5.1 Surround Sound Mapping & Rendering

In Resolve 12.5, my process for rendering out a file with 5.1 surround PCM audio was to:

- Import 6 WAV stems - Left, Right, Center, LFE, Ls, Rs
- Create a timeline with 6 Mono tracks
- Place the 6 WAV stems into the timeline as follows:
Mono Track 1: Left
Mono Track 2: Right
Mono Track 3: Center
Mono Track 4: LFE
Mono Track 5: Ls
Mono Track 6: Rs

- In the Audio Mixer window, set each track to be Mono (by default they were Stereo 1 + 2). Route the tracks as follows:
Audio 1: 1
Audio 2: 2
Audio 3: 3
Audio 4: 4
Audio 5: 5
Audio 6: 6

- In the Audio Mixer window, set the Master to 6

- In the Deliver page, select Linear PCM, 6 channels, 24 bit.

This would render out a file with ONE Sound Track in the QT Inspector window, as:
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), 5.1 (L R C LFE Ls Rs), 48.000 KHz



However, in Resolve 14 I can't figure out how to do this the same way. In the Deliver page, set by by default Output Track 1: Main 1 (Stereo).

I can change this to Timeline Track and keep adding 6 more of them to route as following:
Output Track 1: Timeline Track
Track Number: 1 Mono
Output Track 2: Timeline Track
Track Number: 2 Mono
Output Track 3: Timeline Track
Track Number: 3 Mono
Output Track 4: Timeline Track
Track Number: 4 Mono
Output Track 5: Timeline Track
Track Number: 5 Mono
Output Track 6: Timeline Track
Track Number: 6 Mono

... but this renders out a file with SIX separate Sound Tracks in the QT Inspector window, as:
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz
24-bit Integer (Little Endian), Mono, 48.000 KHz

This is not what I want, nor is it the same as what I could render out easily in 12.5. Most deliverables I make need the 5.1 surround sound to be in 1 Sound Track, not 6 separate Sound Tracks.

If anyone could be of assistance as to how to route the 6 separate Mono WAV tracks to a single 5.1 (L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs) sound track in a ProRes render from Resolve 14 that would be great! I'm finding it very confusing. Thank you!

[Peter Chamberlain]

Have a look at making a 5.1 main bus from the fairlight menu.

Hello Peter! Thanks for the response. Is there any easy to follow documentation on how to do this? I'm not a sound mixer so would love a step-by-step guide as to how to do this. Since it seems that audio routing is way more confusing in 14 than it was in 12.5.

Thanks!

I too am having great difficulty with the new audio system in DR14.

I shoot on a Sony F5 and mostly record audio on all 4 tracks. Each track is mono. XAVC format.

I want to setup a workflow where I can:

1. Hear all 4 mono tracks on the media page with each channel on the meters where it is supposed to be.
2. Hear all 4 mono tracks on the source monitor
3. Hear all 4 mono tracks on the timeline
4. Output 4 separate mono tracks in my Pro Res file to go to sound post. I do not do sound post.

If I need to buy a Decklink card with 4 audio outputs, fine.

BTW FCP 7 and X can do all of the above, so this does not seem to be hardware related.

DR 14 is great but the audio routing has me totally beat.

Any updates on this from the Blackmagic support team? It's becoming really, really difficult for me to continue to use 14 as I need to make perfect 5.1 deliverables, like I was able to do super easily with 12.5!

It seems that while in some ways 14 is a huge leap forward for its audio capabilities, in other ways it's a huge step back. What was once simple, is now much, much more complex with many more ways to accidentally screw up final deliverables and renders. Before I could just make a timeline with any number of mono tracks, map the mono tracks in the Audio Mixer, and then on the Deliver page just set the number of tracks I wanted to render. For 5.1, Resolve would automatically combine them all into a single audio track in the ProRes file (L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs). Boom, done, easy!

Now I have either two options (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

1) On the Deliver page, add 6 individual Output Track: Timeline Track outputs to each mono track from the timeline. That'll give me a file with 6 individual mono tracks. Not ideal, but I can bypass the Fairlight page entirely! Great! Man it would be great if I never had to open that page just to render out a ProRes file!

2) Set up this incredibly convoluted audio mapping scheme as outlined by Glenn Venghaus (thank goodness since I would've never figured this out on my own). For some reason I can't post URLs on here to that thread?? So just reposting what he wrote in the "Simple 5.1 audio mapping" thread on here.

