Did my first 7.1 mastering session

[jayfrigo]

Had my first request for this recently, and did our first 7.1 mastering gig yesterday. Blu-ray supports 7.1 surround, so I wonder if we'll start seeing more of this?

We're not talking about SDDS film-style with 5 behind the screen, but an extra pair of "side" speakers. It's not just extra DSP on the receiver like years past (though some still take the cheesy way out).

Most new receivers are HDMI-equipped so HD-video and 8 channels of PCM can stream down one cable (not news to most of you, I know). Has 7.1 popped up on the radar for anybody else yet?

[DynaForte]

jatfrigo - Nice to hear from you. I might PM you soon, beware

The only masters I do are post production masters - for which I am the lead engineer.

Anyhow - I did work for a Sony Playstation 3 release, which is of course is a blu-ray device and a lot of the video games like to say that they are 7.1 sound so we did our work in 7.1

As you said - SONY has created their own lovely 7.1 with 4 speakers in the back, deemed "sides" and rears" and the normal LCR in the front with a sub of course.

As you probably found, the extra backs (or even when in front) are mostly useless! but whatever...


Can you be more specific of what the audio was? Was it music?

Anyhow - since Blu-Ray won the war against HD-DVD, I would suspect this might pop up a little more. I know that at very least, it's nice for companies to say their product is 7.1 - in my case, I chose to do very little unique sound placement in the back two.

I'd love to hear the details of who your master was for and what was in which back/side channels

TY

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by DynaForte

jatfrigo - Nice to hear from you. I might PM you soon, beware

The only masters I do are post production masters - for which I am the lead engineer.

Anyhow - I did work for a Sony Playstation 3 release, which is of course is a blu-ray device and a lot of the video games like to say that they are 7.1 sound so we did our work in 7.1

As you said - SONY has created their own lovely 7.1 with 4 speakers in the back, deemed "sides" and rears" and the normal LCR in the front with a sub of course.

As you probably found, the extra backs (or even when in front) are mostly useless! but whatever...


Can you be more specific of what the audio was? Was it music?

Anyhow - since Blu-Ray won the war against HD-DVD, I would suspect this might pop up a little more. I know that at very least, it's nice for companies to say their product is 7.1 - in my case, I chose to do very little unique sound placement in the back two.

I'd love to hear the details of who your master was for and what was in which back/side channels

TY

There was a trailer and a music piece; promo stuff.

The music piece was the less interesting example. The extra side channels didn't bring much to the table, and at the 95 to 100 degrees suggested by Dolby, they really invite comb filtering problems, especially if you start spreading things out among the channels.

The trailer, on the other hand, was actually really cool, more so than I had expected. Sound effect placement was really nice. Movement of a helicopter around the soundstage was really smooth, while in 5.1, you kind of heard it leave one speaker, and then appear in the rear. It didn't quite have the same seamless transition as it did in 7.