The main point of this article is to find the correct volume for your Sub woofer for accurate LFE/SUB reproduction. This is a somewhat critical measurement. The idea is to match the amplitude of the main speakers (L,R, Ls, Rs, and C) to the subwoofer. If you are using Cubase or Nuendo you can download are free bass manager plug-in.

A simple way to setup your mixing system in surround is to do the follow:

1. Setup you speakers so your ears are equidistant from each of the full range speakers. (see Setting Up You Speakers for Surround).

Radio Shack dB Meter

2. Using a dB meter, I got mine at Radio Shack set it to the 'Slow Scale', 'C' weighting. Position the dB meter in the sweet spot at the level of your ears and while testing each speaker point it directly at the speaker/monitor being tested.

3. Run Pink Noise through each speaker (Make sure your bass management is OFF). Go through each speaker and adjust the volume to +80dB on each speaker. Do this for each speaker (L,C,R,Ls, and Rs).

4. When you get to the subwoofer volume set it to +84dB (4 dB louder). Make sure that only the subwoofer is enabled and no other speaker is on. The reason for the subwoofer being +4 dB louder is that it is a band-limited (EQ'd) signal where only the frequency range between 20-100Hz or so is being heard. So it has been determined that to make up for this decrease in frequency content the subwoofer should be +4dB louder.

Placement of the subwoofer can make a difference. You should avoid placing it in a corner or near a wall. Doing this will cause the low frequencies from the sub become more directional and louder. The sound energy will couple with the wall and produce non-reliable sound levels, meaning you'll ultimately end up with less bass in your final mix.