In March 2021 Damian Kearns from 217 Audio in Toronto in Canada reached out offering to share his 5.1 with stereo fold down Pro Tools template, that you can download for free. Over to you Damian…

I have designed what I think is a unique TV production template for typical 5.1 and stereo fold downs that meets virtually every delivery requirement I am faced with. The output busses are all lined up to allow for quick offline bounces.

The Inspiration

Most templates I encounter require multiple bounce passes to output the various mix and stems deliverables I am mandated to provide, for TV, film and internet content. Some require VCA’s to be bypassed on a second print pass and often the templates seem to retrofit 5.1 mixing to what appears to be originally intended as a stereo template. My aim with this template session was to bring simplicity to an otherwise complicated process. To that end, I have abandoned VCA masters, lined up all my desired output paths so offline bouncing is as simple as having the path engaged inside the session, incorporated a simple upmix plugin that is affordable, and stuck mainly to Pro Tools stock plugins to bring a certain universal utility to it.

Why No VCAs?

I bypassed the VCA master approach, as my early years of mixing were spent on Split Buss Consoles, printing directly to tape and printmastering later. I didn’t use VCA masters. In those days, I often mixed without automation so memory and ear was all I had. 

This template is really analogous to the model I’ve always used: Audio tracks, Effects Processing, Sub Masters, and “Tape Tracks.” The voiceover dips tracks are a new phenomenon, almost akin to a return from tape where the narration can be mixed into the program by ducking these tracks. In actual fact, they are an insert before the Mix is printed. This is how I bypassed the use of VCA masters. 

Why would I do this? So I can print more deliverables at the same time, and since I often turn groups on and off while I’m working, to avoid accidentally omitting the layer of automation VCA’s provide.

Some Background

The output paths are at the top of the list in the IO Setup. If the fold down path isn’t turned on and active, it can’t be selected. This avoids the headache of sifting through paths trying to determine what output paths need to be engaged in order to print every deliverable. 

The use of upmixers in this template helps avoid a common problem I have encountered over and over: When audio is shouldered by panning between the front and rear channels, it actually adds gain to the stereo fold down. I’ve seen this push simple 5.1 mixes into noncompliance with broadcast delivery specs and subsequently, those mixes were rejected. A little tone and testing and it’s easy to see, the 5.1 and stereo mixes read more or less identically on any dial norm metre, so long as the upmixer software is ITU-friendly. 

In this session, I have used the cheapest upmix plugin currently available because it’s easy to convince a studio or production house to spend a little to save a lot. In my personal version of this template, I use other pieces of software I prefer more. It’s simple to swap things out though. In fact, in my personal copy of the template, I use different reverbs as well. This is an easy template to tweak to taste.

I mix off the sub-masters and dips tracks around dialogue and narration, after first balancing a preliminary music and effects mix, using clip gain as much as possible to properly gain stage my audio. I find this keeps things very simple. My Dialogue, BG, SFX and music are typically grouped to allow me to grab one of the grouped faders and trim things as necessary.

Easter Eggs On Offer

The "Easter Eggs" hidden in this template are my Window Configurations and my Eucon setup. I don’t expect anyone to use them but they’re there to be reviewed and edited or deleted. In order to use the Window Configurations you’ll need a dual monitor setup on your computer. 

The Sync BG path can be used as a second SFX path if B-Roll audio isn’t a separate requirement. In my current deliveries, I have this path and its sub-master stem sending to the 5.1 Mix and prefader to the SFX Stem, respectively.

Tried And Tested

Since June 2020, I have delivered dozens of hours of long format TV for a variety of clients using this template. There have been no issues with routing or gain for the various stems. What’s even better, my subcontractors find it very easy to work inside this template. I hope you will too.

I’ve “open-sourced” this template with the hope that other people might find it— if nothing else- educational.

Finally, before we get into the template, it was designed in collaboration with my friend Colin Caddies, reflects our modern workflow, our friendship and our shared desire to keep things simple. 

Let’s take a look.

I/O Setup - Buss Tab

IO Setup is the first place to start. Check out the Bus tab. (images above to help). Bussing is really at the heart of audio signal processing and it’s often here that I see in other people’s Pro Tools sessions, the ad hoc approach to organizing the most vital part of the delivery path.

