Sharing of stereo signals

seanmccoy · 27th January 2008

The surround reverb thread reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask. Is it common practice to share stereo source material, such as ambiences, music and reverbs, between the front L/R and Surrounds? It can create a nice immersion feeling in my room, but is this really effective in a theatrical 5.1 setting? How about with some delay added to the Surrounds? And what about potential level or phase problems with the Lt/Rt downmix?

georgia · 27th January 2008

sure, it works in a pinch.
Just check you downmixes to make sure you don't have too much coupling and the donwmix sounds ok, and the LtRt steers correctly...
I've done it with no problems although I'm not keen on it..

I'd rather create multiple layers to build the ambiences and give them some depth across and into the room.

cheers
geo

danijel · 28th January 2008

i experimented with this and found that replicating roomtones and other noisish ambience layers to the surrounds gave me weird effects when moving my head through the sound-field (probably phase problems). so i always take the first half of the ambience for the front, second half for the surround, thus halving the overall duration.
if you have enough cpu for another instance of reverb, why not make similar reverb for the surround, with a little longer tail, and less first reflections? or at lest decorrelated, so you rule out any possible phase problems.

27th January 2008	#1
seanmccoy Lives for gear Joined: Nov 2006 Location: Central Point, Oregon Posts: 1,451 Thread Starter	Sharing of stereo signals The surround reverb thread reminded me of a question I've been meaning to ask. Is it common practice to share stereo source material, such as ambiences, music and reverbs, between the front L/R and Surrounds? It can create a nice immersion feeling in my room, but is this really effective in a theatrical 5.1 setting? How about with some delay added to the Surrounds? And what about potential level or phase problems with the Lt/Rt downmix?

27th January 2008	#2
georgia Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2006 Location: NY NY Posts: 1,331	sure, it works in a pinch. Just check you downmixes to make sure you don't have too much coupling and the donwmix sounds ok, and the LtRt steers correctly... I've done it with no problems although I'm not keen on it.. I'd rather create multiple layers to build the ambiences and give them some depth across and into the room. cheers geo __________________ ms georgia hilton mpe(editor) mpse cas NY NY http://www.filmdoctors.com http://www.hiltonmediamanagement.com http://www.hmmproductions.com http://www.editingtruck.com http://www.stage32.com/profile/6569/georgia-hilton http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0385255/resume MEMBER: IATSE LOCAL 700

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28th January 2008	#3
danijel Lives for gear Joined: Jan 2008 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Posts: 1,732	i experimented with this and found that replicating roomtones and other noisish ambience layers to the surrounds gave me weird effects when moving my head through the sound-field (probably phase problems). so i always take the first half of the ambience for the front, second half for the surround, thus halving the overall duration. if you have enough cpu for another instance of reverb, why not make similar reverb for the surround, with a little longer tail, and less first reflections? or at lest decorrelated, so you rule out any possible phase problems.