor in Control Room. In CR the main set of speakers is my 5.1 setup. When I choose the “Stereo Mix” output bus it automatically routes that to Left / Right (channels 1 and 2) in the main speaker setup. So my audio tracks go to groups and groups go to the stereo output. If I need a surround upmix I use separate groups that receive a copy of what the stereo mix gets and move them accordingly in those upmix groups, and they then feed a separate “Surround Mix” output bus.
In stereo-down everything is mixed in surround first and the opposite happens; surround groups get sent to stereo groups and automatic downmixing happens.