I had the good fortune yesterday to be invited to join Soundhound on a job he was doing at Sony Studios working on the soundtrack of a soon-to-be-released major motion picture. (BIG stars in a thriller that must remain nameless.)

While Da Hound was editing audio files, I got to sit with two Academy Award winning sound engineers and see/hear them remix the film for DVD release.

Set up in the large William Holden Theater -- a major L.A. venue for film sound mixing and an incredible facility -- they sat at a mixing console that was a good 20-feet long. For this job, they used a near-field speaker array that was spec'ed by Sony to provide a consistency for all the product that Sony mixes. (Remarkably, there is no standard hardware specification for doing this kind of work, I was told.)

Those who believe that less care goes into mixing a motion picture than a standard audio CD should watch these artists at work. They carefully monitored every detail of the multiple "stems" of sound while watching the film on a video monitor (with time code displays) as well as on a big film screen -- all of which was sync'ed and operated from the sound console.

Each scene was checked, altered, and rechecked several times to make sure that the mix, the balance and the impact of the scene was preserved in the 6.1 DVD track. Plus they had a Dolby Digital "simulator" available to check what effect DD-EX compression might have on their 48kHz 24-bit master. And you should know that they were doing this after ALREADY mixing a half-dozen versions of the soundtrack for various theatrical and consumer applications (including an international version with just effects and music, already for a dubbed language track to be inserted.)

These guys are meticulous artists.

Needless to say, the sound was remarkable even with the near-monitors. Hearing their work before the number-crunching (and sound-crushing) effect of DD compression was applied really gave me a chance to hear how spacious and intense the original mix is.

Soundhound was there to help them prep a modified version of the film soundtrack for television and airline use. He setup his portable audio editing suite in the Burt Lancaster Theater (across the hall) where he conformed the existing digital tracks with an "edited for content" version of the movie. This is painstaking work in itself as Soundhound had to not only make sure the dialog sync'ed properly but also had to make digital "tweaks" in the musical score to make sure there were no awkward musical glitches in the places where the action and/or dialog had to be snipped.

It was a great experience to see all the care, all the work, and all the hardware these guys bring to bear on film audio.

[This message has been edited by boblinds (edited July 04, 2003).]

Lucky K9!!!

Paul

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the 1derful1

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They were Genelec near-field monitors.

I can't fill in the detail you request because I didn't discuss it with them. I can tell you that the room acoustic of the space wasn't playing any discernible role in what was heard in the sweet spot of the near-field setup.

However, I think most people would think they WERE hearing the auditorium sound system because the spatial illusion was VERY potent with those monitors (in the sweet spot, of course.) I was quite surprised, in fact.

[This message has been edited by boblinds (edited July 05, 2003).]

As I sit here on the dubbing stage on Monday, continuting the DVD mix of the same film, but in another dubbing room, there is a problem. It seems that the playback levels are higher than they were on the dubbing stage where the mix was started on Thursday. Same speakers and setup, but higher levels. The engineers are frantically trying to access the problem, USING THE RADIO SHACK ANALOG SOUND LEVEL METER!

So, you see, even the pros have their fits, but the trusty RadioShack meter comes to the rescue!!

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited July 07, 2003).]

Excellent

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Play it LoUd!!

Yes, I can attest to the fact that -- there it was!!! -- an analog Radio Shack SPL meter sitting right on the console while the guys were doing their work last Thursday.

Does the 'thriller' have to remain nameless?

Did the engineers conclude how the levels increased?

It's called "Day of the Dying Live"


A retro-type film, in black and white with 5.1 channels of subtitles in lossy compressed text*.

* the comprssion algorithm removes only the letters, numbers, other marks and spaces it feels that you really do not need to read.

Paul

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the 1derful1

Cold Creek Manor