Mixing levels on dialogue, effects & music in 5.1?

[Helge Krabye]

I have searched the DUC and find some answers. Still I need more advice from you folks....

I have created a full mix of dialogue, effects and music on a television drama, and since we do not yet transmit 5.1, I made the stereo mix my first priority. Now, I have started creating a 5.1 mix by adding more audio and adjusting levels. Here is my question:

- I really don't feel comfortable with my 5.1 mix so far. I understand that the dialogue should peak at -15 dbFs while effects and music may (theoretically) be mixed as high as possible (without 0 clipping). However, if I follow this rule, I think the dialogue is getting to weak compared to the effects and music. What is your experience?

- I will do the mixdown of my 5.1 tracks to the harddrive and then encode them to AC3 with A-Pack. Are there things I should be aware of before I do this, like setting levels on dialogue and effects/music differently or simply following the same rules as with mixing 5.1 for Dolby E conversion?

- Since I will later also encode the 5.1 mix to Dolby E (to store it on track 3 and 4 of the DigiBeta tape), I have set the order of my channelse to L, R, C, LFE, rL and rR, In that way, I may transfer my 5.1 mix via three AES/EBU channels from ProToolsHD to the Dolby hardware encoder. Anything I should be aware of in this process? Would love to hear from those of you who have experience with the Dolby encoder for 5.1 to Dolby E.

Thanks!

Helge K.

[Cammo2009]

^^^ What he said.