5.1 mixing: L-C-R spread

[stiggy]

About me: I'm fairly new to 5.1 mixing (I've mixed a couple of documentaries), and I work for a documentary film company (as a composer as well as a sound guy). For our last project, we hired a larger audio post house for all the audio post work as our facility was not adequate. The documentary was destined for broadcast and potentially the theatre (film festivals for sure – sometimes screened in stereo, theatrical release uncertain).

Prior to this post, I scoured this forum and gobbled up all the relevant info I could find – it’s wonderful, thanks to all who contribute!

This thread is similar to the following:

Center vs. Front L/R concerns

My questions:

We delivered the music to the post house as stereo stems (pads, soloists, reverb, percussion). When we received the full 5.1 mix, the L-C-R spread of the music sounded narrower (it wasn't very wide to begin with). I asked the engineer about it and sure enough, the engineer had narrowed it a bit, explaining that it brought the mix together. When I listen to it in my small but decent 5.1 monitoring environment, the front (L-C-R) sounds very one-dimensional – not quite mono, but narrow nevertheless. My question is this: is narrowing the L-R spread for music common when building a 5.1 mix with a stereo music source?

Also, along the same line:

The engineer’s mix relied heavily on the center channel for music as well as ambience. In fact, all of the material except dialog/narration (including all mono FX, b-roll, etc. which from what I understand usually end up predominately in the center channel) are mixed at what sounds and looks (w/meters) like L=C=R. Are there reasons for this? To my ears, the sync FX wander too much (as I leave the sweet spot), the ambience is narrow, and the clarity is reduced. Is there a (perhaps technical) danger related to having a wide image in front?

Thanks a ton for any responses.

Dave

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by stiggy

......My question is this: is narrowing the L-R spread for music common when building a 5.1 mix with a stereo music source?.....

Nope.

[beyarecords]

Surround Speaker Setup by Michael Bishop, Grammy & Surround Music Award-Winning Engineer

[neilwilkes]

Dave, I hate to say it but it sounds as if your mix engineer made a bit of a mess of things! It;'s certainly not the approach I would have adopted, not by a long long shot.

Hard to comment in much detail as I have not heard what he did.