Loudspeakers Surround Sound

[Max Thoburn]

Hello, I am Technical director at my local high school and I have some questions about speakers. We run Plays and Musicals.

We have a mixing console in our booth that is connected to a box backstage which connects two amps, which run 3 Loudspeakers above our stage in our auditorium. We have 2 subwoofers under our booth in the back, 2 unused speakers, and someone is giving us 2 old analog speakers. Im not sure what to do with these speakers but I would like to have a Surround sound effect if possible.

If anyone knows how to do this and could explain that would be great.
Thanks
Max T.

 

[Max Thoburn]

Could I set up Surround sound with these speakers?

 

[np18358]

If you want to get a true surround sound where you can pan to specific speakers, and create specialized effects, that is completely dependent on the mixing console and other sound equipment that you have. If you just want sound to come from the sides and back, that is a different story. That usually isn't recommended, because it can cause significant feedback issues if you use microphones. I am assuming that the "Box" before the amps is a crossover, which sends low frequency signals to one set of amps (for the subs), and another set for the high/mid range speakers.
Could you possibly provide the names of some of the models of the equipment that you have?

 

[Max Thoburn]

http://www.rane.com/rpm44.html
This is the the box and it uses dragnet software, so it has advanced options. I am working on setting up a feedback suppressor.
Im not sure of the model of the mixing console we are using but I can check. I know that has L and R pan options.

Thanks for this fast help
Max T.

 

[JD]

It is important to remember that depending on the size of the room, any audio feed to speakers set back in the room should be patched through a digital delay line to match the distance and acoustic delay coming from the stage, otherwise it will detract from the overall mix. Low frequencies such as subwoffers are not a problem as the waveforms are so long the human ear cannot detect the phase lag. Higher frequencies are a big problem.

 

[WooferHound]

Are you running L/R Stereo now, or just Mono ?
If you have plenty of aux sends on the mixer then you can have an aux for each location that you need sound to come from.