Surround Questions (several)

[juniorhifikit]

I have a few surround questions for the group (sorry so many)

1. What are you folks using for a monitor controller?

2. Are you doing the encoding for Dolby/DTS...yourselves, or are you just delivering the six discreet tracks and letting someone else do it.

3. Are you delivering sepparate "folddown mixes" or just letting the encoder do it?

4. Peak limiting/loudness: are we playing this silly game on surround mixes these days?

Thanks

[Elliot Scheiner]

Hi....I'm using the studio technologies monitor controller. I deliver the discreet mixes for mastering and then authoring usually does the encoding. I always deliver a stereo mix for DVD's. Downmixes and upmixes never work. I don't use anything like the finalizer on anything I do. Both stereo and 5.1's are done without that. It leaves room for the mastering engineer to do something.

Els

[gml]

Originally Posted by juniorhifikit

I have a few surround questions for the group (sorry so many)

1. What are you folks using for a monitor controller?

i'm using the monitor controller built into my console (Sony R3) or in Protools.

2. Are you doing the encoding for Dolby/DTS...yourselves, or are you just delivering the six discreet tracks and letting someone else do it.

i always listen to the AC-3 and DTS encode/decode to hear what it's doing to my mix. most often i'll deliver discrete tracks to mastering, though.

3. Are you delivering sepparate "folddown mixes" or just letting the encoder do it?

this is the billion-dollar question. we're still researching good (or at least adequate) folddown methodologies. for the straight-ahead linear folddown, i'll provide coefficients, or enter them myself if i'm authoring DVD-A.

4. Peak limiting/loudness: are we playing this silly game on surround mixes these days?

i certainly hope not. maybe now that the major labels are going away, and the pant-load A&R men that drove the level war are finding other, more appropriate careers (used cars? insurance? real estate?) we can make reasonable, listenable records once again.

Thanks

you're welcome,
George