Once the exclusive domain of high-end theaters designed to handle major Hollywood releases, surround sound has migrated into the home. It will certainly continue to push aside stereo as the de facto audio delivery format in the coming years. Manifest Destiny, I think it's called. With the proliferation of titles that need to be mixed in 5.1 surround, most normatively, an opportunity has arisen. Audio post houses that can price their services competitively are poised to offer clients surround mixes of a higher caliber than those executed by the graphical houses who often offer surround-sound encoding and mixing services as an adjunct to their primary business.
Many audio post facilities use Pro Tools or other dedicated hardware, but the steady increase in computer CPU speeds has made native-based recording and mixing platforms like Steinberg's Nuendo a genuine alternative. The pricing of native digital audio workstations — which can easily be mounted on computers that also serve the independent producer in other ways — is quite attractive. Those video makers looking for ways to keep as many production aspects as possible in house would do well to bone up on Nuendo.
In order to deliver tracks mixed in surround to the facility that will lay them back against picture, Nuendo users must have access to a Dolby Digital, or AC-3, encoder as this is the mostly widely used format used for DVD Video releases. Steinberg has met this need with the release of the Nuendo Dolby Digital Encoder, a software plug-in for Nuendo available for the PC or Mac. (In December Pinnacle Systems announced that it had acquired Steinberg.)
For starters, let's ask the most fundamental question: Just what is Dolby Digital? Developed by Dolby Laboratories (you already figured out that much), Dolby Digital arose out of a specific need: Filmmakers wanted a way to store as much multi-channel audio as possible on a variety of media, in particular 35mm film. The concept behind Dolby Digital, reducing the amount of audio data, seemed logical. But doesn't it automatically bring a loss in quality? Theoretically, yes.
But Dolby based its logic on several psycho-acoustic phenomena, including the one that says loud sounds mask — to a degree — softer sounds at the same frequency. By judiciously removing sounds that the listener would be less aware of, the Dolby Digital process allows more usable data to be slammed onto a piece of media. Of course, some fought vigorously for other options — especially those who favored the competitive DTS procedure, which is less lossy than Dolby Digital.
In terms of marketplace acceptance, at this point it's hard to deny that Dolby has won the war. Ergo, Steinberg's affordable encoder ($999 list, about $850 street). How does this software fit into a real-world application?
If you're considering picking up a copy of Nuendo, wait for version 2.0. It's just around the corner, and by all accounts the summing buss, which is very good in the current version, is even better in 2.0. Nuendo is a beautifully designed piece of software. And unlike some other software-based mix platforms, it was written with surround sound in mind from the very start. Graphically moving around icons of speakers in a way that mirrors the physical setup of your studio is about all you'll need to do to get up and running — provided you've actually got the speakers in place.
Once you've decided to take the surround mixes you've created and deliver them in AC-3 format, however, there are still a few issues to deal with. Most authoring houses are still geared to receive mixes on stems tracked to Tascam DA88 tapes. Yes, in the age of the CD-R, tape lives.
If you've delivered surround mixes this way in the past, you know the problems — dropouts in particular — that can arise when any tape media are used. These problems require a detailed, minute-for-minute review of each product. What a drag! Delivering a CD-R with a file on it is easier for you and the authoring house, which will no longer have to make a realtime transfer from tape.
Setting up your completed mix for Nuendo's AC-3 encoding process is quite simple. Though the Dolby Digital process reduces the amount of data that will eventually be placed onto digital media, space constraints remain, especially when video is encoded at a high rate. Your first decision is to choose a data rate. The rate you choose is based on the number of channels you're about to encode, taking into consideration the density of the video that this information will accompany. The Nuendo Dolby Digital Encoder is accompanied by an easy-to-understand manual, and you'll have no trouble working your way through the various parameters, including data-rate selection.
Compression can be invaluable in a music mix — if a good device is applied judiciously. Several compression choices are offered within this plug-in, but in my judgment you'll be better off applying compression within the mix and leaving this option turned off.
Normalization is another concept that film mixers have borrowed from the recording industry. As with compression, normalization cuts two ways. By raising the level of digital audio as close to the clipping point as possible, normalization makes a track louder, which is fine. We've trained listeners' ears into thinking that louder sounds better. And as a result, your clients will probably be more inclined to come back to you if you flip the Dial Norm setting in the encoder from the default -27dB to the system's maximum value of -31dB. It makes everything sound loud!
If you're mixing final product in 5.1, be sure to leave the LFE option on. Turning it off subtracts all of the low-frequency information from your delivery stream that's targeted for the sub-woofer. There are times when you would want to turn off this option. If your house handles music mixes, for example, you may be aware that some producers are adamant about not using a sub-woofer. If that's the case, turn off the LFE option. And if you're simply executing a voiceover or dialogue mix, the sub-woofer is unnecessary. As with every other parameter of the Nuendo Dolby Digital Encoder, getting comfortable with the LFE option is a breeze.
A quick perusal of the manual will make clear the several other options in the program. Audio product information, for instance, lets you enter metadata that imparts details about how you mixed the product to the person decoding the information. The bottom line is that if you are targeting the surround-sound market and feel you can use a host-based application like Nuendo to handle your recording and mixing tasks, the Nuendo Dolby Digital Encoder is a plug-in you must have.
Many thanks to Bobby Owsinski, the managing director/executive producer at Surround Associates in Chicago (www.surroundassociates.com), which specializes in all areas of surround sound work. Owsinski, the chairman of the Surround 2002 Conference, recently authored The Mastering Engineer's Handbook.
Gary Eskow is currently producing “Recollections of Tomorrow,” a four-movement piece he wrote for guitars and electronica that features string player Jim Chapdelaine.
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