"1 - set the main output to 5.1 format
2 - add a single extra 5.1 track
3 - in the IN/OUT patcher , patch the "track reproduction outs" to the 6 sub "track inputs" of the PRINT track
4. Set the PRINT track into TRU mode and make sure it outputs to master bus.
5. and finaly but important DISABLE the output of all individual tracks as indicated in image. And/or you can also mute them , more visual protection !!!

Full visual monitoring in individual channels as well as the combined 5.1 and no panning needed


To render , just render out the main 5.1 bus ."




Man it would be nice if Resolve had an option to just render out like 12.5 used to for 5.1! 6 mono tracks, with Resolve automatically combining them into one single 5.1 audio track in the ProRes file! Maybe some sort of "bypass Fairlight" option?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

i realy feel your pain, i also have to export masters with up to 22 tracks, bypass f'dlight option would be very welcome

it was dead simple and far more important, it was reliable in pre-12.5

and it's not reliable now, it's a bucket of trouble waiting to dump on one's head....

hopefully it will get sorted sooner rather than later, i have confidence it will be, it's just so very basic, and needed to master

but even though i'm using v14 for gradeing, i'm useing MC, v12.5 or DS for mastering due to the lack of confidence in the audio routeing in v14

Any update to all this v14.3? Still seems to be hard for us non-mixers who just need to imports, layout, and export multi tracks of audio.

Check out page 1126 of current manual for 14.3
There's a section on linked groups which makes 5.1 exports easier.

EDIT: However, one weird behavior is when using the link function, the 5.1 audio in the file rendered out of the Deliver page becomes +3dB higher. Why would that happen? Very frustrating that it's so difficult to export simple deliverables out of Resolve since the Fairlight integration.

EDIT: However, one weird behavior is when using the link function, the 5.1 audio in the file rendered out of the Deliver page becomes +3dB higher. Why would that happen? Very frustrating that it's so difficult to export simple deliverables out of Resolve since the Fairlight integration.

I did not see this behavior upon testing my new workflow for 14.3. I tested exported files in Switch, Premiere, FCP7/X and Avid and all the levels are ok.

----

My workflow, for 5.1 + LtRt is:

- Link 5.1 group (A1-A6), link stereo group (A7-A8).
- Create Sub bus 5.1, create sub bus stereo
- Assign 5.1 group to Sub bus (5.1), assign stereo group to Sub bus (Stereo)
- Export audio using: Output track 1 = Sub (5.1) ; Output track 2 = Sub (Stereo)

Exported clips will have: one 5.1 grouped audio track + one stereo grouped track.

If you want to export "One Per channel", you can do so by by exporting via "Timeline Track" in the Output track.

For monitoring, I disable the outputs of the sub busses to the main bus. I also disable Main bus on the 5.1 or Stereo group depending on which group I want to listen to.

This workflow effectively separates monitoring purposes (using the Main Bus) of exporting purposes (using the Sub Bus).

that's a joke right? you can't possiably be serious... that's nothing more than a wack if Qc fails waiting to happen...

direct track mapping in-to-out with out any wanking about WHAT . SO . EVER is what v12 had

let's bring that simple concept back eh?

that's a joke right? you can't possiably be serious... that's nothing more than a wack if Qc fails waiting to happen...

direct track mapping in-to-out with out any wanking about WHAT . SO . EVER is what v12 had

let's bring that simple concept back eh?

Agree!!!!!

let's bring that simple concept back eh?

I totally agree with that. Because of the audio kinks, we had to delay v14 deployment for like 8 months at my work. Having to grasp complex audio mixing concepts for simple mastering matters is what I consider an oversight by Blackmagic.

let's bring that simple concept back eh?

I totally agree with that. Because of the audio kinks, we had to delay v14 deployment for like 8 months at my work. Having to grasp complex audio mixing concepts for simple mastering matters is what I consider an oversight by Blackmagic.

100% agree! There should be an option to bypass Fairlight completely for simple mastering. At the moment I've got to open the Fairlight page and go digging into something that has been made too complicated (and is currently very poorly documented) just to do very simple audio channel routing. I would have stayed back on 12.5, but due to a few OpenCL bugs in v12.5 that were fixed in v14, I was forced to update. I had to move my final deliverables mastering out to other apps. Audio in Resolve 14 has become unnecessarily complicated and it's a damn shame.