As soon as multichannel sound appeared as a viable commercial format, engineers were confronted with the task of controlling the position and panning motion of multiple sound sources being directed to multiple speakers. Stereo panpots and quad joysticks have been with us for several decades, but 5.1 playback standards call for more sophisticated routing options. Kind of Loud Technologies (KOL) has addressed the problem with an amazing suite of surround production plug-ins: SmartPan Pro, a 5.1 panner, the Woofie bass management and re-direction plug in, and the Tweetie monitoring and calibration plug-in. On the creative side, KOL also provides RealVerb 5.1, a reverb built for surround, with a focus on sophisticated modeling of acoustic spaces.

SmartPan Pro provides complete control of all panning and preview functions for a full 6-channel mix, via two interfaces: the Polar Joystick (left) or the SmartKnob. (click for larger image)

SmartPan Pro brings true discrete 5.1 surround sound mixing to Pro Tools, providing complete control of all panning and preview functions for a full 6-channel mix. There is no complex busing required, no exporting of tracks and no “mad scientist” routing tricks. SmartPan’s templates provide for true plug and play operation, and even engineers entirely new to surround sound mixing will be off and running with just a quick clicks.

SmartPan Pro offers two straightforward interfaces for panning control: the Polar Joystick™ and the SmartKnob™. The Polar Joystick will be immediately familiar to anyone accustomed to a traditional joystick controller or video game controller. The user simply clicks on the “puck” to position audio elements in the soundfield—as the puck is moved the changing parameters of the soundfield are displayed via an intuitive and amusing graphical interface while the selected sound source moves dynamically around the room.

The SmartKnob interface more closely resembles a panpot and may be used to position a sound source between any selected pair of speakers as well as control the width or spatial character of the sound. Both panning methods provide precise control over the direction, spatial extent and placement of the selected audio.

SmartPan Pro also features a modifiable divergence control for adjusting to different implementations of the L/C/R panning law. A basic subwoofer LFE management control offers adjustable filtering and independent level control. All SmartPan parameter adjustments and changes may be stored and recalled.

The Woofie bass management and redirection plug-in offers flexible management of the LFE channel. Here, the user selects which of the surround channels are directed to the subwoofer and can evaluate the LFE signal before encoding. (click for larger image)

One of the most impressive facets of SmartPan Pro is the amazing number of instances available to the user with the minimal amount of DSP usage: Up to SmartPan 24 instances can be managed on a single DSP. SmartPan also provides independent metering for all inputs and LCR, LFE, Ls and Rs channel outputs.

Woofie, a bass management and redirection plug-in for Pro Tools, offers several useful tools for managing the LFE channel. Woofie’s flexible bass redirection function selects which of the surround channels are directed to the subwoofer and allows the user to evaluate the LFE signal prior to encoding. A menu of LF crossover types for the full-frequency signals includes Butterworth, Linkwitz-Riley and elliptic types. Crossover frequencies are adjustable and both HF and LF filters may be 6-, 12-, 18- or 24-dB/octave (Woofie’s LFE filter is designed to meet the Dolby Digital AC-3 specification and provides a 110Hz brickwall filter). Woofie also provides individual gain controllers for input, sub gain and LFE gain, as well as a master mute and a selectable 10dB boost for the LFE channel.

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Reprinted with permission from Magazine, September, 2000
© 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved