Help with 2.0 to 5.1 upmix method???

Hello Reapers!!! I want to create a 5.1 mix from a live show of my band without having to remix the whole thing, just put some of the stereo on the rear and the ambs back a a little at front to preserve the stereo mix, i have this 2 busses ready, sub 1 is Stereo Music and sub 2 is Stereo Ambients, both go to a Stereo Master Bus, and that Mix is ok, for the 5.1 Master Bus this are my ideas so far: 1. Create a 5.1 (6 chs track) with Reasurround inserted and send Music to 5.1 track in chs1-2 and Ambs to 5.1 track chs5-6 and setup ReaSurround to create the center and LFE, this is the tricky part because i can't find any manual or documentation about the controls, but when finished export multichannel stem and explode to mono items would give the mono stems. 2. Create 6 tracks, put them on a 5.1 (6 channels) folder and route the child tracks and pan accordingly, then send the amount of Music and Ambs to each L R C LFE LS and RS tracks within the 5.1 folder using ReaEQ to filter the LFE, this way I can render a 5.1 multichannel stem or 6 mono tracks depending on the encoding process, the tricky part again, how to set the level amount send to each channel proportionally like it would be with reasurround. I played a test tone trough Reasurround and made notes about the levels it delivered to try to mimic that with the second setup wich is the one that gives me more control but I am shooting in the dark here, I have to deliver the mix soon and cant find any guidance, also should I render the LFE or not??? I will encode it to AC3 using "WAV to AC3 Encoder v5.0_x64", is there any specific parameters that I have to use??? Sorry for been to extensive but I'm going nuts here :) Thanks in advance... Attached is my test project so far...

Stereo Pairs 

I usually use Anomaly's SurroundPan to quickly get a signal into surround space. Too many buttons on ReaSurround. The "Free (Mouse)" mode is great for putting stuff in front and in back real easy. Whichever way you choose to surround-ize your stereo, here's my hints. They may be dumb. Treat the front as a stereo pair, and treat the surround (back) as a stereo pair. Treat C as its own channel, and LFE as its own channel. I am ashamed to admit this, I've tried being lazy and treating C and LFE as a stereo pair but they're just too different. They must be themselves. To put FX on the front pair, Code:

I would say unless you are going to split out the vocals to the center channel or something like that then just mix L-R and Ls-Rs. Ignore the LFE too unless you really know what you're doing or have a very well set up reference room to mix in. If you route things to the LFE channel and then the bass management on a listeners system routes even more low frequency stuff to the sub then you could wind up with a very muddy mix. I would suggest you just set up a 5.1 track/bus with an instance of ReaSurround on it. Make sure the ReaSurround instance has 4 inputs then route the output from your music tracks to inputs 1 and 2 of your 5.1 track and your AMB tracks to inputs 3 and 4 of that same 5.1 track. Now you will have 4 little pannable dots on your 5.1 speaker layout. Array them in a way that sounds good to you on your monitoring. Check the result in headphones using which is a free plugin. Enjoy your surround mixing experience.

Many Thanks 

lots of work, sorry... 

ok, this will be a study process, if learning to mix in Stereo have been a continuous thing for me over 20 years maybe will mix ok in 5.1 by..... 120 years old!!! :) that's promising, i love my job and this is like starting over again, like falling in love with audio again. My two main jobs are Live sound with a major band in my country and recording and mixing CDs hired mainly by Record Labels, i track at big Pro Facilities and mix at my Home Studio, i have 43 Official Releases and many of them have been awarded here and in Europe, BUT!!! i have NOT study sound engineering, it doesn't exist here in my country, and there where HUGE limitations when i was young to study in another country you could only study abroad if the government send you there, that said sorry if there are some things which I'm slow to catch, besides my English is self learned also... serr: still can't find any decent surround system yet so i will discard the CENTER and LFE for the moment and make my study with 4 KRK's in quad config, will continue to look, but there are NO "reasonable speakers can be scored in pawn shops for low prices if you have a low budget" thing here man!!! :( Michal: thanks a lot for the link to "Recommendations For Surround Sound Production" which I'm reading carefully, any surround correlation meters you can point me to? i will not use any upmixing tool or plugin, i want to create the process myself cause i love crafting my stuff, that's why i use Reaper!!! So far the process: 01 Setup: plush2 recommendation to deliver the job fast, but neglected for everyone... 02 Setup: now i began to play with Reasurround, my perspective is from the PA, and for the moment want to keep it simple like looking to the stage from the PA Mixer, band front Fxs around and Ambience of theater back, very general, using stereo sends to Reasurround. 03 Setup: divided in 5 busses and place it like on the stage, i tried to keep the wideness of the stereo mix, so L&R pan in done in the channels, go to stereo busses the Reasurround place the group of instruments in space. Still using stereo sends to Reasurround. The final step will be to make two different projects one in stereo an another in surround, but still have to get there. Since i have recorded this with no surround in mind should i place the Reasurround on my stereo Groups and their 5.1 output buss it to a 5.1 master or, make stereo to 5.1 tracks with Reasurround or Anomaly's SurroundPan of every track in the project to place any instrument across the 5.1 field? And how can i construct a Surround Reverb with Reaverb, and 5.1 Readelay?, using 3 instances and 6 channels i suppose, but how to set it up properly. Any 5.1 impulses around? this are captures of my Reasurround setups... Thanks a lot guys, i will get there, i promise... :D

In agreement with the comments of "mix with multi-track stems" and "mix in a proper 5.1 environment". I have presets for ReaSurround that I toss in frequently, but they are meant for 6+:6 and not 2:6.

ohhh serr !!! another krk.. and a sub... LOL this is the third world!!! :D there are no stores with monitors and audio stuff available here my brother, it's all VERY difficult. I get your point of the color correction in black and white, i will not try to make a 5.1 without hearing what i'm doing of course, but 4 krks is all i have for now and i have to study with those for the moment, so that is why i asked you if discarding the center and the sub i could start doing some research, but just to study. My idea was start slowly, first to position my stems in the 5.1 field, the ambs are not reverbs, but actual ambient mics recorded on the venue, then get deeper into panning 5.1 on each track as you told me seem to be is the best and proper way, and after all the things you have wrote i trust your judgement, be sure of that. But i'm curious if the stem positioning is nonsense or maybe could work, from my P.A perspective, and what about the Reaverb 5.1 setup, cause to mix in 5.1 i will need a 5.1 verb no??? so, many thanks and don't worry, i will not make an stereo with reverb on the rear shitty 5.1, i promise you. Just trying to spread my stems while i learn the real thing and get the 5.1 system. TNKS AGAIN...