The IO is set up in a descending order of importance so that tracing potential issues should be less time consuming than in sessions where care has not been taken.

In this template, you will see that all print paths are named and organized at the top, from 5.1 to stereo, and the mono print outputs. Why? Because I offline bounce my outputs. When I go to print and the offline bounce dialogue bus comes up I can just keep hitting the little + sign until I have all the stem outputs I need and then bounce the files. This way there is no need to hunt and pick through a murky collection of ambiguously named busses. The only output busses you can print through are right there at the top. In fact, if you have dutifully turned off certain print paths in this template by making those tracks inactive, the little + sign will skip the outputs it can’t use.

As we move down through the IO, you see submasters, the busses that feed the submasters, the monitor paths, the paths used to feed the DIP tracks—more on this to come-, the UM upmixing paths, the key paths, the LFE paths, reverb sends, 5.1 print paths for separate dialogue, sound effects and music and finally a DEAD path that goes nowhere.

Track Layout

You’ll see a similar approach to organization in the track layout within the session.

All audio tracks have their inputs unassigned to prevent any unintentional feedback loops.

The audio tracks are also the only tracks not solo defeated. They have various sends assigned for signal processing and keying down (preferentially for me, multi-band) compressors on the music from either the dialogue or the narration.

The dialogue, sound effects, music and narration audio tracks feed their sub auxiliary tracks unless there’s an upmixer in the chain.

You’ll see some but not all SFX tracks are routed to the UM path for upmixing and we’ve placed the upmixers on dedicated aux faders to allow for music to easily be upscaled during mixing and for the SFX unmixed content to be independently level adjusted over the other SFX materials.

I’ve defaulted to making dialogue and narration audio track outputs mono but the bussing is in the IO to facilitate multichannel panning.

Note there is a Mono Narration SUB active in the session and an optional 5.1 Narration sub hidden and inactive next to it just in case you need to go bigger.

The submasters do much of the heavy lifting in this template. Really, the two upmixer tracks I’d tend to set and forget but the submasters at the top of the session won’t get away that easily.

These four aux faders are where I’d make the majority of my mix moves. Colin and I are in agreement that the track plugins, clip gain and clip effects do a very nice job of forming the basis for an elegant premix and from here, it’s all faders.

We find ourselves needing to provide flat music tracks a lot so clip gain flatly applied to music clips is the best place to start and from there, you could either use the UM Music fader to make all your mix moves or the Music Sub fader to ride music. My personal opinion is it’s just too easy to leave the audio tracks alone and mix entirely off the subs and DIPS tracks.

In my personal derivation of this template, I assign the first seven faders of this template to an Artist Mix in the Eucontrol software and fader 8 would be the “attentioned track.” At any rate, you’ll notice the majority of the print busses get their start at the Sub faders.

An Exception

One notable exception might be common elements like SFX, dialogue or sync bg in the opening titles of a series or common graphics elements. These things ought to be mixed at the track or clip level, without voiceover in, and then dipped afterwards, using the Dips tracks. In this way, prefader SFX (or dialogue or SYNC BG) would represent a perfect mix balance for these common elements. It’s typical for me to use clip gain on all SFX and BG while editing, so my prefader balances to the split stems represent a decent premix.

To VCA Or Not VCA? That Is The Question

The DIPS tracks are interesting. I used to use VCA’s for these dips but there’s a flaw in the logic to that approach, at least for me.

Half the time, I’d look and see that for one reason or another, I’d been mixing for a while with the VCA group suspended so nothing was being written or worse still, I’d print my stems with the VCA’s bypassed and end up having to reprint.

At any rate, I find this integral approach completely “Damian Proof.” They only feed the 5.1 Mix and they are the only faders besides the Narration Sub that do.

Upmixing

The UM (Upmix) tracks are there to make short work of pushing things to the surrounds and LFE channels. In the basic template, we’re going with the ubiquitous Waves UM225 on the conservative “Stereo Preserve” setting but I’ll be swapping those plugins for Penteo 16 Pro+ or Nugen’s Halo Upmix every opportunity I get because these plugins are more versatile, sound better and are ITU folddown friendly.

Music Pan Automation Group

As a time-saver, there’s a Music Pan Automation Group (Group P) that will only control all the pans for the 4 MUSIC stereo tracks. This is particularly useful in cases where mono compatibility is expressly specified in delivery specs.

