Surround mixing for film (cubase sx3)

[ddmf]

Just wondering if anyone here has done any surround mixing in sx3 - do you have any hints and tips, best practices etc. especially if it's been for film!

The story is, i'm doing the audio for a friends film, it's a very low budget film so all the cam sound is unusable (motor noise / squeaks / lighting hum) - there was seperate audio recorded later, but using laptop line-in, cheap mixer and a boom with no suspension (low freq bumps knocks etc) - basically a nightmare!

So, we've decided to go down the adr route, which is hard, but workable...

Anyway, i'm new to working in surround, i had a play about and i can create a stereo bus within the 5.1, i know i can send to lfe/surround, but is there anything else i need to worry about?

Also, there's a party scene with music - i'm using three audio tracks with the same music playing, but at different stages of eq (low freq only / hi band cut / full) and then automating volumes between cuts - is this a good way (it works) but can i do something better?

Ta for your time!!!

[tetraplan]

Also, there's a party scene with music - i'm using three audio tracks with the same music playing, but at different stages of eq (low freq only / hi band cut / full) and then automating volumes between cuts - is this a good way (it works) but can i do something better?

Ta for your time!!!

Is there any dialogue in the party scenes? You could try ducking there.
You could try and emulate speaker-placement in the surround mix.

Groet, Erik

[ddmf]

Is there any dialogue in the party scenes? You could try ducking there.
You could try and emulate speaker-placement in the surround mix.

Yeah, i was going to try full speaker placement, but after looking at films with similar situations, i realised that's probably just going to confuse people "surround should be not too obvious" from all the big books!!! There is dialogue too, but this takes place mostly outside the door of the apartment...