5.1 workflow, suggestions

Inhexane · 30th September 2011

Hi all, I am doing my first surround mix for film and have some questions. The director really likes how the film sounds currently, but has pressure from studios to release the film in LtRt format for festival distribution. There will be no fancy panning or effects, just fulfilling the technical requirements of being a LtRt mix. So my understanding is that dialogue sits in the Center channel, with ambiance on front L and R. The dialogue and ambiance are all on the same track though. There is no room tone or anything as the shoot was very run and gun. Am I supposed to cut out the sections with dialogue from the tracks and put the the remaining ambiance on the front L and R? People have suggested adding in additional ambiance on the front L and R channels but that just seems like it would add extra noise to the sound. Anyone have suggestions?

cananball · 5th October 2011

Ambiance refers to stereo backgrounds, not room tone from the production recordings. They help to smooth over dialogue edits, add a cohesiveness and a sense of realism to the scene. Kinda like glue to fill in the cracks.

Without it your dialogue edit will be very naked and easier to detect. I add stereo ambiance and pan it slightly to the surrounds to help envelop the audience.

As for adding noise, if you noise reduce your production tracks first, it shouldn't be too much noise, providing you mix them so dialogue is the main priority. You don't need a lot of ambiance to get the point across.

If you can add them to every scene. In a time/budget crunch, add them to exterior scenes first and then do interior scenes as necessary.

Inhexane · 9th October 2011

Thanks for the response! This clears things up quite a bit.

30th September 2011	#1
Inhexane Gear interested Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 15 Thread Starter	5.1 workflow, suggestions Hi all, I am doing my first surround mix for film and have some questions. The director really likes how the film sounds currently, but has pressure from studios to release the film in LtRt format for festival distribution. There will be no fancy panning or effects, just fulfilling the technical requirements of being a LtRt mix. So my understanding is that dialogue sits in the Center channel, with ambiance on front L and R. The dialogue and ambiance are all on the same track though. There is no room tone or anything as the shoot was very run and gun. Am I supposed to cut out the sections with dialogue from the tracks and put the the remaining ambiance on the front L and R? People have suggested adding in additional ambiance on the front L and R channels but that just seems like it would add extra noise to the sound. Anyone have suggestions?

5th October 2011	#2
cananball Lives for gear Joined: May 2008 Location: New York Posts: 501	Ambiance refers to stereo backgrounds, not room tone from the production recordings. They help to smooth over dialogue edits, add a cohesiveness and a sense of realism to the scene. Kinda like glue to fill in the cracks. Without it your dialogue edit will be very naked and easier to detect. I add stereo ambiance and pan it slightly to the surrounds to help envelop the audience. As for adding noise, if you noise reduce your production tracks first, it shouldn't be too much noise, providing you mix them so dialogue is the main priority. You don't need a lot of ambiance to get the point across. If you can add them to every scene. In a time/budget crunch, add them to exterior scenes first and then do interior scenes as necessary. __________________ Ken Wilkinson

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9th October 2011	#3
Inhexane Gear interested Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 15 Thread Starter	Thanks for the response! This clears things up quite a bit.