While some media channels still transmit in Mono (from Internet through TV Broadcast), Stereo will soon be beyond ubiquitous. Like déjà vu all over again, it will be well down the path of its ancestor Mr. Mono. Generations come and go especially quickly in technology. Stereo will be everywhere and nowhere—nowhere as in passé, that is. In the world of sound and picture, you’ve got to be surrounded!
That’s right, face it: You are surrounded! Of course, this is hard to "face" when some of the sound is coming from behind and all around you, but you have little choice and resistance. If you don’t surrender, you will be forced to live the rest of your life in glorious Mono or stale Stereo. How sad. But there is hope: 5.1 Surround Sound.
With amazing home theater systems falling in price faster than the 2000 DOW, people are gobbling up Surround systems at a record pace. DVD players by some accounts are one of the fastest selling items in consumer history. People are rushing eyes first into the world of audio in Surround. Contemporary people with only two ears are learning that they can quickly adapt to as many as six sources of sound faster than their parents adapted to Stereo. "Two ears, two channels—too much," our parents whined, but they adapted and later even enjoyed it. Yeah? What about those Beatles records? Dual Mono? "Unnatural acts of audio separation," some Mono audiophiles cried. Get over it.
A complete bookshelf-size Surround system today costs about the same as a component Stereo system, so common men and women are moving into 5.1 Surround via DVD playback faster than they moved into CDs or VCRs in the past. People who were never able to set up their VCRs are setting up these self-contained 5.1 systems. Even a very, very smart child can do it. Okay, perhaps with a little help from an adult.
This means a lot. It’s not just about the picture. Sure, content and production costs are driving some Stereo audio mixes into the realm of NLEs like the Avid, but at what cost? Quality is surely one of them. The audio tools in the NLE limit even the best NLE editors who can handle some audio editing and audio mixing. An NLE’s audio capabilities are really limited, even for Grandpa Stereo. And Surround? Fahgetaboutit!
Some are saying, "It’s OK in Stereo for The Now." Now? Surround Sound isn’t the future. It’s now—present tense and evolving. Been to a video store lately? Seen cable or on-air broadcasting recently? "Broadcast in Surround Where Available" seems to be popping up at the start of more and more programs everyday. That’s at least Dolby Surround or 5.1 Surround on the air or out of the cable. And more and more consumers have playback Surround systems every day. Consider your content. Repurposing for DVD sales at a later date comes to mind. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that in Surround?
So how do producers/directors get to Surround themselves? How do audio facilities adapt and thrive? Higher ground—get to higher ground. Go to an audio facility that does Surround mixing. Get a demo from them. Do it by Editing and Mixing 5.1 Surround, Dolby/DTS 5.1 Surround Audio. It’s easy, it’s here, it’s real and it’s fun for the whole family!
From my experience, clients love Surround, especially when they can pretty much do most of their multi-format mixes simultaneously. That’s right. You heard correctly. Surround 5.1, Dolby LCRS and even aging Stereo practically simultaneously … ah, the catch! "Practically?"
Sure, there’s some science-oriented gobbledygook like multi-monitoring, panning and tweaking to be done. Pre-planning and understanding technical stuff like LFE, bass management, center channel vs. phantom center and fold down are necessary. (Not for you to worry though, that’s the audio mixer’s job!) But we are talking multiple mixes pretty much being created simultaneously. Things have changed. No more discretely separate setups and multiple mixes, taking complete separate days and passes. Really. Truly.
True, that is, if you have a mixing console like the Euphonix 5 with monitoring and fold down capabilities built in; if you have Surround encoders like Dolby E and Dolby Surround online monitoring pre-encode/ decode. The paths to simultaneous multiple formats are getting less twisted and easier—if you have the right tools, of course. And if that seems too easy for you, you can still do separate mixes as separate passes if you really want to.
I’m lucky to be working at Tonic, in 5.1, with a bunch of other lucky audio mixers, where we do this stuff all the time now. We’re lucky because we have all the equipment, stuff and toys to "surround" ourselves with. We’ve seen the shift away from Vanilla Stereo to 5.1. It’s great. Sounds great. We’ve also learned that Stereo is The New Mono.
