5.1 monitoring with Soundtrack Pro and MacBook Pro.

[esp4ever]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to set up a MacBook Pro system to monitor 5.1 surround sound in Soundtrack Pro.

Right now I can hook up my MacBook pro using a miniplug adaptor which goes into the digital headphone out. The miniplug converts the 1/8' jack to a digital SPDIF toslink which goes to my receiver. I have gone into the Audio MIDI setup on my computer to select the setup and it doesn't recognize the receiver as an audio interface. I have confirmed that the miniplug does work in producing Dolby Digital 5.1 surround through dvds and actual ac3 files. I just want to know how to set it up so I can actually monitor in 5.1. Does anybody know if I have to set up my receiver so it's recognized as an audio interface or do i need a third party audio setup?

 

[Kim Welch]

I apologize for the delay in responding, and thank you for posting. The optical output on a MacBook Pro can pass already-encoded Dolby Digital (AC3) files to a receiver, which is why DVDs and AC3 files play in 5.1, but it can't send six separate live channels from an editing app. That's why your receiver doesn't show up as an audio interface.

To monitor 5.1 while you mix, you need an audio interface with at least six outputs connected to six speakers (or a receiver with multichannel analog inputs). Then set up the 5.1 speaker configuration in Audio MIDI Setup. Our Sound forum is a great place to ask about specific interfaces.