Mastering 5.1 for Audyssey dynamic volume

[Phil French]

Wasn't sure whether to post this to Audio or Vegas sections, but after reading audio posts... I use Vegas 9 and I am just finishing a nature based doc with narration. There isn't much music - just at the beginning and end of the video. I have tried to maintain natural background audio throughout the production.

I am just about finished and in the process of mastering the audio. I usually try previewing the finished product(DVD) on a number of setups(eg. a stand alone tv, home theatre etc.) I am noticing one problem on my home theatre system - the narration (centre speaker) seems to increase and decrease in volume depending on the volumes of the other 4 channels. This is very annoying - I have tried everything and the only way I can make it go away is to turn off Audyssey dynamic volume on my sound system.

I am not experiencing these issues with other disks or satellite tv. I keep the dynamic volume set to "light" normally. I don't want others to experience the same issues with my DVD!

I am using the wave hammer surround plugin for surround master. Auto gain unchecked. Volume maximizer threshold -12 dB, output level -0.1 dB.

Does anybody have suggestions? I have tried a number of things to alleviate this issue...

[Don Bloom]

OK it sounds to me like all of the audio is running to 1 master bus which is fine except you have little control over the sound. So I suggest the following; 1) set up a bus for each audio track 2) at the track header right click on the slider and set the level to minus0 center. Do the same on the buses otherwise what is happening is just as the top option states. It's adding the levels to one another.
From here it's very easy to control levels per track FXs etc. You can set the track header and or the bus to minus 3 centered, minus 6, use an envelope or use the slider(s) on the track and or the bus. Run FX at the bus level for that particular track if needed. Lots of options.

HTHs

[Phil French]

Thanks Don! You are right. That is exactly what I am doing. I have been thinking about using the buses, but never got organized enough to do it and never saw the reasoning behind doing this... I will try exactly what you suggest. I appreciate your response to my long-winded post.