Micah’s On Location News   •   October 5, 2017

There comes a time when you need to deliver a video file with a multi channel audio file embedded into it.  This type of file is a deliverable file to a distribution company in which they will take the picture and audio elements and create what they need out of them for their delivery needs.  There are a few gotchas when you create a multi channel audio file and with this I will walk you through each step of how to create this file type in both Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve.

This post will be in two parts, the first being Adobe Premiere multi Channel workflow and then in part two I will go through how to export the same through Davinci Resolve.

I have found that the majority of the time we already have our projects already cut, locked and ready to be delivered by the time we look at the need to deliver a picture with multi channel audio embedded.  This is usually the case as we do not edit with multi channel in mind.  The interesting thing when you need to export a multi channel format with Premiere you will need to create a fresh timeline.

Select your project settings for your picture side.

1. select your frame rate
2. enter your frame size
3. select your pixel aspect ratio
4. field order.

Do not hit OKAY yet. You still need to setup the audio side of your timeline.

Select your project settings for your picture side.

1. Under Master select MultiChannel
2. Select the amount of channels your project deliverables require.  (It can vary)
3. Change all audio channels to Mono
4. Add additional channels based on the total number of channels added above.
5. Alternate Pan on each channel.  (Channel 1 set to 100, Channel 2 set to -100 and so forth)
6. Change Output assignments based on Stereo Track.
7. Channels 1 and 2 with a check mark on 1-2
8. Channels 3 and 4 with a check mark on 3-4 with channels 1-2 unchecked.
9. Channels 5 and 6 with a check mark on 5-6 with Channels 1-2 unchecked.
10. Continue this with any additional channels that you have.

Once you have completed the picture and audio settings hit OKAY and

1. add your video elements to the timeline
2. Change the start time to 01:00:00:00
3. Add mono stems to each channel.  This should be based on the deliverable requirements.  (An example listed below)
   1. Channel 1 – Left
   2. Channel 2 – Right
   3. Channel 3 – Center
   4. Channel 4 – LFE
   5. Channel 5 – Ls
   6. Channel 6 – Rs
   7. Channel 7 – Left Stereo Mix
   8. Channel 8 – Right Stereo Mix
4. Export your project and use the following settings to make sure picture and audio export correctly.

From there all you need to do is render now from premiere or add the the render cue that opens media encoder to start rendering.  Once this is completed you can import and create a new timeline based on the clip and check to see if all audio channels came across correctly.  I have added a video overview on how to perform the task of picture with multi channel audio.  Happy rendering!