minimum gear to make sound design and 5.1 mixing

[David Aliperti]

I am mac based, i am using logic. I have been recording gigs, and doing sound recordist on location, now for a some small projects for some videmakers, ill have to care about sound designing and mixing on 5.1

what is the standard now in audio post productions logic or protools, and what card do you suggest to buy if i wanted use protools and want to have at least 6 -8 output to feed 6 loudspeaker?

[Steve House]

Protools is probably still the North American studio standard but it's not the only game in town. Steinberg's Nuendo is also a contender to consider, especially since you're in the EU.

[David Aliperti]

what about Logic.

[David W. Jones]

It can get quite expensive if you want to be a Dolby approved facility.
That aside there are a number of audio apps that will handle surround sound.
The low end solution I currently use is ProTools 9, which has just been superseded by ProTools 10, along with the complete production tool kit, and a Digi003 rack, feeding calibrated JBL LSR 4328 monitors & sub.

[David Aliperti]

just a question about protools, why in sound design, still is protools against rest of the world,

SOUNDTRACK is ok, logic too, why seems that there is none except PT?

[Gary Nattrass]

PT is the industry std here in the UK too and it does the job and is what most people are now using, it used to be AMS Neve audiofile but as they fell back in development and are hugely expensive PT has taken over.

Yes there are other options and software available but it's the market that tends to decide what is the No1.

Personally I use FCP for my edit and tracklaying but go to pro tools for my audio dubbing and 5.1 mixing.

[Gerry Gallegos]

The main reason Pro Tools is the more popular standard I would equate to them being one of the first "somewhat" reliable computer audio editing platforms, they were doing it successfully before anyone that is still in the game. They were also very stringent in specifying compatible computer systems that would for the most part guarantee reliable performance.

also in their systems the DSP processing was happening on their DSP cards and boxes rather than by the computer processor and is scalable in DSP power. as well as having scalable professional XLR inputs way before anyone else offered them as well.

so with this said, the video and movie industry adopted it early on making it the standard. and Avid has kept the momentum of the cutting edge and power going.

Up until maybe 8 to 6 or so years ago there wasn't any other platform that came anywhere near close enough in performance and reliability.

So with this many years as the industry standard, professional engineers and editors just know it love it (and hate it too) but know its a solid platform they can rely on to make a living.

Hope that answers your query. at least this is my opinion from being a Digidesign user since 91'

GG

[David Aliperti]

Logic has a surround panner very intuitive,

after mixing i can obtain a bounce in a multitrack aiff file, later in compressor i encode the AC3 file.
in mac audio midi setup i set audio outputs, on 5 active loudspeaker s (via m aaudio 1814)
can i do same thing immediately with protools (mpowered or LE) as well?

[Geoffrey Cox]

Others can correct me if I'm wrong but not sure that ProTools LE does surround sound or if it does it isn't supported that well. Don't think PT LE offers anything much that Logic doesn't. ProTools HD is excellent and far more flexible than Logic in terms of multi-channel work but compared to Logic the cost is prohibitive unless you are very rich!

Logic is fine for 5.1 (use it all the time) and is used extensively in smaller studios in the music industry in the UK though most agree PT is more stable and better quality recording and indeed is designed for that as opposed to the composition base of Logic - but look at the cost difference!

What you need is a hardware interface for proper monitoring which can be expensive but is needed. We use these (RME Fireface) which are excellent:

RME Fireface800

On a personal note we have moved away from PT due to the excessive cost and the intransigence / arrogance of the company. Its biggest flaw - no other audio software can be open whilst you run PT, a serious failing. Their argument is that that is why it is so stable.

Digital Performer offers a lot that PT can for a fraction of the cost and we now use this for multi-channel work beyond 5.1 which Logic really struggles with. We still use PT HD for recording studio situations as opposed to post work.

[Gary Nattrass]

You can do surround on LE but you need the nenrick plug ins to do it.

PT has all changed now as there is no LE and HD and just one version of software, you can also use third party interface hardware.

All my 5.1 work has been done on AMS Neve DFC film consoles so I have been a bit spoilt for 5.1 mixing!

[Geoffrey Cox]

I meant with PT HD the inclusion of the hardware HD I/O as opposed to the software only version.

Had a lot of problems with 3rd part hardware in the past but maybe that's improved.

[David Aliperti]

assuming that i want to mix 5.1 with logic and make my encoding to ac3 with compressor,
i need to use protools just for PURE AUDIO EDITING and sound designing, what is PT version less expensive i cound buy, considering actually i have a MAUDIO 1814?