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5.1 surround sound

Last updated on Dec 20, 2021

Monitoring 5.1 surround sound

Adobe Audition supports 5.1 surround sound, which requires five speakers, plus one low frequency subwoofer (LFE). To properly monitor 5.1 surround sound , your computer must have a sound card with at least six outputs, and those outputs must be mapped to the correct channels in Audition.

Choose Edit > Preferences > Audio Channel Mapping (Windows) or Audition > Preferences > Audio Channel Mapping (Mac OS).
Map each 5.1 channel to a sound card output:
- L: Front left speaker.
- R: Front right speaker.
- C: Front center speaker.
- LFE: Subwoofer
- Ls: Left surround speaker.
- Rs: Right surround speaker.
For more information, see Configure audio inputs and outputs.

Edit 5.1 surround files

In the Waveform Editor, you can edit 5.1 surround files with the same tools used for mono and stereo files.

To restrict editing to a subset of 5.1 channels, see Specify which channels you want to edit.

Pan tracks in a 5.1 surround mix

Open or create a 5.1 multitrack session. (See Create a new multitrack session.)
To open the Track Panner, do either of the following:
- Choose Window > Track Panner. Then select a mono or stereo track in the Editor panel.
- In the Editor or Mixer panel, double-click a surround plot for a mono or stereo track.
Note:

You can pan only mono and stereo tracks, not 5.1 tracks. To adjust the relative volume of channels in a 5.1 file, open it in the Waveform Editor.

Double-click a surround plot to open the Track Panner
In the Track Panner, do any of the following:
- To enable or disable channels, click the L, C, R, Ls, and Rs buttons. Or click LFE Only to send audio only to the subwoofer.
- In the large surround plot, drag to change the position of the signal.
  As you drag, white lines change in length from the speakers, reflecting the power of the signal in each. In the background, green and purple areas reflect the placement of left and right stereo image; blue areas indicate where the image overlaps.
- Below the surround plot, set the following options:
  Angle
  Shows where in the surround field the sound appears to originate from. For example, -90° is directly to the left, while 90° is directly to the right.
  Stereo Spread
  Determines the separation between stereo audio tracks, with zero and -180° producing minimum separation, and -90° producing maximum separation.
  Radius
  Determines how far around the surround field the sound extends. For example, 100% produces a focused sound originating from very few speakers, while 0% produces an unfocused sound originating from all speakers.
  Center
  For tracks panned to the front of the surround field, determines the percentage of Center channel level relative to Left and Right level.
  LFE
  Controls the level of signal sent to the subwoofer.
To pan additional tracks, simply select them in the Editor panel. The Track Panner automatically displays each track’s unique settings.

Note:

To dynamically pan surround tracks over time, see Automating track settings.

Pan sends to a 5.1 bus track

In the Multitrack Editor, create a 5.1 bus track. (See Add or delete tracks.)
From the send output menu for an audio track, select the 5.1 bus track. (See Set up a send.)

In the Sends area of the Editor and Mixer panels, a surround plot appears. Double-click it to access the Track Panner for the send.

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