SFX Pan Group

Moving down past the audio channels, stopping just long enough to point out I built a SFX PAN GROUP just to be nice, I want to stop just short of the MIX Sub, to talk about the SFX LFE. I’ve been to places where the hardware subwoofer in the room will actually shoulder any audio content above its crossover frequency into the centre channel speaker. Not good. So here I’ve incorporated a roll-off and very mild compression to keep things nice and bassy without fear of unwanted spectral content.

The reason there are two side by side and the second one is made inactive is I regularly take stereo low-end clips and dump them into the LFE by option dragging a copy onto these LFE tracks. You only really need one side most of the time. I do however encounter situations in film mixing where I need multiple LFE channels so this is handy. I do find myself using two active LFE channels on my bigger mixes with one dead track between them to handle the excess from the stereo files.

5.1 Sub Groups

The 5.1 MIX SUB, M+E SUB, and (Mix) Minus SUB ought to be identical in terms of processing. We could have created a group just to control all their plugin settings all at once but we feel it’s safer to manually copy and paste the MIX SUB’s Compressor and Limiter settings prior to printing anything. These tracks are routed straight to their print busses AND to mirrored fold down busses because of the TONES tracks located at the end of the session.

Colin is a fan of toning from dedicated tracks as he bounces, as opposed to bouncing stems and bringing them back in for destructively adding tones to the head (which is what I typically do). So I needed a separate path to fold down these three 5.1 Subs otherwise the 5.1 tones would be additive to the stereo and mono tones. I’d just like to point out that on the 5.1 tones tracks, I set the LFE to 50 Hz, which is below the SMPTE crossover curve.

Downmix Channels

The downmix channels are next. Only turn on the ones you need and make the others inactive. This aids with the swift assignment of print tracks in the offline bounce pop-up window. We added some trims to the dialogue, SFX, Music and narration fold downs just in case you need to match any makeup gain or cut you’ve done on your 5.1 submasters to keep your stems in line with your mixes. 

Meter Track

The meter track is derived only from the 5.1 MIX SUB. Swap your favourite meter if you want. We’re both in favour of BS.1770-2/3/4 because of the universality of the standard. 

Print Tracks

We added print tracks because we recognise not everyone or even every gig can be comfortably printed offline. We also needed some classy way to monitor.

Attention: Note that the fold down tracks feed these print tracks so turn on the appropriate fold downs in order to print! For Mix, M+E and Mix-Minus stereo or mono prints, these tracks would also require the 5.1 Submasters to be active. Very important.

The Rest

The rest of the tracks in the session are reverbs and Soundminer and RX monitor faders. I’ll be adding a Revoice Pro monitor fader to my version as well, for ADR and other pitch fixes. We both also both love Melodyne so I expect Colin and I will have Melodyne dialogue faders in there somewhere too. 

Overall Levels

Overall levels are currently set to a very conservative peak level of -7 true peak on all 5.1 and mono subs and downmix tracks, with the stereo tracks, set at -10.

Check Your Delivery Specs

Please check your delivery specifications before blindly (or deafly) printing this way. It’s best to go into a show knowing what you need to output and I find it handy to rename the output busses according to desired naming conventions before I get started. This template was designed to take hours of work and whittle that time down to mere minutes. But you still have to spend the time figuring out what you need and ensuring your mix and stems will meet the delivery spec.

Peak Limiters

If you want to adjust overall peak limiter settings on the Subs, Dips, 5.1 Sub Masters, stereo or mono fold down tracks, I’ve actually created groups k-o that will allow you to adjust any identical plugins in identical slots at the same time. 

Since none of the default Pro Compressors, Downmixers and Limiters on these channels have any automation enabled, these groups allow a sort of “set and forget” approach to overall plugin manipulation. Groups k-o are not enabled by default.

Reverb And Upmixing

Reverb is interesting with upmixers in the chain. To accurately send reverb from the tracks routed to upmixers, you really ought to use SEND A on the Sync BG, SFX and Music audio tracks or upmix and then send to a 5.0 or 5.1 reverb from there. 

What I did in the latest version of this template is to create three new purple stereo reverbs that are fed stereo audio from Send A, and output them to their respective upmixer tracks. If you’re panning in 5.1 or want to reverb an LFE channel (people do this from time to time), use Send B and open up the hidden and inactive 5.1 reverbs for SYNC BG, SFX and Music. 

