Topic: Creating a 5.1 mix in Vegas 5.0 from 3 seperate recordings

[formengr]

I've searched and see nothing relevant to what I'm trying to do and this seems the bext forum to post in, so here goes.

This is my 1st foray into a surround mix which will end up as an alternate audio source on a DVD (Vegas makes a matrix pretty easy and it will be the the mian audio source).  I've got 3 seperate recordings I want to createa 5.1 mix from using Vegas 5.0.  The following makes sense to me and is what I've done so far. 

For two of the recordings I chose the individual l/r channels and placed them as individual trax on the time line making them front l/r and rear l/r (letting Vegas perform the seperation to individual l/r - not prerendered l/r wav's stuck into Vegas), mono'd another to be the center channel & mono'd one of the others that has the best bass as the sub channel.  I then panned each of those completely into the apprpriate surround channel.  Like i said, this all makes sense to me and i know i could "pull back" an individual track and pan it more (make it come through the other channels, not just the one).  Anyone have any tips/tricks as to how better to do this?  Thanks in advance for anyone's advice.

[MattD]

For starters, I wouldn't make your center track substantially different than the FL and FR. If they're from two different sources, a pan across the front would likely change timbre in the middle.

[formengr]

So you're suggesting to "pull the center back" and let it into the front left and right?

[MattD]

I've never done this, so this is a "use your ears" warning ... but without a true center source, I'd just sum FL+FR to mono and keep the levels consistent.

[dmonterisi]

i haven't done it either, but based on discs i've heard, why not eliminate the center channel altogether and make it a 4.1 mix?  I personally don't like the center channel in audio recordings; I think it muddies up the soundstage quite a bit.  also, shouldn't you run a low pass filter over the sub channel so that it only contains LF information?

[formengr]

The sub channel is set up like that.

I like the idea of all the discrete channels myself, I just wonder if it's the optimal way to approach it.  I know it's all in the ears, but other's experience is usually pretty valuable so...