5.1 surround mix for feature film

[finalmixaudio]

Originally Posted by MIKEROPHONICS

Stereo fold down or PL2 fold down?
Sounds like just dcp and 5.1 BR with no TV?
No international requirement for M&E?

Knowing your deliverable requirements before you start is half the battle.

I have requested the list of deliverables, I will post it once I have it. in the mean time, what is the difference between the stereo fold down and the PL2?

Thanks

[Craig F]

Stereo fold down is is also call a crash down Ls to L, Rs to R, C split 50/50 to L&R, LFE tossed or cheated into L&R a little depends on the film

PL2 (Dolby ProLogic 2) digitally encodes the signal so the 5.0 can be transmitted in a 2.0 AES stream with some bit-rate reduction. LEF is not part of the PL/PL2 spec if needed it requires AC3 or Dobly E

[stormmusic]

Nice work Marti!!!!

[finalmixaudio]

Originally Posted by dr sound

Finalmixaudio,
Forget all the negative comments. E-mail me today with your contact
info and we will talk. I will help you out with most of your questions.

Can't wait for all you guys when you start saying" This is my first Immersive 11.1 mix and I only do 5.1... can you help me....

REMEMBER, WE ALL STARTED SOMEWHERE AND SOMEONE WAS KIND ENOUGH TO HELP ME OUT! YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME!

I wanna thank everyone that has offered their help but specially Dr Sound(Marti). I did take his offer and had a very good conversation with him, full of very direct and useful information. It is great to know that there are still people that care about passing on the knowledge and their experiences in that way.

Thank you so much Marti (Dr sound)

[Schottlandru]

+1 of praise for Marti!!
I'll never forget how he offered help via phone by answering questions on films he mixed for my diploma thesis. Very kind indeed and went quite a way to make it happen even though he was very busy mixing at the time IIRC.
The same way that also John Ross, who phoned back too, as well as Randy Thom and Odin Benitez got back to me on all my questions.

OK, back on topic now...

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Credit to you for contacting these people

[joachim]

Originally Posted by finalmixaudio

I did take his offer and had a very good conversation with him, full of very direct and useful information.

Would you like to share some information you got ?
I am still green and info-hungry and others will be in the same situation as you were.

[nst7]

Yes, I was thinking that it would be great if Marti could put together a list of basics and maybe have it as a sticky. I remember he helped someone else in a similar fashion. It might save him time, because he could instead refer people to a basic FAQ posted as a sticky. Perhaps oriented towards those who already mix music, and just need some basic technical info for surround, rather than a totally from scratch type primer.

[joachim]

Originally Posted by nst7

Yes, I was thinking that it would be great if Marti could put together a list of basics and maybe have it as a sticky.

I did not dare to ask that, but that was my wish behind it.

Originally Posted by nst7

Perhaps oriented towards those who already mix music, and just need some basic technical info for surround, rather than a totally from scratch type primer.

Maybe not just for music mixers going 2.0 to 5.1,
maybe also for beginning 5.1 movie mixers who have no chance to look the big guys over the shoulder,
ideas/techniques/workarounds,
something like :
* if you have a 2 minute stereo background of jungle noises, but need to cover 1 minute jungle in quad -> devide the 2 minutes in 2 x 1 minute, place the first minute L/R and at the same time on another track the other minute Ls/Rs
* for an FX in the middle of a town -> send it to a quad delay, delay time L 70ms , R 90ms , Ls 80ms and RS 100ms, and tweak from there
* for a truck drive by, that should go to the LFE, but the lowest frequency is 100Hz and you do not have a subsonic exciter-> audio suite a mono copy of that drive by : pitch down 1 octave, highcut above 100Hz, place on a track that outputs to the LFE
* if your dialog falls between -36LUFS +/- 2, it is good enough for a indie festival (if you are not certain about the calibration and your ears)
(all the above may not be considered professional; happy to get corrected)
* don't place stereo music inbetween front and rear -> phasing problems likely on downmix
* use center mono reverb especially for ADR
* pan dialog only out of center if you have a very good reason, but even than maybe not to the fullest extend
(things I learned reading threads here and on gearslutz)

The list might be endless. Ideas of many pro's in this forum maybe more worth than a book of a single author.

[vudoo]

Originally Posted by dr sound

Finalmixaudio,
Forget all the negative comments. E-mail me today with your contact
info and we will talk. I will help you out with most of your questions.

Can't wait for all you guys when you start saying" This is my first Immersive 11.1 mix and I only do 5.1... can you help me....

REMEMBER, WE ALL STARTED SOMEWHERE AND SOMEONE WAS KIND ENOUGH TO HELP ME OUT! YOU SHOULD DO THE SAME!

Haha! love your attitude Marti.

Get your room calibrated, listen to some 5.1 mixes of film you really enjoy and try to ''emulate'' those mixes….have fun, it ain't rocket science!