Understanding a 5.1 Setup:
1. In order to create a 5.1 mix, there are a number of tasks that need completing to avoid any problems. The first is the I/O setup; go to Setup then I/O.
2. In the output tab, make sure that there is a 5.1 path. This tells Pro Tools that a 5.1 output is going to be used and without this, 5.1 will not work.
3. If there is no 5.1 path, select ‘New Path’ and create one as shown left.
4. Next you should create a 5.1 bus, This is used to send mono tracks to the aux output and is done in a similar way to the I/O setup. On the same I/O setup menu, go to ‘Buses’ tab and check to see if there is a 5.1 bus.
5. If you can’t see a 5.1 bus, click ‘New Path’ to create a new one. Name this appropriately so it can be found when setting channel outputs. (e.g “5.1 Bus”)
6. Next, create a 5.1 aux output, go to Track, New and add a 5.1 aux channel.
7. Now you will be able to set the output of each mono track to your 5.1 bus, you will notice that when this is done a small grid will appear in place of the panning controls. This allows you to position the instrument anywhere within the 5.1 spectrum e.g centre, left, right, rear left, rear right or anywhere in between.
8. Next set the input of the 5.1 aux channel to 5.1 bus and the output to 5.1 output. This may be labelled differently but it can be viewed in the I/O section in setup. This will link the mono tracks via the bus to the 5.1 aux channel and then to the main 5.1 output. As shown below, the 5.1 bus is labelled 5.1 Bus, this is set as the input of the 5.1 Aux track and the output is set to the 5.1 output path created in step 1 of this guide.
