In good software editors you can select 5.1 for project and position any mono sources (audio tracks) in the 2D space.

this might be use full: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/5-1_surround_sound_FCS2.html

if you have to deliver your 5.1 mix to someone make sure to talk to this people before doing stuff ...

also google Walter Murch's take on Final Cut X (its a video from a Boston FCP user group meeting or so ...) if I remember it right he talks there about where he puts stuff in his 5.1 mix ... not sure though ...

well i found something useful on a friends facebook from the tribeca film institue webpage http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/blog/134125218.html

Audio output:

Channel 1: 5.1 track: Left
Channel 2: 5.1 track: Right
Channel 3: 5.1 track: Center
Channel 4: 5.1 track: Lfe
Channel 5: 5.1 track: Left Surround
Channel 6: 5.1 track: Right Surround
Channels 7+8: Full Mix Stereo L&R
Channels 9+10: M&E Stereo L&R

Special note on audio channels: At the very least, you’ll be expected to deliver a Stereo mix, as well as DME separate channels. Preparing the audio configuration properly can go a long way to getting around complications on promotional materials and music licensing. Plan your audio mappings in your sequence accordingly so it will be easier to output separate DME tracks, which can go a long way to enabling clips to be used promotionally without out-of-context music licenses.

not that informative but still interesting,

For 5.1 mixdown, I use Adobe Audition, which is now bundled in CS5.5. What's even more important is to work with a calibrated 5.1/7.1 surround sound monitoring system, which does take time and careful listening to set up properly. At this point 7.1 mixes are rarely produced, and Dolby ProLogic IIx does an excellent job of expanding 5.1 mixes to 7.1 at the decoder end.

For DVD and Blu-ray, you'll almost always want to produce both 5.1 and stereo mixes. For DVD you'll need a Dolby Digital encoder, and if you want lossless encoding on Blu-ray, either a Dolby TruHD or DTS-HD Master encoder. I use the MainConcept Codec Suite 5.1plugin for Adobe CS5.5 for DVD/Blu-ray with Dolby Digital encoding. It's important to test both stereo and 5.1 mixes on both 5.1 and 7.1 systems with ProLogic IIx on and off.

For music videos, a 5.1 mix will always put the lead vocal on the center channel and usually pan backup vocals and instruments to match the stage positions of the musicians. A music mix should have a stable audio panorama and not follow camera movements. Surround channels are best used for room acoustics and reverb. You don't normally want to hear any surround FX with music, just an expanded sense of space.

Here is a link to the Dolby Digital Professional Encoding Guidelines. This details what's necessary to produce DVD-compliant stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes:

http://www.beussery.com/pdf/beussery.dolby.pdf

Not all the time tho of course :)

I never solely pop vocals just in the centre channel as they're too pinned middle, but hey thats me ;p (For music DVD 5.1 or 7.1 mixes that is) Also

@lolo that's just one type of 5.1 track layout - there are others i.e. film standard which you'll find a little different than the example up a few posts - that's a v simple delivery requirement as you usually deliver individual stems of dialogue music sync fx etc and various forms of M+E so 10 tracks is never really enough.

1:Fl 2:C 3:Fr 4:Ls 5:Rs 6:LFE

There really are no requirements to be honest just use your ears - and be sensible re: things like dialnorm and phase and "creative" panning

Main thing mixing in surround is to get a well balanced (full range if you can) set of monitors, level aligned and get your room sounding as flat as you can (or are comfortable with) 5 speakers and an LFE will really show you any sonic problems your listening environment has! If you're mixing for film - that's another conversation :)

Some historical reading:

http://hometheater.about.com/od/beforeyoubuy/a/surroundsound.htm

The number one thing to do is set up a test room in surround with correctly positioned speakers and then use that to screen your final mix. Most (maybe 90 percent?) of your end users will not have their speakers and amp set up correctly, but sending it out the door nicely balanced in the best you can do, you can't fix people's stereos. As far as mixing goes, you then make a number of choices that are geared to the source material. If you have sound effects, then you want to make sure that they "travel" correctly. A common mistake here is to pan the effect too hard in one direction so it sounds like it is from another set. Another thing to watch out for is that sound effects like breaking glass should travel in a pattern with scatter and bounce, but not as if they are "in orbit": circling around the room.If you have music and dialog, you want to make sure that people can hear the words or hear the music, or both. Be careful about using the center speaker, it can turn the stereo into mono. Make sure that you have good stereo imaging for those who will downmix. Create "snapshots" of mixes for different scenes, so that for example if a person returns to a room, you can use the same scene mix. Lastly, you can mix to reimage the listener. For example, if you make a video of a rock concert, you can mix it so the "audience" is sitting on the stage, or in the middle of the band, or in the audience with speakers in different places, and so on. And here, your test room setup will tell you if your mixing sounds convincing or artificial.

Welcome to the strange world of sound :)

On the Murch front - listen to his mixes - mostly mono - dialogue storytelling the most important thing.

I'm authoring for surround sound audio and the the ideal (and apparently only affordable?) solution to converting the 5.1 optical/SPDIF digital signal from my Viera TV* socket to my $110.00, 5.1 speakers seemed to be this $55 converter from ebay:

Specifications:

• Input: 2x digital OPTICAL port, 1x digital COAXIAL port, 1x analog AUX (3.5mm stereo)port.

• Output: 6 RCA interfaces for SW/CE, SL/SR, FL/FR. 5.1 or 2.1-channel analog output.

• Transfer the stereo(R/L) audio signal data into 5.1 sound track output(analog signal output).

• Multi-channel signal input, One button to switch 4 different input sources, simple to operate.

• Power auto-detection signal input channel, switch to a signal input channel, when no signal input,

  • • output function will stop at the same time.

• Auto detect AC3/DTS/PCM digital audio signal.

• Decode format: DD EX, DTS-ES, DD Pro Logic II, DTS, AC3, Dolby Digital.

• 24-bit audio DSP, 96KHZ/24bit ADC.

• Made of latest US CRYSTAL CS493263-CL processing chipset (Old chipset is CS492604-CL), perfect sound.

• Sound Noise ratio: 120db

• Separation: 80db (1KHZ)

• Frequency response: 20HZ-20KHZ±0.5db

• Analog output level: 2.2V

• Size: 105mm(L) * 75mm(W) * 25mm(H)

Interface:

A. Optical input interface: XBOX360, PS3, STB, DVD player, Blue-ray DVD players, HD player

B. Coaxial input interface: can be connected to computer PC sound card or notebook coaxial output, high-definition players, set-top boxes, DVD player, etc.

C. AUX Input Interface: Connect to any group of LPCM stereo signals (such as computer audio, MP3 / 4 player audio)

D. Three output channels: connect to home theater or a 5.1-channel power amplifier ((FL/FR if 2.1 channel)

See also http://www.aliexpress.com/cp/compare-5.1-audio-gear/2.html

It's on order from China so I won't be able to post a review for a month :-(

@goanna

You can also output surround sound with realtime encoder, be it Dolby Digital or DTS via SPDIF. If you have any modern graphics card you can output audio in surround PCM to receiver via HDMI, cheap and easy.

Also, most modern TV can use return channel of HDMI, so you can use receiver and speakers for TV also :-)

Also, I like to use a laptop for sound. It's nice and quiet :-)

Your laptop lacks HDMI? As only old ones do.

If you ask me, buying set of speakers like Logitech is dead end. If you are in US simple search and patience allow to buy good receiver for cheap. Same as good set of speakers.

OK. Just remember my words. As big amount of people went same way. I just wanted to save you some time and money.