Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/3788
©2009 Euphonix, Inc. All Rights Reserved. e u p h o n i x . c o m The System 5-MC with EuCon ™ control protocol perfectly integrates with any DAW making it the ideal controller for TV audi o p o s t p r o d u c t i o n . In today's fast-paced production environments only Euphonix can provide true hands-on control over your favorite applications. Think outside THE box of RH Factor Inc. Burbank, California CSI, My Name is Earl, Boston Legal 32 Post • October 2009 www.postmagazine.com Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Russell has extensive experience with Sony's SDDS 7.1 surround format.Though it is not widely used in theaters, 7.1 offers some interesting bene- fits over 5.1 surround sound."SDDS is a Sony format, but anyone can mix in 7.1 in any other studio," explains Russell. "At Sony, we have been the pioneers of 5 channels across the front, which is left wide, left, center, right and right wide, and of course the left and right surrounds, along with the LFE, give you the 8 channels in total. "In the mid to late '90s, I really played around with 7.1 on such films as The Mask of Zorro and Godzilla," he continues. "That's where I really started to create and work with these 5 channels across the front. I was a big fan of it right from the star t because when you have that kind of energy coming off the screen, you can sepa- rate the elements. I like to use the far left and right channels as an outer stereo pair and the interior left and right channels, closest to the center channel, as an inner stereo pair. For example, if I have some really thumpy low-end elements for an explosion, I can separate them from the hard left and right and put them into the interior left and right.That creates better audio imagery with a little more definition. Having 5 speakers handling the full load rather than 3 speakers gives you more separation and clarity." Dialogue, no matter what the surround sound format, can sometimes benefit from slight panning to match the action on the screen. "Moving dialogue across the screen with the 5 speakers of SDDS can be tricky," explains Russell. "We do it, but we never want it to be distracting.The robot voices in Transformers were moved slightly left and right to accommodate two different voices speaking, though it wasn't a 7.1 mix. Ver y soft panning can be effective — a little of that can go a long way because we never want to be distracting. It can work great for off-camera lines, too, but the norm is to keep it center." Making a theatrical release in SDDS 7.1 compatible with the typical 5.1 home the- ater market means Russell must account for the differences between the size of the room and the amount of speakers in the home. "It usually is another day on the dub stage to make the 5.1 home theater mix," he says. "As much as I love having 5 speakers across the front with 7.1, the 5.1 version is what most people are going to hear in most theaters and especially their homes." Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was mixed at the Cary Grant Theater at Sony located in Culver City, CA.The impressive 332-seat re- recording motion picture theater features the Harrison MPC2 digital mixing console with 320 channels running Digidesign's Pro Greg P. Russell working a Harrison MPC2 console in Sony Pictures' Cary Grant Theater: "SDDS is a Sony format, but anyone can mix in 7.1 in any other studio." Surround Sound