Note there’s an optional stereo reverb on Send B for dialogue because I recognize there’s a case for exactly matching the reverbs used in the BG, SFX and Music sometimes.

Blag rightly pointed out that in some instances we need a separate path for recreation audio and/or B-Roll audio. This exists as the SYNC BG path. Simply make all the hidden SYNCG BG related tracks active and you’ve got this added functionality.

Gain Structure

One final word about gain structure. A good deal of time with tone and audio mix elements was spent checking to ensure all 5.1, stereo and mono print tracks would fold down uniformly. The stereo fold downs were quite simple since there’s a default Downmixer preset for that. 

The 5.1 to mono is a two-stage downmix. We’ve got the 5.1 to stereo and then the stereo to mono instantiation. It’s all been thoroughly tested with tone and by ear to ensure everything sounds right. 

We’ve placed trims on some of the stereo and mono fold down tracks in case you need to match any makeup gain or cut done on the 5.1 Mix, M+E, and Mix-Minus.

Bleeps For Profanity

There is a special Bleep track, which keys down a Pro Expander on Send D on the DIA Dips Track and another for the SYNC BG Dips Track (also SEND D) to enable words to be bleeped in the mix without effecting stems. Simply add your 1kHz tone onto the corresponding bleeps track and it’ll key down the offending word or words, only in the 5.1 and stereo master mixes. Nothing else is changed. If you want to bleep the Mix Minus, 5.1 Dialogue Stem, or 5.1 SYNC BG Stem (these fold into the stereo and mono versions of the same stems) I’ve added sends for those paths. Send D on the DIPS tracks will feed the Mix Minus and are defaulted to Pre-fader so the dips aren’t employed. 

Note: Turn on the 2 bypassed comps or the Pro Expander on the appropriate Sub to engage the Bleep dipping.  If you used the compressors rather than the default Pro Expander, you’ll need both of them engaged. It’s worth noting also that sometimes the Pro Expander mutes the dialogue when the session is first open. Just make the plugin inactive and active again to rectify this. If you’re not in need of it, keep these plugins deactivated.

Discovery Channel Tones

Tracks at the bottom of the session are the Discovery Channel Tones, as outlined in their latest spec. The 5.1 Mix and Stereo Mix are at 1 kHz while the other stems have 400 Hz tones. These tracks have been assigned to the appropriate outputs for the appropriate stems already but as always, double-check before printing. If you add new output paths, you’ll need to assign those outputs to these tracks as well or else you won’t be printing tone correctly.

Dipped Sends

There are Dipped Sends called 5.1 Print Dia, 5.1 SYNC BG Print, 5.1 Print SFX and 5.1 Print Music have been made inactive inside the IO Setup by default, as the typical sends used are undipped (UD). This keeps the active IO count to a more manageable number.

Fold Down Paths Added

There are fold down paths from 5.1 M+E and 5.1 Mix-Minus to directly match the signal flow the 5.1 Mix takes through the stereo and mono fold downs. 

These 5.1 SUBS must be active in order for the stereo and/or mono fold downs to work. There was an issue in the tones output in a previous version of this template I used for two productions that lead me to make this important change.

UPDATED December 2021

Following the discussion in our article Free Pro Tools TV Post Production Template For 5.1 Projects, Damian has made some tweaks to his open-source TV Post template and added a stereo template based on the same principles outlined in this article. The changes to the 5.1 template are:

1. Exchanged 5.1 up mix tracks with 5.0 to align with the points made by Michael Nunan about LFE content in the broadcast chain.

2. Raised the default threshold in the Channel Strip plugin instantiations from -20 to -24, as I feel the gain staging was suffering from a lower threshold.

3. Added Source-Nexus monitoring Path

4. Adjusted Mix Minus path to include bleeps

5. Various updates to SFX groups, Window Configs, and some IO improvements.

6. Removed SOLO and MUTE from Automation Globals.

7. Expanded SFX tracks now split into specifics and ambiences and are grouped as such.

8. Added Cue Send from Narration track and on 4 stereo fold downs for easy headphones to talent.

9. BRAND NEW STEREO TEMPLATE with identical philosophy to 5.1 version.