[QLab] Surround Effects

[David Steigerwald]

I am building a sound system for a children's theater, music and effects 
only (no reinforcement), with the goal of making some dramatic effects 
available for designers who had limited tools and skills.  I am using 
QLab via ADAT into a Yamaha 01V96V2 with a 6.1 surround speaker setup. 
My hope had been to provide each of the 4 stereo pairs output from QLab 
with a different base effect, labeled in QLab so that the designer could 
simply set the levels for each desired location/effect. 

My original concept had been based on discussions on the Theatre-Sound 
list regarding the LCR capability of the 01V96//DM1000, and the 
advertised "surround" capability of those mixers.  I was thinking that, 
using a stereo mix, the surround processor would spread the image LCR 
and provide a "virtual space" similar to what is available on many 
consumer surround receivers. My plan had been for the first stereo pair 
to pan LCR across the front, the second pair to pan LCR across the back, 
and then the final two stereo pairs to include a couple of virtual 
spaces, something like a "cavern/large hall" effect and the other either 
a less reverberant space or perhaps just an "echo" effect. 

Now that I have gotten a chance to play with the mixer, I find that it 
has no surround effects, only stereo effects, though it has surround 
"pan" capability for a mono source (basically from software, not even 
really a "knob" to do that). The DM1000 apparently does have surround 
effects, but I have no idea whether even that would do what I envisioned 
and the grant money is spent so there is no way to upgrade at this point 
anyway.

So, I am now considering a few options:

1. Revert to providing individual channel outputs in Qlab for the first 
6 channels (L, R, C, Rear, Rr, Lr), and use the last two channels for a 
"large hall" effect.  That effect could just be stereo panned into all 
channels, or maybe use option 2 to provide a more realistic effect.

2. Figure out how to fake a surround "virtual space" effect using the 
built-in stereo effects combined with delays and routings in the mixer.

3. Find a reasonably-priced surround processor (hardware or software) to 
route the Qlab outputs through en route to the mixer.  Of course, the 
going price for these things looks to be an order of magnitude higher 
than I would like to pay. Of course, for one effect I could probably 
pick up a consumer receiver on Craig's List for $50 and patch into the 
inserts...

Any suggestions?