What happens to stereo tracks through Pro Logic..?

[Benny H]

..and does anyone give it any consideration when recording/mixing?

I'm mainly just interested in what goes on. The reason I ask is that my mate, who I live with, always has 'Pro Logic' on for normal music playback (the system in question has front L/R, rear L/R + centre, standard surround setup I guess). I always playback through standard stereo.. cause I want to hear it the way it was intended. But admittedly Pro Logic sometimes does sound better in a way.. but I can't quite tell what's going on, as far as how the stereo image is messed with.

What's the story?

 

[Torniojaws]

If I understood what you mean, it happens in pretty much all DAW programs. When you render/export a project, it rarely sounds identical or unchanged compared to what you actually hear. Apparently it depends a lot on the program.

 

[metalkingdom]

I don't think that you can "mix" for Pro Logic like you can for true surround. Pro Logic sounds pretty shitty, generally speaking. There's no way that I'd listen to music on Pro Logic. I don't really know, but I'm guessing that fucking with phase is probably a big part of the Pro Logic processing.

 

[KeithRT99]

pro logic is dolby right? dolby is a special codec that you have to send your mix to dolby and pay them to do.

 

[SPLASTiK]

I don't think that you can "mix" for Pro Logic like you can for true surround.

You have to send the channels into a hardware encoder, I think they even make a plugin version now. So yeah, you actually have to have hardware or software that will do it for you.

I've used the hardware encoders for a few post production things I've worked on for TV that wanted a ProLogic mix. We had an encoder and monitored through a decoder box.

If I remember correctly... more or less it creates a stereo file out of 5 channels of audio. It splits stuff panned center to the left and right channels at equal level 3dB down, stuff panned L/R stay L/R and stuff in the surrounds are out of phase with eachother and 3dB down. When it decodes on playback it puts the signal out of phase and sends that material to the surrounds, and stuff in both channels at equal level gets send to the center speaker.