Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551510
44 CINEMONTAGE / SUMMER 2015 to identify regions being directed to Atmos Fields: Blue for Everything and Green for Atmos beds and objects. "Since all sounds stay where they were originally placed in specific food groups of sounds — including, for example, car chases, engines, skids, tires and scrapes — we can maintain VCA volume control over sounds going to the Atmos Field with unlimited simultaneous region selection while sending sound elements to the Atmos renderer, and can use Pro Tools panners for all our pans, even in Atmos," he adds. In the accompanying illustrations of sample sound effects, design and backgrounds Atmos Fields, the numbers represent X-Y-Z coordinates and object size of each waypoint. "The different Field shapes are applicable to the particular effect being used on a specific film," Bender explains. "The layouts represent Atmos objects as waypoints in space that creates the required 3D motion; sounds are then blown through the field from their original track position using Pro Tools panning. "The Atmos Field Profiles include numbers in circles that represent, following the Dolby Atmos nomenclature, Axis Z or height. Numbers to the right represent the object's size, which is also represented by a Square that signifies 3D Divergence," he continues. "Beyond normal divergence, which moves a signal away from the source point along a single horizontal plain, 3D Divergence expands the signal in every direction equally away from a source point. A box with a source point in the center would represent this manner of divergence and would soften the point- source quality of a location within the movie theatre. Numbers above the box represent the X left-right axis and Y front-back axis." According to the sound editor, when sound effects or music elements are assigned to these field profiles, complete with Pro Tools pan data, they move in these pre-programmed directions, either on a horizontal plane, or with height — for example, low center, low front sides and high rear — and other combinations. "I also favored the idea of accessing the sounds in food groups that editors are working in," he adds. "To leave everything where it is and then dynamically access them through our Atmos Fields seemed a perfect way to simplify the process." REASSIGNING TARGETED SOUNDS Bender then needed to develop a simple technique to reassign targeted sounds from the Atmos 9.1 bed into Atmos objects that can be moved through space using Atmos Field profiles. "I would normally use auxiliary busses," he explains. "But in Pro Tools, you cannot program them to go on and off; I needed to get to the different Fields dynamically. I achieved this by using the send busses, because you can automate on/off data; in essence, you need a multi-channel output to make an automated pan work. So I used sends to turn on Right, Planning Palette for Background Atmos Field Profiles, with X-Y position, height and size parameters. Lon Bender.