Sound Editing for 5.1 mix
 

I'm wondering if anything special needs to be done while sound editing for a 5.1 mix? I'm just putting all the sounds together (ie. dialogue, adr, background, sfx, foley, music) and the mixers will decide how to utilize all the speakers correct?

You're sending these tracks to an audio post house for mixing and mastering, the classic Hollywood workflow where the final mix is done by a re-recording mixer on a dubbing stage once the various sound editors have done their thing?

If you want to be of help to the post house you might put each actor on separate track. That way the mixer can apply such things as EQ and compression for each actor without having to change the settings for each speech.

You also might put the music, sound effects, foley, and background on separate renderings of the sequence. Be sure that all the tracks start at the same timecode and use a leader with a sync marker. In the film days there was an audio “pop” at the two second mark in the countdown. That is where we get the term “2 Pop”.

Grayson