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Hybrid Use of Speaker Playback and Binaural Headphone Playback

So, I have a few questions that hopefully can be answered. I wanted to start more than one topic but all questions/concerns pertain to the same project. I have my room configured in the render application to represent a 15.1 loudspeaker system, or in other words, 7.1 + 4.0 + 4.0 (4 height channels and 4 overheads).

1. In the renderer app, there is no option to create quad beds. As of now, my output section in the Render app has a 7.1 bed applied to the first 8 input channels, followed by 4 stereo beds to represent the four height channels and the four overhead channels; I also set up a stereo bed for the Binaural Headphones, but I also feel that this may be redundant? I am not sure that this is the best way to go about doing this. In Pro Tools, in my i/o, I then have a 7.1 Output, a Height Quad Output, and an Overhead Quad Output, in addition to a Headphone Stereo Output. I also have two Quad master tracks with their outputs set to their respective Height Quad Output and Overhead Quad Output. Considering I am using 4 stereo bed tracks (a pair of beds making up my quad system), I feel that I need 4 stereo bed aux busses with Render Send Plugins and then 4 stereo bed aux busses with Render Return Plugins on them, but I'm not sure if there is a more efficient way to do this? I was wondering if it is possible to place both Render Return plugins (2 for height quad and 2 for overhead quad) on quad master tracks that output to my height quads and overhead quads? Essentially, you would have each of the four 2.0 bed tracks being output to four separate 2.0 bed aux busses that contain a render send plugin, and then you would have two quad master faders that each contained 2 render return plugins from the 2.0 bed aux busses that were subsets of each overall quad system.

2. My next curiosity pertains to hybrid loudspeaker and binaural headphone reproduction using the Dolby Atmos Production Suite. I would like all of my ambient scene relative sounds to be routed through beds which output to loudspeakers, in addition to some objects not in beds that I would like to output to speakers. Then, I would like all of my head relative objects not placed in beds to be binaurally reproduced over headphones. The end result would be an experience that simultaneously reproduces audio over loudspeakers and headphones, ensuring that whatever is coming out of the speakers is not monitored in the headphones, and whatever is being binaurally processed in the headphones does not come out of the speakers. Is this possible, and what is the most logical way to go about doing so? How should I set up the Render App to accommodate this?

3. Lastly, I want to create another mix where the whole system outlined above is exclusively output over headphones. Is it possible to just change the outputs of the aux busses with the Return Plugins on them to match the stereo headphone output, even if they are 7.1 or Quad Tracks? I do not know if this is something that must be handled by the Renderer, whether I have to create re-renders, or if this is just a routing job in Pro Tools.

As of now, I have spent hours trying to figure this out, but i cannot seem to find any information as how to best go about what I am attempting. I could just be making some silly mistakes and this may be easier than I have been making it, or it's not possible. I've spent hours trying to figure it out, so I'm now deciding it's best to ask here.


1 Comment

Hi,   Quite a few things here.

1. Stereo beds in the Renderer will render to Left/Right only.

If you want to address the overheads (beyond the .2 as part of a 7.1.2 bed) you should use audio objects.  If your source is stereo, a stereo audio track can apply to two objects.    The plug-in sends that are not from a bed should probably use mono sends.

For the return plug-ins the floor channels can you use a 7.1 aux track for the floor speakers and it is up to you how you many aux tracks you want to use for the overhead returns.   This could be a 7.1 track unlinked to assign to the proper speakers,  2 x Quad aux tracks, 4 x Stereo aux tracks,  or 8 x Mono aux tracks.

2.   For your hybrid workflow you would need to do this with Re-Renders and not the main monitor outputs.  If you set up groups in your input configuration in the Renderer you can chose some groups to re-render to binaural and other groups to Re-Render  to 7.1.2 or 9.1.6 for output to speakers.    

3. You could save and load Re-Render configurations to change which groups defined in the input configuration are assigned in the Re-Renders to feed either the speakers or binaural headphones.

Hope this helps.



Dolby Labs

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