ON TRACK
RICH TOZZOLI
A 5. 1 Surround sound Primer, Part 2
Last month, we covered some of the basics Bass Management
of 5. 1 surround sound audio production. This Unlike traditional stereo playback systems,
time around, we’ll look a little deeper into home theater setups rely on something
how consumers actually hear our work back called bass management to handle the heavy
at home. As you already know, it’s not how lifting of the low end. Think about how small
it sounds to us in the studio that’s important; the speakers are on a typical home theater
it’s how it translates out in the real world. setup. Unless you’ve spent $600 or more,
you’re getting five very small satellite speakers to go along with that subwoofer. Those
speakers (left, center, right, left surround,
right surround) are too small to reproduce
low-end frequencies.
Who Cares?
Well, we should. If you’re in the business of
delivering surround mixes that will be played
back by consumers at home, you need to
understand how the sound is handled. But if
you’re mixing in the studio, how can you simulate the sound of a home theater receiver
bass managing your mix?
Listen Up
It’s a simple fact that a huge portion of the
music we create for people is listened to on
speakers as big as my fingernail. The infamous iPod earbuds are a reality that’s here
to stay. However, if your mix sounds good
on those, it should sound great on almost
anything. But, on a bigger scale, how do
consumers actually hear surround sound at
home, and what format can they do it on?
While there is no single answer, there are a
few common options that we have for multichannel content delivery.
If you’re in the business of
delivering surround mixes
There are generally two different methods
to bass manage your mixes at home: hardware or software. Software products, such
as the Waves 360 Surround Tools package,
include not only multichannel compressors,
reverbs, panners and limiters, but a useful M360 Surround Manager. The manager
loads directly into your session and lets you
easily adjust the levels to your subwoofer
and satellite speakers. This essentially
makes your mix room sound more like a
home theater system.
As recent as a few years ago, many in the
industry thought DVD-A and SACD (Super
Audio Compact Disc) would bring 5. 1 music
to the forefront of consumers’ minds. A variety of reasons, including competition and
confusion, made that a passing wish. With
the amazing success of DVD-V (video) and
i Tunes/iPods, it became clear to the big companies that ‘simple’ sells. But it was also clear
that consumers loved surround sound, both
for movies and live concert broadcasts. The
cable companies started delivering more and
more surround-ready content, and Blu-Ray
won out the latest ‘optical’ delivery war.
HTTBs
In order to make it easy to hear surround,
the consumer electronic giants such as Sony,
Onkyo, Panasonic and Samsung developed
HTIB, or Home Theater in a Box. Available
from around $350 and up (to several thousand), they combined a DVD player, multichannel receiver/amplifier, speakers, a sub
and even cables into a single, ‘wife-friendly’
package. This “all-in-one” offering delivered
consumers a cinematic experience in their
living rooms, and more importantly, created
a need for multichannel content. One of the
downsides, however, is that the cheapo units
have cheapo speakers, and once again, we’re
battling to make our mixes translate. What
we do have going for us though, is that monster called a subwoofer.
that will be played back by
consumers at home, you
need to understand how the
sound is handled.
With a Dolby Digital or DTS mix streaming
from your cable box or DVD/Blu-Ray player,
the receiver will filter out any bass information and direct it into the subwoofer. This
crossover selection is located in the receiver,
and typically varies from 60 up to 150 Hz,
with 100/120 Hz being a common setting.
Often, it’s completely set up for you and
nothing needs to be done at all. Simply
put, bass management allows home theater systems with small satellite speakers to
reproduce bass properly. Some of them even
allow you do direct bass to any speakers that
can handle it, such as the larger front left and
right speakers on my particular system.
Hardware bass management systems are
a bit more difficult to set up. Units such
as Blue Sky’s Bass Management Controller
MKII combine bass management and calibration along with volume control into a
single unit. Note that hardware systems
must sit between the output of your console
(or DAW) and the speakers, so there’s extra
cabling involved. However, using either type
of system can help assure proper reproduction to the end user.
I hope this brief explanation of home theater listening has at least helped you think
about the topic. After all, the more we
know about how our mixes will be heard by
those who listen to (and purchase) them,
the more product they will (hopefully) want
from us. And that will help fund our guitar
buying habits.
Rich Tozzoli
is a producer, engineer and mixer who has worked with
artists ranging from Al DiMeola to David Bowie. A lifelong guitarist, he’s also the author of Pro Tools Surround
Sound Mixing and composes for such networks as
Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon and National Geographic.
