Penteo 4 Pro - 5.1 upmix

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Post Peeps

Just a nod a wink that Penteo Pro 4 has now been officially released and best of all from March 4 to April 16 it's at 33% off the purchase price.

I have chosen this as my AAX up mixer (bye bye TC Unwrap) at Mikerophonics with my HDX rig (like Mike Thornton at Pro-Tools-Expert) as:

1) its down mixes are, to all intents and purposes, nigh on identical to the stereo - it ads no space or reverb to the sound
2) I have had no tech rejections with this plug from any broadcaster or DVD mixed with it.
3) Simple to use and effective
4) it is multi-touch controllable with my Slate Raven (wake up you other plug manufacturers!)
5) It's affordable
6) It sounds great

cheers

[thermisonic]

I did an A/B comparison with the Soundfield UPM and ADL Penteo 3 plug in on a piece of stereo mixed score which needed to be upmixed to 5.1 for a film using the demo versions of both plug ins.

I tried out the various presets with Penteo, with and without centre and I ended up using the Soundfield plug in instead because the Penteo put too much of a fairly hard panned double bass into the surrounds. Now the double bass was too hard panned in the stereo mixed score for my taste, but the Penteo process (at least in v3) seems to take anything panned out that far and send it to the surrounds. I couldn't fault the sound otherwise.

Not the ADL Penteo plug ins' fault, but I was glad to have another option in this particular case. Haven't used the TC Unwrap but obviously the issue is neither that nor the Soundfield is updated for AAX.

Rob Walker AMPS

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Hmm anyone panning double bass needs a very good reason to avoid detention and 100 lines! If there is a big difference in L and R it would get sent to the surrounds.
I wouldn't hold your breath for TSL to make Soundfield AAX.

Cheers

[thermisonic]

Talented composer with not a lot of engineering experience doing his own stuff = problems.

Hopefully Soundfield doing AAX versions of their Ambisonic decoder plug ins is a good omen.

Next time I need this it will be a tough decision as to what to buy.

Rob

[MIKEROPHONICS]

I don't think there is ever one tool that fits all sizes, but In my humble oinion Penteo comes the closest and sounds great. - without screwing the down mix.

[Brandonx1]

Tested it for a while last month. Down mix sounds great. Better than automatic, tc and tied with dts. The issue I have with it is stuff that should be front gets panned to the surrounds. They need a button or something that moves some of the surrounds to the left and right. That being said, I think I'm buying it. 33% off so 600? Where is that deal? Guitar Center Pro?

[TVPostSound]

Protools expert. $670 USD at todays exchange rate.

Shame on you for even saying GCPro

[TVPostSound]

I have the demo on the production company's TDM system.

206 MS of delay??? WTF??

[MIKEROPHONICS]

With AAX and PT11/HDX it is fine. And within ok delay comp

[TVPostSound]

Originally Posted by MIKEROPHONICS

Post Peeps

Just a nod a wink that Penteo Pro 4 has now been officially released and best of all from March 4 to April 16 it's at 33% off the purchase price.

I have chosen this as my AAX up mixer (bye bye TC Unwrap) at Mikerophonics with my HDX rig (like Mike Thornton at Pro-Tools-Expert) as:

1) its down mixes are, to all intents and purposes, nigh on identical to the stereo - it ads no space or reverb to the sound
2) I have had no tech rejections with this plug from any broadcaster or DVD mixed with it.
3) Simple to use and effective
4) it is multi-touch controllable with my Slate Raven (wake up you other plug manufacturers!)
5) It's affordable
6) It sounds great

cheers

What are you using for downmix??